Hardware problems can be a frustrating and time-consuming ordeal for computer users. When your PC starts acting up, you may be at a loss as to what to do and how to fix the glitches you are seeing. When the problems are obviously hardware related, the first potential solution you should look at is updating drivers.
What are drivers and why should you update them? How do you know that the glitch is driver-related? Doesn’t Windows update drivers as part of the OS update? We will answer these questions below, and show you a safe and reliable way to resolve hardware problems without asking for professional help.
Why Update Drivers?
Every Windows computer system is set up with a multitude of hardware components and devices. In order for the operating system to be able to work with these elements, each device needs to have a special app installed that will tell Windows everything about its functionality and allow the device to seamlessly integrate into your PC setup. These special apps that come with each hardware component are called drivers.
Drivers are something that very few users ever think about. Pretty much the only times you hear the word is when you try to connect a new device, such as a printer – you may briefly see the “Installing driver…” message and never give it a second thought. Why should you even bother thinking about getting your drivers updated, you may ask?
Reason #1 is to fix or prevent general malfunctions. When a driver is outdated or damaged, Windows starts having problems with accessing the device or allowing it to work properly. You may start seeing error messages or the device may simply stop working. For instance, video or images may not display properly with an old or faulty graphics driver, audio may not work during calls with a bad sound card driver, and so on. In some rare severe cases, you may even experience a full system crash.
Reason #2 is to prevent compatibility issues. When you upgrade your operating system or install new hardware, some older devices may start having compatibility problems, which oftentimes may be easily fixed with a driver update.
Reason #3 is to take advantage of new or improved device functionality. Manufacturers often add new features and issue patches for known bugs through new driver versions. Instead of replacing an underperforming or glitchy hardware component, you can first try updating its driver to the latest release. That might just give you the upgrade you want.
How Do You Know the Issue Is Driver Related?
Diagnosing driver problems can be quite difficult, as many computer malfunctions may have nothing to do with drivers. The bad news is that for an average PC user, someone who is not experienced in all things tech, it may sometimes be impossible to tell if an issue is caused by a bad driver. However, there are many situations when drivers’ involvement is obvious or easily identifiable. In some cases, a faulty driver may be one of the potential causes and should be looked into first.
What are the common signs of potential driver problems?
- You may see an error message that says something about a driver or an incorrectly configured device. The message may read “The driver for this device might be corrupted,” “Windows cannot identify this hardware” or something similar.
- A device or hardware component may stop working. For instance, you may be having problems connecting to the internet and running the connection troubleshooter will report issues with your network adapter. Or you may not be hearing any sound when trying to play music or video.
While these don’t always mean driver problems, the first potential solution a technician would try when encountering one of these situations would be checking and updating drivers.
Does Windows Update Install Updates for My Drivers?
Yes and no.
While Windows Update does include updates for some of the drivers installed on your PC, it is far from enough. There are usually quite a few devices or parts that are overlooked. The worst thing here is that this OS feature may give you a false sense that your driver situation is good, while there might in fact be some serious issues. Therefore, counting on Windows Update to keep your drivers updated is not a good idea.
Using Windows to Update Drivers
Besides Windows Update, your operating system offers another way to keep track of installed drivers and get them updated. When Windows detects a problem with one of the drivers, it marks the respective device with an exclamation point in Device Manager. You can go to Device Manager to locate all devices with their drivers, review their status, and try to update them.
Here is how to do it:
- Go to the Start menu and search for Device Manager.
- Open Device Manager and look through the list of devices to find any that might be marked with “!”
- Right-click on the device name and choose “Update driver” from the menu that opens. The tool will attempt to download and install the latest driver version from the server. If the installation is successful, the issue should be resolved and the device should start functioning properly.
Even when there is no device marked as problematic in Device Manager, you can still right-click on the device name and choose the “Update driver” option. However, most of the time, Windows will then tell you that your driver is up to date, while that may not always be the case. This is why many technically savvy PC users prefer to skip this method altogether and use a third-party tool to check and update drivers on their computers.
Updating Drivers with a Specialized Driver Updater
With the built-in driver-related functionality in Windows being so limited, third-party software tools are a popular alternative. There are many apps available on the market, but we will be looking at Auslogics Driver Updater, as it comes from a reputable Australian software publisher with a 15-year history of creating solid computer maintenance and optimization solutions.
Auslogics Driver Updater offers a fully automated way to update a single driver, a batch of drivers or all outdated drivers on a Windows computer. The program scans every device and hardware component and identifies any drivers that might be old, damaged or simply missing. Here is how it works.
- Assuming that you have downloaded Driver Updater from the official Auslogics website, launching the program for the first time will start a full system scan. When it completes, you will get a list of all drivers that have been identified as outdated, damaged or missing.
- Look through the list and uncheck any drivers you want to hold off on updating. If you are experiencing issues with a specific device or group of devices, such as network equipment, you may want to uncheck all drivers except for those related to these devices. When done choosing, click the Update button and let the program do its thing
Auslogics Driver Updater will create a backup before installing the updates, which means you will be able to go back to the older driver versions if something goes wrong.
After the updates are installed, you should stop seeing the error or experiencing the glitch if it was caused by a bad driver. You can then continue to update other detected drivers, but we’d recommend processing them one driver or a small batch at a time. This way, if there is an issue after the update, reverting changes will be easier.
You should keep in mind that regardless of whether you go with the Windows native tool or a third-party application, updating drivers can never be 100% guaranteed to give great results. However, Auslogics tries to minimize the risks by keeping track of update installations and marking potentially problematic drivers as unsafe in their database. Which is why you may sometimes see an older driver recommended by Auslogics, while there may be a newer version released by the manufacturer – this happens when the brand-new version is known to be buggy.
Conclusion:
By keeping your drivers up to date, you can potentially resolve many frustrating hardware issues and restore smooth device performance. Regularly updating your drivers ensures compatibility with the latest software and operating system updates. In addition to that, updated drivers can provide better security, as manufacturers often address vulnerabilities through driver updates. As long as you use the Windows Device Manager or a reliable third-party tool to install the updates, you can be sure you are doing something good for your PC and your computing experience.
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