Driver Updating

[Amysue]

Hi,
I have an HP Pavilion Elite 64 bit. It is three years old and I would like to update some of my drivers. I see in device manager that some of them date back to 2006. I would like to run a scan for new drivers and need a real good program that does this. I don't mind paying as long as the price isn't too much. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Regards,

Amysue

[kendall.a]

Most people here would recommend that you find out the specific information about the hardware you are wanting to update (driver update) and then get the driver updates from the manufacturer's website. That is by far the safest route to go.

You could try a couple of websites/programs that I'll list below, but again, we recommend that you get the updates from the manufacturer's website.

http://www.drivermax.com/

http://driverzone.com/

http://download.cnet.com/Driver-Magi...-10521270.html

I strongly recommend you read this article:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...ver-backup.htm

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by Amysue

I have an HP Pavilion Elite 64 bit. It is three years old and I would like to update some of my drivers. I see in device manager that some of them date back to 2006. I would like to run a scan for new drivers and need a real good program that does this. I don't mind paying as long as the price isn't too much. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

I would suggest you to the HP site, and look up for the model number of your PC. HP site will definitely be having the updated versions(if any), for your hardware. Download from there. It is always advisable to download drivers from the manufacturer's site. If you download drivers from other sites, or by using other software, it may cause problems, if the driver is not compatible, or is a wrong one.

Drivers should be updated only if necessary, and you find an updated version on the manufacturer's website. Otherwise, its better to leave them alone. Drivers do not need to be updated regularly, like other software.

On the web, you will find many software, or links, which claim to perform driver updates for you. Be wary of such software and sites. Most of them all only want your money.

If a hardware is not working properly, or not working as intended, then you should go for driver updates, but that too, only from the manufacturer's site. In case the driver is not available there for download, because of that hardware model not being supported anymore, then you should look elsewhere to download the drivers. Otherwise, never look anywhere else.

Anyways, if you do go for driver updates, create a system restore point, take backup, and then perform the update. As Kendall suggested, you should perform the driver backups too.

[Amysue]

Thank you all for answering my post. After some thought I did go to HP site and updated some of my drivers. The rest I left as I have read: " If it aint broke don't fix it". I do keep up with my graphics driver though which I obtain at the Nvidia site and updated a few such as sound and network through windows update.

Diane

[Anupam]

Good decision Diane.. and thanks for posting back, and informing us .