New
#1
A better way to find drivers
Heres how I identify unknown devices and find system specific driver to replace generic windows drivers
To demonstrate, I'm going to identify the "high definition audio device" on a Dell Latitude that was manufactured in 2006 and isn't supported for windows 7
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First open device manager.. the easiest way is just to type it into the search bar
right click on the device in question and select properties
click the details tab, select Hardware IDs, and the first thing you want to is find the 4 digit alphanumeric vendor ID number and device ID.
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Then go to pcidatabase.com and enter the vendor and device number into the two search boxes
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Then go back to the your computer manufacturers' site and search for the device.. in this case there isn't to be found at either dell or the hardware manufacturer, but this method works even when your device manager comes up as unknown device, although this won't work for everything
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If you don't find a driver that way, try the hardware vendor's website. CNET.com is also a safe place to check as they have a huge variety of drivers. I usually use them as they tend to have newer versions than are available anywhere else
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Most of the time, manufacturers' customizations to drivers simply consist of adding a ton of bloat and the hardware vendors' drivers will work more efficiently. (For example, Dell adds about 60 MB and a completely unnecessary set of processes to wireless drivers but I found one on CNET that works perfectly without anything added. But if you're not highly experienced in setting up laptops use these sources in the following priority:
- Microsoft update
- Manfacturers' support site, e.g. support.dell.com, support.toshiba.com, etc
- HW vendors site
- Cnet or sourceforge.com
- other manufacturers' sites (take a lot of skill to make this one work)
Last edited by madtownidiot; 26 Oct 2010 at 09:03.