Bad drivers from microsoft!!!!!!!!

jamesandalexis said:

PEOPLE, MICROSOFT IS NOT WHERE YOU NEED TO GET YOUR CURRENT DRIVERS. ONLY ALLOW UPDATE TO INSTALL MICROSOFT SPECIFIC UPDATES. I know from personal experience that win update will try and download incorrect drivers for nvidia gpu and will cause TREMENDOUS problems!!!! After days of effort trying to undo the damage I finally had to do an image restore, after doing that, clearing my cmos, and rebooting i visited nvidia and used THIER auto updater and all is well. the microsoft recommended Video driver seems to be causing problems elsewhere in the system and fooling even the greatest of techs.

I agree. I only let microsoft update their own files. I never let it update hardware drivers. But I do try sometimes (with a backup in place) to see what it will install.

To my amazement it installed a newer driver version (than the site) of my create Xfi extreme audio card. on the other hand, it backrolled my cats 9.9 to 9.7.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly of Hardware drivers from WU

Microsoft uploads drivers to Windows Update that were submitted by manufacturer's - not necessarily the device manufacturer tho'!

In 2002 I updated my HP 750n' s video driver (nVidia card) from Windows Update and got a BSOD. So I went to the HP website and updated with their driver - got the same BSOD. I then went to the nVidia website and installed their driver - and had no issues.

There are reasons to update hardware drivers from the PC manufacturer's website - but only (IMO) under certain circumstances. This is primarily for those folks who use the add-on stuff that the PC manufacturer's add on. Things like the Network management utilities and the special keyboard keys.

ehh, i dont used WU for any drivers., only for microsoft software updates, i keep my drivers on a backup drive, and when the drivers are updated on my PC, i also place a copy on the backup drive, for later use, and to make sure there all up to date.

More of a "My 2 cents" :)

That's another downside, M$ renumbers the drivers differently to the manufacturer, hence giving you a massive headache, hence why i stick to manufacturer's site for the drivers.