Drivers needed?

steveseven · 29 Aug 2010

I "clean sweep" upgraded from XP to 7 half a year ago. The dell website shows there are 24-ish drivers for my specific computer model that I lost in the upgrade. The thing is, I really havent had many problems running 7, and when I checked the drivers a lot of them apply to Window XP at the latest. so should I still download the drivers/some of the drivers (ex. since the upgrade I haven't been able to use my mousepad. would a driver on the Dell list make the mousepad usuable again)?

richc46 · 29 Aug 2010

If you know the driver that you need, the preferred method is to go to the website, download to computer and test.

How to Find Drivers
search Google for the name of the driver
- compare the Google results with what's installed on your system to figure out which device/program it belongs to
- visit the web site of the manufacturer of the hardware/program to get the latest drivers (DON'T use Windows Update or the Update driver function of Device Manager).
- if there are difficulties in locating them, post back with questions and someone - will help you search Google for the name of the driver
- compare the Google results with what's installed on your system to figure out which device/program it belongs to
- - if there are difficulties in locating them, post back with questions and someone will try and help you locate the appropriate program.
- - The most common drivers are listed on this page: Driver Reference
- - Driver manufacturer links are on this page: Drivers and Downloads
To remove any left over driver remnants, especially from graphics cards, use driver sweeper Guru3D - Driver Sweeper

If you can get the names of the 24, use the instructions above, for as many as you need.

steveseven · 30 Aug 2010

But I dont know if I need them or not bc my computer has been running relatively smooth since the upgrade. Im assuming that my comp has downloaded windows 7 drivers (when I was downloading a driver yesterday, it said my comp currently had the latest version of the driver), so maybe I dont need the drivers from when it was running XP...?

richc46 · 30 Aug 2010

7 is very good with drivers. When I installed 7, all my drivers were downloaded and installed. I was set to go.

steveseven · 31 Aug 2010

so do you think my comp took care of the necessary drivers when i upgraded?

richc46 · 31 Aug 2010

That is a tough question; but going by my experience and all that I have learned at this forum, I would say, yes.