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Do I Really Need To Install OEM-Provided LAN Controller Drivers?
I have owned several HP Laptops in the past, and the OEM Support/Driver-Download site usually includes some LAN Driver from either Broadcom or Realtek. My latest acquisition is a circa-2011 HP DV7 Pavillion. Issues in this thread mainly refer specifically to this machine.
My Windows test build is permanently Ultimate 64-Bit (Build 7601: Service Pack 1), with NO further Microsoft upgrade.
For the DV7, a Realtek GBE-Family LAN Controller Driver, released on Nov 18, 2011 is downloadable from HP. But my question is, is this really neccessary? From past driver installations on similar machines, I never noticed the need to install a separate PCIe LAN Controller, simply because the machine would not exactly be the latest in the market (and or has any specific/rare network controller installed), and the automatically-installed signed drivers provided by my initial windows installation usually have something already compatible.
Sevenforums what is your advice? Will installing the 2011 Realtek driver provide some real benefit to my system, or do I just rely on the ones provided by Ultimate Build 7601: Service Pack 1? It is my mission to cut-down on OEM bloatware/redundant drivers
Thanks in advance.