Basic question concerning driver upgrading

[Guest]

I got a HP Pavilion notebook about a month ago, and having little experience
of upgrading software etc, I 've tried to leap into the "wonderful" world of
upgrading software like drivers and so on.

But what the sites like Windows Update and HP Software download won't tell
me (or at least I havent found any help concerning this question) is exactly
HOW I should do the upgrading.

For example, a couple of days ago I found my way to the Upgrade your
software&drivers page under HP.com. They listed lot's of new versions of the
drivers in my notebook, and I happily clicked "Install now" to get the newest
versions of the drivers I actually use.

But then my Windows XP crashed, claming an error with my ATI display driver.
So I began to look into things and realised that it is best to uninstall the
older version before you install the newest one. But when I found different
suggestions to how this should be done (from simple "add/remove"-actions to
special "cleandriver"-software), I began wondering if this is really what the
average computer-user is supposed to know and do.

So my question is:
Is it really true that you should not simply install newer versions of a
driver without removing the older vesion?
And if you must remove the older one, mustn't you restart windows before you
install the never version? The reason I'm asking is that I guess restarting
windows after removing your driver will make windows look for the driver that
was originally installed. But doesn't that just take me back to square one: I
have to install my new driver on top of an older one!?

So how should a simple upgrading of driver softvare from an older to a newer
version be done easily?

 

[Ted Zieglar]

There is no compelling reason to upgrade any hardware device driver *unless*
the upgrade provides a solution to a problem you are experiencing with the
hardware device. Upgrading a driver merely because a new one is available
doesn't accomplish anything and can cause you grief if something goes wrong.

The purpose of a driver is to act as a liaison between a hardware device and
the operating system. The driver relays instructions from the device to the
OS, and vice versa. In other words, its role is strictly technical, and
upgrading the driver solves technical problems. This is quite different from
your typical program update, which can also add new whiz-bang features.

There are, nonetheless, people who try to keep up with every new driver
upgrade, going on the reasoning that even if you have no hardware problems
now, you may experience problems in the future, so might as well upgrade
now. There's nothing particularly wrong with this way of thinking, so long
as you are comfortable with taking the risk of making an unneeded change to
your otherwise stable system, and you know how to get yourself out of
trouble should the upgrade go south.

I personally take the conservative approach. When the time comes to upgrade
a driver, I go directly to the manufacturer's web site and get the new
driver there. Before I install the driver I carefully read the driver's
Release Notes and also scout the technical support area and user forums to
see if the upgrade I have in mind has been causing problems. If everything
checks out, I install the driver. As you might expect by now, I follow the
manufacturer's installation directions exactly.

Using this simple, common-sense approach I have never experienced a problem
upgrading a driver.

On the other hand, you may also get reples from those cowboys who want to
rope every driver in the stampede. What you choose is really up to you.