I would still check with the system manufacturer for updated drivers.
And with manufacturer of any add-in cards or added devices.
Although it seems better now, some hardware manufacturers did not do a very
good job of updating drivers. Creative is one that comes to mind. Prior to
their getting to the Audigy sound cards, they did a bastardized job of
rewriting drivers. And it was a bit complicated finding the best ones for
hardware you might have from them. Some of it was because they sold the same
exact card under different model names and the capabilities of it were
determined by the drivers that came with that model. Sort of like buying the
big Ford and the same body of Lincoln Town Car. You might get the Ford
stripped, or with the same options of the Lincoln. You might be happy with
its performance, but it is still not a Lincoln, or is it?
That is sort of what Creative was doing with the drivers when a large number
of customers had problems, but in one way that I detested. Rather than fix
the problem that was occurring for some, the updated driver often disabled
the feature entirely. One card I had actually gave me the most bang for the
buck using W95 drivers under WME. And the MS drivers on upgrades did also
sometimes kill a feature.
And the reason for checking system manufacturer follows. A Sony (W95) I had
used specialized drivers for the onboard ATI. MS had updated drivers on W98,
but they were a standardized driver and thus disabled the special features
of the Sony cooperative configuration with ATI. Sony scrambled to release
its own updated driver to re-enable the special features.
Under XP, it has been my experience that updated drivers are much better and
if you should be the rare person to have a problem, as it was pointed out in
earlier reply, just roll back the driver from the device manager.
My suggestion would be to attempt getting any drivers before the install.
After OS install check for non-functioning hardware. Install drivers for
those items from the manufacturer of the item, unless it is an on-board
device.
Then install any updated drivers you can find from the system manufacturer
and then from manufacturers of any add-ins.
If the system manufacturer has none available then you might try the MOBO
maker. Then the MOBO chipset manufacturer with a bit of caution.
It now may be a requirement that new drivers for XP pass WinDDK or that
manufacturers are adhering to the requirement.
Norman
But if everything works ok and there are no problem devices shown in
Device Manager, I should leave well alone. Where computer's are
concerned, the old adage "If it ain't broke don't fix it" is very
appropriate. Leave it be.
No problem with the Device Manager. I think I gonna leave it alone at
this moment.
Thank You all .
