Driver Detective-Is it any good?

  • Thread starter Thread starter helmsman
  • Start date Start date
Why pay for what you can do for free ? This is like the TV spot
for FreeCreditReport.Com that is actually not the Free site but a
front for one of the 3 credit reporting agencies trying to trick you
into signing up for a monthly plan.
*The real free credit report site is annualcreditreport.com

Most PCs are from major OEMs. All of them provide driver
update sites. Usually a machine has a unique Identifier that will
help get you to the correct drivers fairly easy.

There are free hardware inventory apps that will build a table of
what specific hardware is in your PC. With a little time and effort
you can locate and bookmark all the driver sites needed for your
computer.

Most of the critical hardware components do not get driver updates
beyond a quarterly schedule ( if that often ).
 
Is this any good?

http://www.drivershq.com...driver detective
Click to expand...

The software may tell you what drivers are involved
in setting up your computer, but the program will
not be able to exercise judgment about whether
it is wise to upgrade or not.

In some cases, particular hardware enumerations, signal
a hardware problem (such as certain cardbus bridges).
There is no guarantee a "driver detective" will
know that it isn't a driver issue, but a need for an
updated BIOS or the like.

In terms of driver sources, *never* take drivers from
Windows Update. The track record on drivers from that
as a source, is poor. Good sources of drivers, would be
in this order.

1) Your laptop/desktop manufacturer's download site.
Who knows, they may even have tested the drivers, to
see if they work. They don't always have the most
recent, but they do offer what is most relevant for
your computing product.
2) The chip maker web site has the most up to date
software, but it will be harder to figure out
what to download. Not all chip makers offer downloads
from their sites, so in some cases, you have to
search elsewhere.
3) Some anonymous website may have archived copies
of drivers, but they may be older or less trustworthy.
For usage with older OSes, or very old hardware products,
sometimes this is the only option, and in that case,
may be better than nothing. (I.e. Getting that old
Win98 scanner installed on your old Win98 machine.)

The sad fact is, there are free utilities that are
intended to tell you about your hardware, but they
are not designed to help someone who isn't computer
savvy. So while on the one hand, I would encourage
you to not use programs of the "Driver Detective" type,
I cannot promise that using other sources is going
to be that easy for you. In such a situation, (1)
above is your best option.

If you're trying to install WinXP, on that "Vista only"
laptop you bought, sometimes you can find a web page
or forum thread, where someone has worked out all the
details for you. While we can walk you through some
of that process, you'll still be doing most of the
gruntwork yourself. There is a limit to how effective
help can be, when we cannot see the screen on your
computer, and how it's going.

Paul
 
Back
Top