May 2009

Manufacturers need to be responsible for providing for the easy installation of drivers for their products.

In one of the SPAUG newsletters it was noted that DELL had provided the end user with a CD that had 105 separate and distinct drivers on it (when only 5 were needed) and also had not provided a listing of drivers needed for that particular computer either with the sales order or on a website location.

Drivers are an integral part of any computer designed to interface the operating system as set forth by the manufacturer to the various hardware parts that change from manufacturer to manufacturer. While the specific drivers often were on the purchase order, no such order was available.

Just as with much other software, drivers often are updated after the computer is purchased but most owners do not even bother to check the currency of the drivers under the philosophy that “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Where the computer owner gets in trouble is when, for whatever reason, the computer is reloaded to factory – but not the drivers. The drivers are often available but what to do with them is a great mystery because, even if there is a list of drivers, the names, as applied to the specific computer, often are so obscure as to assure that the correct driver will never be selected.

All of the manufacturers are guilty of this sin.

There are some scenarios that will cause this situation. One is that the hard drive has died and you have to reload.. Another is the reloading of the software because the software has become corrupted or is running slow.

If you have to reload your hard drive for whatever reason, you will lose the partition that has a copy of the loaded software that would have allowed you to restore. Even is you do such a restore, you often will lose the drivers.

So you are going to be dealing with drivers in some form.

Private enterprise to the rescue!

There are lots of programs out there that can assist you with assuring the correct selection of drivers.

All of the driver suppliers charge about $30.

One of them charges $30 and you can use the software on 10 computers. That one is DriverAgent.Com.

Many of the driver download programs merely identify the drivers and charge you. Other driver download programs set up identifying information and assist with downloading the driver. The better ones do what the others do and also unpack the drivers into a location that the next reboot will encounter and install the driver. Mostly, the $30 works only for one computer.

All of the programs will help you identify, on a running computer, whether the drivers are current on your computer. Feel free to try DriverAgent.com to see of you are current. Then you will have to make the decision of what to do about any discrepancies.