Option 1 – using driver update software

The driver update software works by finding updates for your PC drivers and automatically updating the drivers. It is the easiest, most effective and fastest way to update your PC drivers.

However, everything good comes with a price. For this software, you will need to pay for the software. You will also need to check that you have the best software because you face the risk of scam. One way of avoiding scam is to use the guidance of reviews and ratings. The bottom line is that there are legitimate driver update tools that you can count on and it is worth it trying scanning all of them so that you settle for the legitimate one.

Option 2 – Using developer’s website

The second option is to get the support of the real developer of the drivers. Usually, they would create a link for download of the driver update at their website. This is another reliable way of getting the driver update except only on the rare occasions when they do not post the link on their website where you would need to use an alternate option to update your drivers.

The greatest drawback to this option is that it is equally manual. Besides, you also need to have some IT knowledge to be able to download and install the updates on your device. Hence, it is limiting to those who don’t have extensive computer knowledge.

Option 3 – using search engines

Finally, the third option which also works is through the help of search engines. However, it should be clear that this should only be an option where the first two do not apply. The challenge though with this option is that the update search has to be related to the driver name and the source must be validated. There is high risk of getting fake update.

Indeed, you can update your drivers with the help of any of the above options. It is recommended that you use the options as listed. As in, you try the software first, then the link at the developer’s website and finally the search engine’s help. At least one of these will work for you. If you want to save time and get reliable help, then you will stick to these methods to update your drivers so that your computer functions just right.

Causes of network controller driver problems

As already mentioned, there are 3 main causes of network controller driver problems which are:

i. Corruption of the device driver by system of application error. The problem can also arise because a virus has gotten into the system and possibly infected or deleted the driver.

ii. Drivers become obsolete with time. As soon as an update is created by the driver developer, the old version becomes obsolete or outdated. The result therefore is slow connection, on and off network connection or inability to access internet completely.

iii. During new installation, upgrade or downgrade of the Operating System, the network controller driver can go missing. The driver can also be missing if a user attempts to install a new network controller without first installing the right drivers.

How to correct network controller driver problems

After diagnosing network controller driver problems, you should work on correcting the problems. This can be done automatically with the help of installation CD to install missing driver or reinstall corrupted or obsolete drivers. To be sure that you are actually installing the right driver that is updated, you need to download the latest version of the driver on your PC.

This process of getting the latest version can be time consuming and boring if you have to do it manually. Considering that most times you would have issues with other drivers as well, not just the network controller drivers, you may need an efficient tool. There is in place software known as driver detective software that can be very handy at such a time.

This software works in that once you scan it to your PC; it automatically detects all the drivers that are corrupted, obsolete as well as those that are missing. Once this scan is complete, you will need to register for driver detective after which you will be permitted to download required drivers including the network controller driver. You will be expected to pay a small fee for the services of this software. After all, it is all worth the fee because then you shall have diagnosed and fixed your drivers problems.

Benefits of the driver detective software

• The software does not just give you network controller drivers but also all the others that your PC needs at that point in time.
• Secondly, through the scanning you get to understand your PC better; the scan shows which drivers are corrupted, which ones are obsolete as well as those that are completely missing. It does not just end with the scan but it also provides the remedy to the problematic drivers.
• It automates the drivers’ diagnosis process so it is simpler.
• It works fast leaving you with more time to do other important stuff in your life.
• It saves you money that you would spend on technicians who pretend to repair your PC.

There is no tool as effective as the driver detective software that automates the diagnosis and repair of your network controller driver and other drivers of your device.

Even though there are varieties of reasons experiencing crash, in majority of such episodes, if the steps under mentioned are taken, the event occurrence is saved and there can be commencement of chatting once again without losing any time.

The Effect of Firewall Problem:

In case quite recently setting up of the new firewall has been done, there are higher chances of the Yahoo Messenger crashing events taking place. Because it is an online application, it is very obvious Yahoo Messenger is needing bandwidth for keep continued its right operation and when the firewall prevention comes across, the result is the crashing of the application taking place. In order to determine whether this is the issue, only thing is to be done is disabling of the firewall temporarily and let the Yahoo Messenger run again. Finding that the now Yahoo Messenger has smooth functioning, the issues are no more troubling by making alterations in the Firewall settings of the system.

Windows Registry Facing Corruption:

Under the circumstances of problem affecting the window registry, there shall be instability of any kind of software’s operation.

It is so due to the fact that all the programs are storing their particular files within its registry the running operations of the software gets faulty when there is corruption of the files stored in the registry.

For fixing this kind of problem there is necessity of downloading the registry cleaner software, which undertakes scanning of the Windows Registry and also does fixing of corrupted files, as it comes across during the scanning process.

The importance to be taken care is of downloading of the registry cleaning software from a source holding high reputation, because windows registry is the most suitable place for harboring the malware.

Problems Associated with Webcam:

In case the Yahoo Messenger is used for video chatting, the possibility is responsibility of the crashing lies with the webcam. It gets fixed by taking steps as given below:

• Clicking at Start, Run followed by entering “REGEDIT” helps in opening the Registry Editor of the system.
• Perform the selection of “HKEY CURRENT USER”, next select Software, perform; the selection of Yahoo and towards end proceeds carrying out Webcam selection.
• Reach the toolbar at the top, click at edit and thereafter select new and add “DWORD Value”.
• Type in “USEVFW” and click at OK.
• Now perform double clicking on the new creation the USEVFW and change its Value data to “1″ and click at OK.

After completing the above steps, now exit from the registry editor. In case the webcam had been the cause of the problem, in future the crashes are not going to take place.

Corruption in Yahoo Messenger Installation:

In case all the above corrective steps have failed, it calls for un-installation of the Yahoo Messenger, and carrying out reinstallation again. Sometimes, the files related to installation of the software programs experiences corruption. These types of instances need making the fresh start as alternative solution. It is quite easy to do un-installation of the Yahoo Messenger on the Windows based computer by entering the Control Panel, try to locate the application present in the Adding/Removing Program’s interface. Afterwards complete the fresh installation and restart the system.

Following are four issues of typical nature hinting at presence of corrupted computer system drivers.

1. Slowing Down Effect on Games & Videos:

It is observed, while the favorite game is being played or while engaged in viewing of a movie.

Occasionally the computer lags behind, slowing down effect or the texture starts showing ugly appearance or haphazard appearance of absolutely plain black squares. It can be deduced from it that there is necessity of solving the problem with affecting update of the graphics driver, by doing so things become OK.

2. The Issues Affecting the Sound:

In case little cracking sounds are heard from the speaker or lagging effect takes place in sound reproduction or the music reproduction is far from usual quality, there is scare indicating something wrong related to hardware speakers, headphones. The beginning is carried out by driver searching, find its update and carry out installation. Thereafter reboot and attempt once more. Now things shall seem to be OK.

3. Interruption of Internet Connection:

The event of interruption of the internet connection taking place during the browsing session or during the process of downloading some file, it calls for checking the update of Ethernet or Wi-Fi card driver. The problem is commonly encountered, nothing to do with the ISP or router for the internet. The simple action required is of monitoring the small icon of the computer in the system tray acting as a symbol for the Internet. Interruption of the Internet can be checked in the system tray in case it is black, it indicates interruption of internet.

4. The Blue-Screen of Death:

The Blue-Screen of Death (BSoD) is the commonly encountered Windows related problem. Possibly it has occurred in the past also, since it is considered as the terror faced by all Microsoft OS’s. When there is BSoD, it is marked by blue screen displaying lot of text. Most of the times it is not comprehensible, if it appears when working at very important Project, after few seconds the computer undergoes rebooting. In the process all the work done gets lost.

The commonest cause of BSoD appearing is problem of the driver, more so especially when the error appears as “BAD_POOL_HEADER, IRQ problem” or something of same nature. The trouble is; there is no definite indication of which driver is responsible for the error of the BSoD. One option is to search for the error at Google or simple updating of all the drivers be carried out. In case the problem is due to one of the drivers, there is success in fixing the problem encountered.

The triggering of these kinds of errors takes place by the influence of any malicious software present or alternatively consideration is for presence of the hardware problem, which cannot be denied. The best option available is of first trying to update the drivers. The trouble shooting in this case is not an easy job, if done also the ultimate answer is of updating of the drivers. Updating is very easy to do not requiring any technical background. Checking the hardware is not easy and it requires a proficient technical person to do the hardware checking and finding the solution.

Develop the habit of updating the drivers from time to time to get trouble free service from the computer.

They do not have any idea how much wrong they are in their such a thinking? Keeping the drivers of the computer has great importance to be taken care of, in the interest of getting first class user experience from the computer’s operating system.

The underlying problem is users are absolutely unaware about something of general knowledge related to computers and they are surrounded with illusion in respect of setting up once and observing it as OK and forget, what is OK now may not remain OK in the times to come. The bare reality is that it cannot be OK all the times.

For learning various aspects related to driver’s regular updating there are four questions to consider and know their answers:

1. Keeping the Computer Secure:

The drivers are responsible for controlling the communication between Operating System and the hardware. The drivers discharge the responsibility in respect of functioning of various devices. In case any of the devices get vulnerable to attacks, the effect is damage to the computer or data loss occurrence. There is too much scare, which can be saved with driver updating regularly.

2. Looking After Computer Stability:

The drivers are having the prime responsibility of ensuring optimum computer functioning. In case there is a bug requiring correction, the immediate effect seen is instability of the computer, witnessed unanticipated turning off, requiring rebooting or crashing suffered by its applications with loss of the unsaved data taking place more often also resulting in damage occurring to hardware. The day looks horrible with such events taking place.

3. Boost in Performance with New Drivers:

The installation of new drivers means boosting of the computer by just s simple act. The driver release creates improvement in coding and hardware response getting faster. For instance the update of the sound card driver enhances the quality of the sound, the graphic card driver updating affects enhancement of the in-game FPS or texture quality. The Wi-Fi card allows locating of the network not experienced before. Power of the drivers becomes evident in the performance of the computer.

4. Adapting to New Functions:

Common users are ignorant about these possibilities. The installation of the new drivers makes the same hardware capable of doing more new things. For instance new graphic driver may be capable of allowing the new DirectX start working with the card. Sound driver updated is enabling the 5.1 sound system option.

Only the experts can tell beforehand that hardware shall perform better by updating of the drivers or the crashing of the system is occurring due to the driver requiring updating.

When the drivers are not updated there can be increased chances of attacks on the system, it becoming unstable and suffering from limited capabilities. Most of the problems are solved by updating of the drivers.

Most of the time you’re even not aware of new features that those new drivers introduce, and that’s partly because you don’t know your hardware “could do this stuff” or “run that way”. And thus your PC may be vulnerable to attacks, unstable or its capabilities may be limited. Don’t let this happen to you!

Keep your drivers up-to-date and enjoy better computing.

Reason Number One is Haste:

The haste is very commonly experienced by the developers, while writing program for the new drivers. The reason being physical product is ready, which is expected to yield financial return. The earliest it is reaching the shop counters, earning shall be higher. With fast pace of the technological inventions, the vendors decide to give a relatively imperfect software product in the market initially, because the improvements can be affected later on, instead of go waiting for perfection and competitors reap the benefit of first arrival of their product in the market. The quality of the driver is not vendor’s prime concern, to which the improvement can be affected and the delivery of the updated drivers to the customers is quite easy. The practice followed by hardware vendors is deciding to begin sale of the relatively imperfect product and carry out perfection in the time to come.

Reason Number Two: Announcement of the New Technologies:

As is known the invention of the new technologies is taking place at the pace of 24X7X365, as a result the time the driver was released in the beginning, few technologies had not come up by that time, therefore, the software’s capability lacks in handling these new technologies. The previous customers are requiring new technology. Hence there is necessity of new Microsoft driver updates.

Reason Number Three: Software Technology Perfection is a Distant Dream.

Achieving perfection in the Software Technology is a distant dream, moving forward is extremely slow and in stages requiring time to time improvement as the imperfections get exposed. The specific solution termed as Drivers is worked out. The presence of the drivers is crucial offering the computer required stability and security. The companies in the field of hardware stress all out to keep their image up in reliability and customer friendly spheres and working silently for improvement and patching up the past imperfections by creating reliable drivers and delivering the same to their customers.

Reason Number Four: Customers Love for New Version:

Although it has not much relevance, but the problem is faced, making the hardware companies bring newness through creation of upgraded versions. From such activity customers feel the company is caring them. The real changes can be brought out by new versions, whereas the drivers are only solution to a particular problem.

The above four reasons for the updates of the drivers justify what Microsoft is doing in the interest of achieving customer satisfaction.

Common nuisances in desktop computers are driver bugs that prevent devices from properly running or being detected. Online driver scanners (also known as driver updater or driver finder) specialize in addressing these problems. But their task doesn’t end there. Online driver scanners also boost a computer’s overall performance. This is why a lot of PC owners have hurried to install this wonder program…and a lot have failed wonderfully as well.

The worldwide web is filled with faulty driver finders that do more harm than good to the PC. Having the wrong driver finder will cause one’s computer to crash repeatedly due to installation of incompatible drivers. What’s worse is that it may cause continual system glitches. Many have fallen victim to this. Hence, one must be very careful when selecting a driver updater. There are guidelines and particular features that one must look for in the program.

On top of these is its scanning algorithm. This component is the heart and soul of the driver scanner. When the scanning algorithm is highly developed, the program is able to effectively check the entire computer system and the corresponding model numbers of its parts. Whichever hardware that’s found to be out-of-date or defective will be automatically substituted with the appropriate version.

So how can a person be certain that the scanning algorithm of his/her driver finder is of superior quality? He/She can simply test for detection of every model number. Skipping this test may lead to ineffective driver finders and consequently, incoherent scanning reports and installation of harmful drivers.

Another component that one must consider when selecting a driver scanner is its driver database. The ideal size is 1,000,000 which can accommodate 99% of the unit. Anything less than that must not be considered. It is crucial that the driver database can process enormous data volume to be able to cover the entire computer system and the hardware attached to it. Additionally, the program must perform regular updates.

One more component to note is the user interface. Since the owner will be tinkering with the program from time to time, it is important that he/she experiences no trouble using and understanding the program, from its menus to its buttons. Moreover, the driver scanner must feature a reliable customer support system so that any concerns or troubles that the user may encounter with the product will be addressed conveniently and promptly.

These are just a few of the many factors to bear in mind. Every PC owner must be responsible enough to take measures in maintaining their device. Otherwise, he/she will face grave and not to mention costly consequences.

Double Check, Double Check, Double Check.

Before anything else, the entire computer system must have been already scanned by Driver Detective. And by ‘scanned’, it means that the program has already identified which drivers are out of date or defective. The program then proceeds to searching for an appropriate driver update. It is natural for PC owners to find it a bit risky to entrust such crucial task to a piece of software. However, Driver Detective assures that it ‘knows’ exactly what it’s doing. Powered by what is termed as “Machine Intelligence”, the program guarantees precise and reliable results.

If that’s not reassuring enough, one can always do a double check by going over the information regarding the recommended versions prior to downloading. To go about this, one must open the Scan Results window and enter the Driver Info link which will then lead to a page which reveals data of both the previous and new drivers. This data includes the product description, manufacturing company, the model number, version, date of creation and installation.

Driver Download

Once the recommended update has already been checked and deemed appropriate, one can then proceed to the main part: the actual downloading.

Upon completion of the download, a dialog box will appear, asking permission to proceed with the installation. Driver Detective will instantly extract the files should the user click on the “Yes” button. After that, an installation wizard will appear and the rest will be as easy as clicking on the appropriate options and carefully following the commands.

However, downloading the recommended driver update doesn’t have to be immediately followed by installation. One can save it for later and once the user is ready to install it, he/she can click on the History tab which will show the recent downloads and its file location. And then again, there’s always the Search bar. He/she must look for the “PC Drivers HeadQuarters” folder which contains downloads. After that, the user can just click on the file and carry on with the installation.

Prior to downloading, one must be certain that the Driver Detective has already been registered. Another thing to bear in mind is that there is really no definite download time duration as the driver volume will determine it. Hence, the bigger the file size of the driver update, the longer it takes to complete the download.

For those who aren’t familiar with the driver update installation, Driver Detective has provided some sort of support manual. Under the “Solution Articles/Videos For: your Device” link, one can find the “Chipset Driver Installation” and “Zip File Installation” manual.

It doesn’t really take a genius to use Driver Detective. As promised, the program is fairly convenient to use. There are no complicated steps as everything is reduced to just pressing some buttons. Starting with a background check of the driver update, followed by the actual downloading of the driver and finally its installation, one can then enjoy the benefits of having a high performing computer due to updated hardware devices.

For more details regarding device driver download, check out the Driver Detective Tool official page. The site also offers information related to registration of the Driver Detective software program.

What is remarkable about the Driver Detective is that one can already enjoy its benefits in the trial version. What more with the full version? To install Driver Detective, one will need a reliable internet connection. Once the program has already been installed, one must then click on the “Scan Now” button to begin scanning.

The first stage is marked as “Scan your Computer”. Driver detective begins its task by scanning the entire computer system and every hardware device and driver affixed to it. This is then followed by “Retrieve results from Microsoft. It is in this part that the software browses the Microsoft website for driver updates that will be suitable for the PC. However, one can choose to forego this stage and re-scan the computer by clicking on the Tools tab and changing the default settings. After that will be the phase labeled as “Connecting to PC Drivers Headquarters”. The final stage is of course “Retrieving Results”.

Once all four stages have been completed, the user will find the scan results categorized into two, namely the Driver Details and Scan Summary.

The Driver Details are divided into two columns of information. In the left column, one will find pertinent data regarding hardware device drivers. Although the information provided are quite lengthy, the user can easily go through them as these are well-organized. The hardware devices attached to the computer are grouped according to types such as disk drivers, unplugged components and display adapters among a few. Opposite the device type are the number of identified problematic devices. It follows a format such as “device name (number of detected problems)”. For example, it will appear as “Disk Drivers (out of date: 1). If it seems too tedious to go over a long list of all the scanned items, one can just choose which data to display. The user can click on the menu and select specific categories.

On the right column, one can find a brief description of the driver, any issue associated with it and the recommended means of troubleshooting it. In the case of unplugged devices or undetected drivers, the recommendation is to attach the hardware. As for out of date drivers, a driver update will be recommended. Under the Driver Info menu, the user can find the data of both the present driver and the recommended version to be downloaded.

On the other hand, the Scan Summary is more general in terms of the information provided. It displays the computer name, motherboard profile and he number of scanned hardware components. Furthermore, Driver Detective also provides a pie chart that is a visual illustration of the present state of the computer hardware devices. It uses four colors to represent data: Blue (system drivers), yellow (no driver), red (out of date drivers) and green (up to date drivers).

In sum, the Driver Detective very much lives up to its promise of accurate and dependable scan results. It scanning coverage extends to all types of hardware device, even those that aren’t plugged. And it doesn’t impose its recommendation as one has the convenience to check the recommended update pior to downloading.

Get to know more about Driver Detective and all the wonders it can do for the computer by logging on their official Driver Detective Site .

Unknown device drivers are widely available in the internet. The trick is to finding and downloading them. The rest of the article will provide specific instructions on how to go about the download manually and a few helpful tips for users.

Downloading Unknown Device Drivers using the Manual Method

Before anything else, one must make sure that he/she has already noted important details of the hardware devices, more particularly their IDs. These will be used to assure their compatibility with the downloaded drivers. Here’s how to obtain the hardware device IDs:

For computers powered by Windows 7/Windows Vista

1. Enter Windows

2. Right Click Computer

3. Press Manage

4. Press Device Manager

5. Right click the “unknown device” or “any hardware device you want to update”

6. Enter Details tab

7. Click Device Instance Path from the drop-down menu

For computers powered by Windows XP:

1. Enter Start

2. Right click My Computer

3. Press Manage

4. Press Device Manager

5. Right click the “unknown device” or “any hardware device you want to update”

6. Enter Details tab

7. Click Device Instance ID from the drop-down menu

An alphanumeric data will be provided and from there, one can extract the hardware Device ID and the Vendor ID. For instance, from this displayed data: VEN_8086&DEV_2668 &SUBSYS_818F1043&REV_053&11583659&0&D8, VEN_8086 actually means Vendor ID 8086 while DEV_2668 is Device ID 2668.

Once the user has secured this info, he/she can proceed to browsing the worldwide web to get more details regarding the computer components. PCI database can assist in this task through their “Device Search” and “Vendor Search” which may even lead one to the official website of the manufacturing company. This feature is guaranteed to yield only the most reliable results. Moreover, these Search Options may be used alternately to ensure that all pertinent data available can be acquired, from the device name to its manufacturer. The user can start with the Vendor Search and then further define the results with the Device Search. From the previous example, VEN_8086 and DEV_2668 refer to the Intel Corporation, 82801FB (ICH6) High Definition Audio Controller and downloadcenter.intel.com as the vendor, device name and website, respectively.

Since a web address has already been given, the user can proceed to downloading the device driver. There are instances though when the URL leads not to the download page but the actual homepage of the vendor. To go to the download page, one must browse for the device driver by choosing the Product Family, selecting the Product Line, Product Name, Operating System and Download Type, and then deciding on the driver that’s deemed to be appropriate and excellent for the device. After settling on a choice, one can now download and finally install it on the PC.

However, these are just the preliminaries. There is much to know about unknown device driver download, including detection of out-of-date drivers that necessitate updating to a much better version. Fortunately, there’s a site that specializes in doing this for you.