Driver problems… We all experienced them at some point. There’s always the issue of getting a working driver for an old hardware device on a new Windows version, or a new buggy driver release that the manufacturer has to hot fix a day later. Driver errors can cause a lot of trouble for an inexperienced user. Thankfully, they are pretty easy to deal with (all you have to do is uninstall the old driver and install a working, stable one) and this short guide will explain just how to do that.
The first thing to do when experiencing driver problems (no sound, programmable keyboard buttons not working, no hardware video acceleration) is to open your Device Manager. You can reach it by right clicking on your My Computer icon, selecting Properties (in WinXP – clicking the Hardware tab) and then clicking on the Device Manager button. Alternatively you can reach it via the Control Panel, or by using a Start > Run > “devmgmt.msc” (no quotes) command.
The Device Manager displays all the hardware that Windows detected on your system. If any of the drivers are causing problems – or if the drivers are missing altogether – the device will usually have a yellow exclamation mark over it. If the driver is present but not working for some reason, you should probably remove it by right clicking on the device, selecting Properties > Driver, and clicking Uninstall. After uninstalling the driver you should look for the newest version on the manufacturer’s website. Alternatively, you may use the driver CD that came with your computer, if you have it (note that it most likely contains an older version than is available online). Naturally if there was no driver in the first place, you should too look for a proper one on the hardware producer’s website.
Note that it’s very important to match the OS and the version of the driver with your system. 64 bit drivers won’t work on 32 bit systems and vice versa. Same idea for various versions of windows (XP, Vista and 7). As long as you get the correct driver from the official website, there should be no problems.