HOW TO FIND A DRIVER FOR YOU DEVICES IN WINDOWS

Driver Problems
Often when you format your windows pc or laptop you will boot up to 
a desktop and find you have no sound or the video is not working at 
the correct resolution, etc.


First step is to check the cd’s that came with the computer for a 
driver’s cd. If you are lucky your lan or Wlan driver was put on and 
you can access the internet.If not then go get them at the manufac
tures website.This will help greatly in getting the other drivers needed.
It is all ways good to have a spare computer working and on the inter
net so you can download drivers and put them on a USB ,or Cd and be 
able to get them on to the pc you are working on.


CHECK WITH THE MANUFACTORS WEBSITE For All Drivers.
Most of the time if you have a name brand computer ( Dell,Acer, Hp, 
Compaq, Toshiba, etc) the best Thing to do is go the the manufactures 
website and get the correct driver from there.
Most of there sites you look for (Support,Technical Support,Drivers, etc).
Just put in your model and os info and you will find a list of drivers for 
your computer.


When I work on a computer that I have to find the drivers for I always 
burn them off so I will have them in the future.
If it is a desktop computer I tape the cd to the inside bottom of the case.
If you are lucky your lan or Wlan driver was put on and you can access the 
internet if so we can set up windows to check for drivers using automatic 
updates.Sometimes windows will find and put on the correct driver. Follow 
these steps to set up windows to find drivers (If you have internet access).


WINDOWS AUTOMATIC UPDATE TO FIND DRIVERS.
Once you have a Lan Wlan drivers on you can turn on Automatic Updates 
and have Windows check for updated drivers.
Turn on automatic updating
It’s important to set Windows to install and update drivers automatically.
Your PC is probably already set to download updates automatically,but 
you should check.If you follow these steps,you might never have to install 
a driver yourself or struggle to get a device to work.


To turn on automatic updating
1. Open Windows Update by clicking the Start button ,clicking All Programs, 
    and then clicking Windows Update.
2  In the left pane, click Change settings.
3. Click Install automatically (recommended).
4. Under Recommended updates,select the Include recommended updates 
when downloading, installing, or notifying me about updates check box, 
and then click OK.If you are prompted for an administrator password or 
confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Don’t neglect the final step, which concerns drivers.You’re not done until 
you select the check box to include recommended updates. If you don’t 
select this, Windows can’t provide all the updated drivers it finds for 
your hardware.


Set Windows Update to check for drivers
After you set Windows to install and update drivers automatically,you can 
update your drivers with Windows Update.
To update drivers using Windows Update
1. Open Windows Update by clicking the Start button ,clicking All Programs,
    and then clicking Windows Update.
2. In the left pane, click Check for updates.
3. To see if updated drivers are available, click View available updates. 
    Windows Update will list any updated drivers that are available for 
    devices installed on your computer.
4. If updates are available, click the driver that you want to install,and 
    then click Install. If you are prompted for an administrator password 
    or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

I have included this info from Microsoft’s website.
(windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Finding-drivers-What-to-
do-when-your-hardware-wont-work-with-Windows-Vista ).


Vendor ID and Device ID
If you still can not find a Device Driver for a component in the device 
manager you can look it up a different way.
All manufactures of devices have to include a Vendor ID and a Device 
ID of their Plug And Play devices. We can use this information to get 
the correct driver for our computer.
You can boot up in safe mode or boot normal .
First click Sart > All Programs(Program Files)> Accessories> System 
Tools> and Finallly choose System Information. You Will see a screen 
like this.

Click Components and go down to Problem Devices. Here will be any 
devices that do not have a driver.
Here is an example below.
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A20&SUBSYS_830F1043&REV_A2\4&3527B13
C&0&0010 .
Pay attention to what comes after PCI.
In this example VEN_10DE&DEV_0A20 will be used to find a driver 
for this device.
When I search my device ID I find my results.

From this it is easy for me to got to Nvidias website and get this 
driver.Ok go to www.pcidatabase.com/ and put in your vendor ID 
and or the Device ID. Your search results will tell you what kind 
of device you have and then you can proceed to look for the driver 
you need as now you know the device.
I like to use www.drp.su just place your device id in the search and 
you will get a list of drivers you can download.


And of course there is our best friend www.google.com simply put in 
your device ID and or Vendor Id in Google and you will soon find your 
driver.If you find out what device you have but still can not find a 
driver then you can go to www.driversguide.com .


Desktop Computers
If you are working with a desktop computer and are having a problem 
finding what that unknown device is. You can simply take out one 
PCI, ISA, etc. card at a time and boot to windows until you see there 
is NO device listed in Problem Devices. Once you determine the card 
that is showing up this way you can get the FCCID of the card. By law 
all Cards(PCB) sold has to have an FCCID number. You can use this 
number at www.driversguide.com to find a driver.


Now after all this and you have a driver you can not find I recommend 
to go to www.drivereasy.com .
This software is FREE and usually will get the prober driver for the 
device.This software does what stated above manually .It will get the 
Vendor ID and Device ID and compare it to there own database of 
drivers.In a few cases this software has save me from not finding a 
working driver at all.


CONCLUSION.
It is all ways best to use the drivers that came with to pc on a cd. 
But lots of manufactrs do not include these cd’s anymore.
It is then the best I deal to use a computer that is connected to 
the internet and go to the manufacors website and get the correct 
drivers from there.


In some cases when you can not get drivers this way you have to 
use the other methods listed here to find a suitable driver for the 
device.
Some Repair Techs will say NEVER USE ANY DRIVER UNLESS ITS 
FROM THE MANUFACTORS WEBSITE.
This in my opinion is a great BEST PRATICES guideline.
Let’s face it if some brings you in a pc to repair and you have to give 
it back without a driver for device, and the PC will not function correctly 
then that will be a customer lost.
Or if you are working on your own PC and can get a driver own and the 
PC works great then that is great.
I have used lots of drivers over the years that I did not get from the 
manufactures website and things worked out fine. Just use common 
since if all the drivers are installed and you test out the pc and it is 
working fine then it is a success.


LAST THING
If you work on a lot of pc and allways hunting up drivers then I would 
download this software drp.su/download.htm it is FREE and works good.
It keeps all the drivers in a folder on the CD or USB drive and can put 
them on right from there .
This is good if you do not or cannot get internet to use 
www.drivereasy.com


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