I just installed Windows XP on my computer. How do I know which drivers to download?

Question

A friend told me that a specific device requires specific driver. I understood for audio input and output devices. But how about for VGA? Is there a driver for the monitor? How about LAN? I don't really need but I still want to know.

Answer 1

Go to device manager and look which drivers you are missing if any.If you have internet go to windows updates and look for any available hardware updates.If you still missing drivers go to the computers manufacturer website and download them.Be careful don't download any drivers from a third party company,they will ask you for money and their software will mess up your computer.

Answer 2

Your friend is correct. Every hardware device on a computer requires a driver. Most are installed automatically when Windows is installed like the mouse and keyboard, and CD/DVD's.



The display adapter driver (VGA) yes if not you will get only limited screen resolution. LAN driver put the local area connection on your computer that allows connection to the Internet.



Windows XP does a fair job of automatically putting on most drivers when it is installed. If Windows cannot find the driver automatically then YOU must install them manually.



Go to the computer manufactures web site and download the drivers for your make and model computer. You may have to do this from another computer if you cannot access the Internet on yours. Get the LAN or Network driver first install it then connect and get the rest of them.



If it is home built PC use the Motherboard as the starting point especially if it an Intel one and get the drivers for it.



If you have any PCI cards that were installed after you bought the computer determine the manufacture and model and go to the manufactures website and download drivers for that device.



The drivers that did not automatically install will have a yellow ! in the device manager. Several ways to get there. Go to My Computer right click and choose properties click on the hardware tab and then device manager. After you connect to the Internet you can try to re-install or update a driver from the device manager most of the time you will be successful.

Answer 3

If your computer was made by a specific manufacturer, simply download the drivers from the manufacturer's website. Of course, you will find some drivers you don't need (it took me a while once to figure out that my laptop actually doesn't have a bluetooth :))



If it was made from pieces, get and install the drivers in this order: motherboard, new DirectX, video card, any additional wlan adapters and other cards. You don't need monitor drivers, and the LAN drivers come with the motherboard drivers.



Of course, whether your PC was factory or home built, you will need to download drivers for printers, scanners, and similar peripherals, and you won't need them for the speakers and mic.

Answer 4

Go to www.xxxxx.com where xxxxx is your pc manufacture then input the model of the pc. If it's a custom PC you will need to know the motherboard model which is printed on the motherboard somewhere and all the models for all your extra components.



Let me edit this to show you how stupid the other 2 people are (they obviously gave me the thumbs down). "Go to device manager and look which drivers you are missing if any.If you have internet go to windows updates and look for any available hardware updates"



Windows XP does a horrible job of finding drivers through windows update. Windows 7 does a great job and if you had said you had 7 I would have told you to do that. The Device Manager will also say that you need a driver for "Ethernet Controller" unless you are really computer savvy and look for the VID/PID numbers to find out the manufacture and model of your card (by your question you are not) this method is useless to you.

Answer 5

You have some problem .

Look in Control panel > Systems > Device manager - It will have list of all devices there and those which don;t have drivers installed will be having a exclamation mark in yellow, You need driver for those devices.

Source(s):

http://www.hardupware.com/

Answer 6

If you installed from a back up cd or hidden partition made by the manufacturer the drivers though they may not be the latest,should already be installed by default.If you installed from a basic windows cd then you should have a driver cd supplied with either the pc [if it a major manufacturer Dell,Toshiba etc] or individual driver cds as supplied by the manufacturer of the hardware out of which you made the pc.

If you have lost the drivers then its going to take a bit of research either by looking through device manager at the hardware IDs,hit and miss with windows update or by using a driver search program.

Theres a free license offer for Everest ultimate at the link below which may help you discover the installed hardware and possible drivers.Fill in the details and check you inbox [name doesnt have to be yours and any disposable or real email will do]

First name,last name,email address

offer: http://pro.de/aktion/chip/everst_ue

downlaod program : http://download2.pro.de/action/everest_ue_4.60.exe



Any external hardware you have i.e. printers will need their drivers installing from supplied cds or downloaded from manufacturers website then installed too.

Answer 7

Look in Control panel > Systems > Device manager - It will have list of all devices there and those which don;t have drivers installed will be having a exclamation mark in yellow, You need driver for those devices.

Answer 8

simply instal a software driver genius or the other tune up utility and into software click the option update drivers than it will install all the driver which ur pc need ........but this use the internet connection and this will take a long time depending upon ur network

Answer 9

http://www.download-drivers.org/vga-driver-download.html

here you could get the drivers you need at one time, and the drivers will correspond with the correct model of your operating system and computer, and can be installed or updated automatically. good luck!

Answer 10

go to my computer- rigt click - properties - hardware- device manager - then u can see some question marks then click it and use update driver........

Answer 11

yes, they all require specific driver.

VGA-VGA driver

monitor-display driver

LAN-network(ethernet) driver

hope this helps. :D