Tech Support Forum - View Single Post

**blah789** · 11-22-2008, 02:23 PM

1) it's good practice to do so. Usually the critical ones like video will be replaced by generic (standard VGA adapter for example) when the driver is removed, so Windows will still be usable
2) I don't think you need to switch to safe mode unless the installation didn't work in normal mode. And generally it's wise to let the system reboot after one driver installs before installing the next. You never know what could go wrong if you try to install everything at once (and it'd be difficult to trace it too!) If you need to enter safe mode, at boot time, press F8 and you'll get a menu.
3) Optical drives and hard drives don't really need an updated driver. The controller to which they're attached (ATA or SATA) may sometimes need updating, but the devices themselves usually don't.
What else do you need drivers for? Well you got the basics covered. Video, sound, monitor, chipset, network adapters (wired and wireless), any expansion card you have connected (PCI for example), pointing devices, modems are probably the basics. Then just see if you have anything else hooked to the computer.
4) Haven't tried it, so can't give an opinion.

11-22-2008, 02:23 PM	#2 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,233 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: installing new drivers question 1) it's good practice to do so. Usually the critical ones like video will be replaced by generic (standard VGA adapter for example) when the driver is removed, so Windows will still be usable 2) I don't think you need to switch to safe mode unless the installation didn't work in normal mode. And generally it's wise to let the system reboot after one driver installs before installing the next. You never know what could go wrong if you try to install everything at once (and it'd be difficult to trace it too!) If you need to enter safe mode, at boot time, press F8 and you'll get a menu. 3) Optical drives and hard drives don't really need an updated driver. The controller to which they're attached (ATA or SATA) may sometimes need updating, but the devices themselves usually don't. What else do you need drivers for? Well you got the basics covered. Video, sound, monitor, chipset, network adapters (wired and wireless), any expansion card you have connected (PCI for example), pointing devices, modems are probably the basics. Then just see if you have anything else hooked to the computer. 4) Haven't tried it, so can't give an opinion.