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If you don't know how to install a device driver, or are unaware of the brute force methods available this article may help you.

You may want to click the below links to skip to the section of the article that you are interested in
The article starts with a brief explanation of drivers and firmware..The first part covers the basics , opening device manager, finding and selecting the drivers,  the standard install method etc

The method used at the end of this article may be helpful if you just can't seem to find the right driver for a specific peice of uncommon or stubborn hardware. It can also be used to create a CD to quickly install all the required drivers for your system after you have re-installed windows.

Driver Defined
Firmware Defined
Finding Drivers
Basic Install Method
Manual Install
Opening Device Manager
Other Options - Brute Force Method

What is a driver ?

Drivers are hardware specific and often needed to ensure that a piece of hardware functions correctly. They are low level computer programs that allow computer system to take full advantage of all a devices features.
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program that allows "higher-level" computer programs to communicate with, or to control a hardware device.

Programs call on the driver and ask for actions to be performed or information to be provided. The driver then issues commands to the device (the hardware). The driver may send data back to the original calling program or initiate commands. 

Drivers are also operating system specific. So if you want to install a printer and you are running "Windows 7 64Bit" you will need to find the driver for the model of printer you own and the driver will need to be compatible with Windows 7 64bit.

What is Firmware ?

Firmware is similar to drivers but firmware is usually fixed (not writable during general use) and stored in the device itself. Originally the term firmware was meant to describe the contents of a writable control store in the hardware which defined and implemented a devices available instructions.(a specialized area of RAM memory, the term later expanded to include ROM memory)
This instruction set defines the commands that a driver can use to control the device.

Over time the term firmware has evolved to mean almost any programmable content of a hardware device.

Finding Drivers For Your Device

If you are looking for tips on finding an obscure driver or are looking for a generic alternative and you have tried the basic/usual driver install methods with no success skip down "Other Options" by clicking here. The basic install steps below have the general methods to finding a driver.

Basic Windows Driver Install Steps.

If your operating system doesn't automatically install device drivers you can find and install them yourself.
It is easy, the steps below are the basic steps required. This is listed for those of you who are novice computer users and for people who just haven't had to do it before.

• First determine the name of the company that produced the hardware then browse to their support website.
  We have links to many manufacturers and their support pages here. Each company listing on NotAsCoolAsItSeems has links to the companies home page, support forums and support site to help you. On the company listings pages you can order the companies by name, points etc if you click the column heading.
• Once at the site try to locate the support or downloads section for your device. Search for your product by name or product code.
  Tip : Product names, model numbers and serial codes can usually be found on a white sticker on the back or the under side of the device.
• Once you have found the driver downloads that are available you need to choose the correct one and download it. There are probably many driver downloads available, you need to carefully select which one you are going to download and install.
• First, find all the drivers that have your operating system listed.(Linux, WindowsXP, Windows7 etc) To narrow it down more, choose which driver has a higher version number or most recent release date for your operating system. Sometimes it shows 32 bit and 64 bit on the drivers file name or operating system, determine if your computer is 32 or 64 bit.
  To do this : right click "My Computer" or "Computer" (on the start menu) and select properties, the pop up window should list the information.
• Once you have selected the most appropriate file click its link to download it. Save it somewhere safe where you can find it easily.
• Almost all drivers you download are going to be a single file (an .exe , msi or a self extracting .zip file). Double click the downloaded file you saved to start the install process, then follow the on screen instructions.
  Note:  If double clicking on the file you downloaded doesn't start the driver install process then it is almost definitely a compressed file that contains the driver (usually .zip, .rar, or  .gzip file extensions). In order to install the driver you will first need to uncompress the file using a program like 7Zip.
  7Zip is free and can be downloaded here.

Manual Driver Install or Update
(no setup.exe , setup.msi files etc in the driver download)

• Open Windows Device Manager. (click here to find out how)
• In the Device Manager locate the device you wish to update the drivers for. Find it by name, if you can't find the device it may have a small yellow triangle icon, exclamation mark, or red cross next to it.
• You may need to "Scan for hardware changes" this menu item is found under the "Actions" menu at the top of the window. If you don't see it under that menu select the top most item in the treeview on the right and check the menu again. (under some conditions it doesn't show.)
• Right-click the device and click Properties.
• In the Properties window click the Driver tab.
• Click the Update Driver button.
• In the Hardware Update Wizard point Windows to the location of the updated drivers on your computer. This will be the directory that contains the file you downloaded or the one that you may have had to decompress the downloaded file to. 
• Once drivers have been installed reboot.
   

 

If You can't find the drivers or are unable to install them skip down to "Other Options" by clicking here.

Opening The Device Manager

Windows XP or 2000

• Click "Start"
• right-click on "My Computer" and click "Properties" or open the "Control Panel" and double-click the System icon.
• In the "System Properties" window click the Hardware tab.
• In the Hardware tab click the Device Manager button.
  or
• Click "Start"
• Click "Settings"
• Click "Control Panel"
• In the Control Panel double-click the Systems icon.
• In the "System Properties" window click the Hardware tab.
• In the Hardware tab click the Device Manager button.
   
   

Vista and Windows 7

• Click "Start"
• right-click on "Computer" and click "Properties"
• Click "Device Manager" its on the left of the window

Other options - Brute Force Driver Installation.

This method is good if you have a lot of drivers to install or you can't find the correct drivers. Usually it can get a PC's devices running without much trouble.

How does it work :

Basically you download a lot of pre-compiled driver files in a compressed format. Then you create a driver install or system install disc containing the driver packs. Another method is to run an application that will either install the correct driver for you or it will install a  compatible generic / 3rd party driver from the supplied driver packs.

This used to be a very easy process with DriverForge, but support and development of DriverForge ceased some time between the release of Windows Vista and Windows 7. DriverForge does not support Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Get The Best Advice

The best place to find updated information and applications to bulk install drivers is DriverPacks.net it is also the best place to find the compressed driver packs. The DriverPacks.net project is an open source project. The goal is to simplify the creation of a "uniform" Windows installation CD, i.e. an installation CD that works on every piece of hardware, without having to go look for other drivers after the installation.

If you are still running Windows XP you can try to use DriverForge by following the directions below, however it is highly recommended that you visit the DriverPacks.net project and use their updated software and information. They have a forum to provide community support and the software as well as the methods described are actively developed and updated.

• Create a folder on your desktop or somewhere else you are comfortable with and save the driverForge executable file there.
• Now you need to aquire your drivers. Go to the DriverPacks page and download the packs you want. Each pack has a large number of drivers in it, the packs are categorized by device type.  You can download just the ones for the device type you are trying to install or download all of them.( you can burn it all to cd to use on later installs) Once you have downloaded the packs place them and any other drivers you may have in the folder where you put DriverForge, place them in a sub-folder if you want. You can also add any uncompressed drivers you may have (put them in a separate folder)
• When you are ready double click the driver forge .exe to start or right click and select "run as Administrator" if you have that option.
• When it starts check the  "Restart when completed" checkbox - this is usually required by the OS. Ensure the paths pointing to the compressed driver packs and the uncompressed drivers are correct. If this is incorrect click the buttons to the right and browse to the right folders.
• There are more options but we are not going into driver signing etc in this article so you can use Google and mouse over any other options you are interested in to learn about them.
• Hit start.
• Let it do its thing, hopefully any stubborn device drivers have been installed, if not you will need to go and find more driver packs to try again.

As always we hope this has helped at least one person, don't forget you can submit corrections, additions or updated to this article by sending us an e-mail via our contact form.

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