gHacks technology news » drivers

Computer Hardware Drivers List

Martin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:21:57 +0000

It is sometimes a good idea to get an overview of all computer hardware drivers that are loaded in the operating system. We all know that outdated or incompatible drivers can lead to all kinds of computer related problems including crashes, performance issues or even data loss.

Driver View is a quality computer software that has been designed for exactly that purpose. It will create a listing of all computer hardware drivers that are loaded into system memory. The listing contains extensive information about each driver including the name, company and product name, modified date, description, file type and filename.

The software highlights non-Microsoft drivers and offers the additional option to hide all Microsoft drivers in the listing. Each column is sortable which makes it easier to find specific drivers in the long listing. A search is integrated in the software as well.

It is possible to export the data into various formats including html, text or csv. It is furthermore possible to generate reports from the command line. Driver View is another excellent Nirsoft application that is compatible with most Windows operating systems including Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Tags: computer hardware, drivers, nirsoft, portable software, system drivers, windows drivers, windows software

How to add proprietary drivers in Ubuntu

Jack Wallen — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:40:17 +0000

Over the last few years most of my video cards have had NVidia chipsets. And with these chipsets, open source drivers are iffy at times. Because of that I have often employed the use of proprietary drivers. It used to be a challenge to get these to work. Many times you had to recompile a kernel or make sure you had the matching kernel to your video driver. And once you had all of the software installed, you had to manually edit your X configuration file.

Things are very different now. And thanks to Ubuntu there is a very simple route to adding these proprietary drivers to your system.? This article will show you how to manage this task.

Opening the tool

Figure A

The first thing you need to do is open the tool for managing proprietary drivers. You might not have to go searching for this tool if you see a small icon in your panel that looks like a tiny PCI card. If you see that you only need click on that icon. If you do not see that icon, however, you will have to venture through the menu system to find it (see Figure A). Fear not, the menu entry is simple to locate: Click on the System menu, the Administration sub menu, and finally the Proprietary Drivers entry.

Figure B

The window that opens (see Figure B) will be the only tool you need to enable or disable the drivers you need for your hardware.

Scroll through the list of drivers for your hardware. One of the first bits of information you need to look for is the “Recommended” tag. That is the driver you should select. Believe it or not, this tool is actually very good at choosing the correct driver for your devices.

Once you have selected the proper driver click the Activate button and the driver will be activated. Of course, depending upon the hardware the driver is for, you might have to either log out and log back in, or even (gasp) reboot. Most likely you will only have to log out and log back in.

That’s it. That’s all it takes now to load a proprietary driver in Ubuntu.

Final Thoughts

Of course there are many purists out there who wouldn’t even think of loading a proprietary driver on their machine. But if you’re looking to get more from your hardware, and your desktop, you will most likely want to go this route. I have used many NVidia cards on many Linux distributions and I have yet to find an open source driver that can work as well as the proprietary drivers can.

Hopefully some day the open source equivalents will catch up (or the makers of the proprietary drivers will open up their code). But until that day I will continue using tools like this to enable my machines to work as well as they do.

And in the case of some wireless cards like those with Broadcom chips – work period!

Tags: drivers, Linux, proprietary driver, ubuntu

Windows Driver Updates

Martin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 08:57:35 +0000

One would think that there should be at least some free working tools for the Windows operating system that allow users to scan if drivers installed on the computer system are up to date or need updating. A user searching for terms like Windows driver updates or driver updates will most likely be disappointed as the top spots are held by commercial products that sometimes promise a free scan but require registration and purchase before the drivers can be downloaded. There is not really a lot of choice in the free sector which could be explained by the sheer volume of hardware devices and drivers which require a huge database in the backend that gets updated hundreds of times a day. Probably to much work for a group of individuals but excellent for a community project.

Anyway, some free programs to update Windows drivers exist. We have reviewed Driver Max in the past. The application has made some leaps version wise. It can not only be used to scan for Windows driver updates but also to identify unknown hardware or to perform device driver backups. A click on the check for driver updates button in the updates and identification category will start the scan of the computer system’s hardware.

The results will be displayed on the website of the software developer in table form listing the name of the device as well as the installed version and the latest version in the database. A disk symbol at the end of each line leads directly to the download of the device driver.

The download pages list all downloads for the selected device. There is no mentioning if the drivers are alpha, beta or final drivers and it is recommended to perform a search on a search engine to verify the result. The suggested update for the outdated Intel Chipset Software Installation on the test system turned out to be an alpha driver. A quick search revealed a final driver that was available for download.

The list of downloads could use some filtering options to filter languages and alpha or beta drivers. Still, it is a better alternative than searching for all device driver updates manually. It will at least list the drivers that are not up to date anymore which will narrow down the manual process to a minimum. A free registration is required to use the program.

A similar program is 3DP Chip (read: Computer Driver Updates) which will only scan the most important components of a computer system.

Tags: device driver, Device Driver Backup, driver backup, driver update, driver updates, drivers, windows driver updates, windows software

Powerful Device Manager Device Remover

Martin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 08:39:39 +0000

Device Remover is a portable device manager for the Windows operating system. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0. The main advantage of Device Remover is the display of all installed devices, drivers and services on the current Windows operating system including hidden, detached, problematic and currently functioning ones. No need to issue any command line parameters or turn options on as Device Remover will display all information about all devices and drivers in its interface.

The software interface is divided into various tabs and windows that display all kinds of information. The main window display a device tree, device list and drivers and services tab. A selected item will be displayed in detail on the right window. The information are color coded and make use of checkboxes to allow for mass editing and removal of devices and drivers.

The different view modes are interesting for most users. It is possible to display only hidden and detached drivers and devices which makes it easy to analyze and remove those from the computer system. Hovering the mouse over an entry will display a popup with extensive information about that entry.

It is possible to search for specific devices or drivers using the in build search and to print or export the device list to a txt or csv file.

Device Remover is a professional looking software program for the Windows operating system that provides the means to manage device drivers effectively. The download of the setup file on the author’s homepage failed during the test but it was possible to download the portable version without problems.

Tags: detached drivers, device remover, device-manager, drivers, hidden drivers, portable software, windows drivers, windows software

Remove Old Windows Device Drivers

Martin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:22:56 +0000

If you are the type of computer user who likes to upgrade his computer with new hardware devices instead of purchasing a new computer whenever a speed, storage or performance update is due you might find the following tip interesting. It is very likely that old device drivers are still present on the system which can lead to all kinds of hardware related problems and even slow boot times as Windows is searching for those hardware devices in every boot sequence.

It is quite easy to check if Windows is still listing old device drivers on the computer system. All that needs to be done is to access the Windows Device Manager. The easiest way to do this is to press [Windows Pause] which will open the System Properties. A click on Hardware > Device Manager will open the device manager.

The first step in there is to enable the display of hidden devices. Hidden devices are all devices that are currently not connected to the computer system. This can be old device drivers or hardware devices that are currently not connected. To enable hidden devices click on View > Show Hidden Devices.

Windows will now display those devices in the list of hardware devices. Now it is time to click through all the hardware categories of the device manager to scan for devices that are not longer in use. This can be computer monitors, input devices like keyboards or mice, video cards and practically any computer hardware that can be replaced.

A right-click on such a device will provide the means to uninstall the device driver from the computer system. The uninstallation should remove the device entry from the device manager. Nothing can go wrong if you happen to uninstall working hardware devices from the system. Windows will either automatically install the new drivers at the next startup or prompt for a driver disk to perform the installation.

Cautious users might want to create a device driver backup before starting the process.

Tags: device drivers, device-manager, drivers, uninstall drivers, Windows, windows drivers, windows tips

Free Driver Update

Martin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:31:10 +0000

Updating drivers can be a tedious job. One has to monitor the websites of the hardware manufacturers to keep up to date with new driver versions. Using a program to scan a computer system and check the driver versions against the latest drivers can help in the maintenance of the system.

One free driver update software is RadarSysnc 2009. It can be downloaded freely from the developers website and does not require registration to download or update drivers on the computer system. The software was not completely free in the past which has changed with this year’s version.

The process is as simply as it sounds. The option to scan a computer system will be available after starting the driver updater. All components that updates were found for are displayed in a list afterwards. The list contains the name of the component, the status and a link to details about the update.

The very same menu contains a button to Download all driver updates at once which will change the status to Ready To Install. A click on that will install the selected driver.

The Detail window is important as it displays information about the installed driver and the updated driver such as versions of both so that it is possible to compare them before installing them. It furthermore contains information about the driver that has been downloaded including links to the developer’s website. The menu contains additional links and options like reporting a bad download, sending a link to a friend or downloading a different driver (other operating system or version).

A scan of a test system was mostly successful. One problem that was encountered was that the software found an updated video card driver which turned out to be a Windows Vista update. Unfortunately the test system was running Windows XP. Could be a one time blunder but it could eventually lead to installations of the wrong drivers on a system. So its best to always check the information the program is providing before installing any drivers on the system.

Tags: computer drivers, download drivers, driver update, drivers, Free Driver Update, RadarSysnc 2009, windows software

Solve Driver Issues with Nodevice.com

Cheryl — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 05:48:36 +0000

A driver is a small software program that allows your computer hardware to communicate with the operating system installed on your machine. That means every piece of hardware right from the keyboard and mouse to your CD-Rom drive, video cards, etc. needs a driver if it’s going to function properly, irrespective of whether you’re a Linux or Windows user.

Almost all of us have faced driver problems at one time or the other. This can happen when you’re doing a fresh install, re-installing an OS, switching from one OS to another or for a reason you just cannot fathom. The easiest solution in most cases is to just re-install the driver. But what if you don’t have it?

For missing or corrupt drivers, Nodevice is your savior. The website boasts of a collection of more than 30,000 drivers on their website. Drivers are categorized either according to their use or the company who manufactures them. This way you can find the driver you’re looking for easily in case you know the model number of your device.

Nodevice has drivers available for all sorts of hardware, including mobile phones, usb devices, and mp3 players. To download a driver, click on the one you want, wait a few seconds (a la Rapidshare) and then save the file to your computer. The site also has a Help section for new users who need help with installing and removing drivers or finding which one is right for them.

A site like Nodevice is handy to have around when the driver you want is unavailable at the original manufacturer’s site. The only thing you have to be careful of is that you install the right driver for your machine.

What do you think of Nodevice? Is it helpful for new users? Do you know of any other sites like it? Where do you normally check for missing drivers? Let me know in the comments.

Tags: drivers, Hardware, Operating Systems, portable devices

Backup and Restore Drivers

Martin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:31:30 +0000

Double Driver is a software for Windows that can scan the system for installed drivers. All drivers that are found can be backed up the application and restored at a later point. This comes in quite handy if you purchase a computer and want to backup the initial set of drivers. It can be quite difficulty for example to find drivers for hardware installed in a notebook if the operating system has to be setup again.

A click on the scan button starts a system scan which took only a matter of seconds on my system. All drivers are afterwards listed in a table in the main program window. They can be sorted by name, date, version, manufacturer and several other parameters with additional filters being available from the top menu. It is for instance possible to list only non-Microsoft drivers.

One or multiple drivers can be selected by checking the box in the first column of the table. A click on the Backup button will open a configuration menu where the user can pick a destination folder for the backup.

The Restore button works in the opposite direction. The user has to browse to an .inf file that has been created by a previous backup so that the driver can be restored. There is also the option to save and print a list of all drivers currently installed on the system

Tags: driver backup, drivers, hardware drivers, restore drivers, software, system drivers, Windows

List all unsigned drivers in Windows XP

Martin — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:54:02 +0000

There are two types of drivers in Windows XP, signed and unsigned ones. Signed ones have been verified and tested by Microsoft while unsigned ones have not. That does not have to be a bad thing though because the developer tends to test the drivers as well.

If you updated the drivers of your video card regularly you will notice that most drivers are unsigned drivers and they work without problems. If Microsoft would verify them their release would be delayed quite a bit. As far as I know it is not free to get drivers signed either which means it would not make much sense to get beta drivers signed.

Unsigned drivers are however normally the source of driver problems in Windows XP. The easiest way to get a list of all unsigned drivers that are installed is by using the command line tool sigverif. Press Windows R and enter sigverif in the run box. A new window will open named File Signature Verification.

Click on Advanced in that window, check Look for other files that are not digitally signed and choose to look in the folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers. Click ok and start. Windows scans the folder for unsigned drivers and displays them in a list afterwards.

The list is automatically written in the file SIGVERIF.TXT and can be used to verify unsigned drivers using the tool verify. I will write another article about this soon.

Tags: drivers, signed drivers, sigverif, unsigned drivers, windows tips

CD or DVD Drive Slow? Change it from PIO to DMA Mode

Cheryl — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:33:44 +0000

When you burn a CD or DVD in Windows, your DVD burner usually uses the DMA (Direct Memory Access) mode. Basically, this allows you to transfer large chunks of data onto your DVD, using as little CPU memory as possible. In other words, it helps you burn your DVDs faster.

However, Windows has this weird concept of switching your drive to a lower mode, depending on read/write errors. This means that after around six errors, your DVD drive will automatically shift to a PIO mode. This requires more CPU memory to function, which in turn greatly slows down burning speed. If your drive is in PIO mode, burning one DVD will take you more than an hour.

There are a few ways to switch your drive back to DMA mode, depending on whichever one you choose. I’m going to provide two of them. First, right click My Computer > Properties. Go to Hardware > Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Click on the ‘+’ sign next to it and then right click on the Primary or Secondary IDE channel (depending on which one your burner is connected to) option and select Properties > Advanced Settings. Look at the entry in the ‘Current Transfer Mode’. If it says ‘PIO’, you know that the mode has been changed.

The First Method

In the first method to revert back to DMA mode, in the Advanced Settings tab, there is an entry labeled Transfer Mode. Click on the drop-down menu next to it and select the option ‘DMA if available’. Click OK on the Advanced Settings tab when you are done. Windows will ask you if you want to reboot for these settings to take effect. Allow your PC to reboot. Then go back to your Primary or Secondary channel (whichever you changed) and look at the Current Transfer Mode. If it still says PIO, this method is not working for you.

The Second Method (This is a more radical one)

The second method is to simply UNINSTALL your drive. Go to the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and right click on the channel to which your drive is connected. Select ‘Uninstall’ and go ahead and uninstall the drive. Then reboot your computer. When it reboots, Windows will automatically detect your drives. Once, this is done, go back and check your drive mode. It should automatically be in DMA mode. If not, select the Transfer mode as DMA and then reboot again. This time it should definitely work.

Note: I realize that most of you will be a little apprehensive about the second method. None of y’all know me and I cannot guarantee you that this will fix your problem. All I can say is that I’ve used this method (more than once and on different PCs!) and it worked for me every time. However, if you don’t want to try uninstalling your drives, that’s fine. I’m not forcing anyone to do anything they’re not comfortable with.

Via [onthegosoft]

Tags: burning, drivers, dvd

Remove old dll files from your system

Martin — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 09:10:08 +0000

The uninstallation of files does not always seem to work as intended on Windows XP, it is no secret that the system folder grows over time. If you delete a program directory by hand for example all dll files in the system directory remain where they are. There is also the case where you want to uninstall a program and a window pops up asking wether you want to delete a driver which could be used by other programs as well.

DLL Archive is able to clear this mess. The freeware scans and verifies all dll files on your system and adds them to a list of dlls that are most likely obsolete. Most likely means that there is of course a chance that this dll is still needed and for this purpose DLL Archive archives the dlls which means that they are moved from the system dirs to an archive dir (DLLArchive in the windows folder). You have to work with your computer as usual at this point, reboot it for instance and see if everything is still working as intended.

If you receive errors you should move the dll that is mentioned back to the system directory. I performed a scan and it found more than 450 dll files. I decided to archive them all and see what would happen. Well, nothing happened at all. I was able to reboot my computer, start my programs as usual without problems at all.

The size of the DLLArchive folder was 196 megabytes, this is huge if you ask me. I suggest you keep those files at least for a week and see if any error pops up at a later time. If not appears delete them or back them up before you do.

Tags: clean-system, dll, dll-archive, drivers, files, obsolete, old-dll, old-drivers, remove-dll, system32, uninstallation, Windows, windows-xp

gHacks technology news » drivers

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