Drivers

This is a new feature of my website and in it I hope to send up to date information about keeping your computer running properly and what to do if it all goes pear shaped.

In this my first blog I want to explain the importance of keeping your computer up to date.  Virtually all the hardware you have connected to or inside your machine has what is known as a driver to make the printer, graphics card etc work.  This is a small program that the manufacturer of the printer or whatever use to get the two machines talking to each other and permits the printer to print or the webcam to work or even the monitor to display.

Sometimes the program can get corrupted and that is when your printer starts going haywire, or any other peripheral stops working properly.  In most cases it is easy just to reinstall the drivers from the cd that came with the peripheral and this invariably solves the problem.  I prefer in these cases to check the manufacturers website to see if there is a more up to date driver available and if so download and install that instead.  Sometimes the newer driver contains extra content or enhanced content or fixes a bug that the manufacturer found out after issue of the product cd.

So if you start to have a problem with any of your peripherals, printers, cameras, graphics cards, try reinstalling the drivers first, always uninstall the old ones first, otherwise you may just corrupt the new ones as well.

As always if you are unsure of what to do, contact the shop if under a guarantee or the handbook or contact a qualified engineer.