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markem · (This post was last modified: 02-19-2011 04:30 AM by markem.)

Well, here it is - the last donation! I can tell you that not only has DD helped me, but I keep it on a jump drive and it is one of my diagnostic tools to help those who don't know anything about computers. So far I have helped an 80 year old arthritic (severe arthritis) lady get her system back up and running so she can e-mail her family. A 60 year old severe diabetic person (on dialysis) whom a store vendor set her computer up so out of a 150GB hard drive she can only use 15GB (working to fix that presently) and a 60 year old saleslady who's laptop computer has only a 40GB disk drive on it. (I'm going to give her a 160GB laptop disk drive I have and am not using anymore - upgraded to a 500GB hard drive). Three other people have also been helped. All of them teachers.

I am glad to have helped with my donations. I plan on on making a donation every time I use Device Doctor on someone else's computer. So see more donations in the future as I use Device Doctor to help others. Big Grin

markem · 02-19-2011, 04:38 AM

Hmmmm....my last reply seems to have disappeared. Huh

Oh well, I just wanted to say thanks again for creating Device Doctor. It not only has helped me but I, in turn, have been using it to help those who don't know a lot about computers. I've helped a severely arthritic lady who can barely type to get her computer back up and running. I've used it to help a 60 year old severely diabetic person who is almost blind back up and running. (Her computer has a150GB hard drive but the store she bought it at partitioned it so she can only use 15GB of disk space. (Working to fix that problem.) There also is a sales lady who knows nothing about computers and yet must use one. (I'm going to give her my old 160GB laptop hard drive since I upgraded to a 500GB hard drive some time ago. So that will help her. She only has a 40GB drive now.) There are also three teachers I have helped using Device Doctor.

So I am glad my donations have helped and look for more in the future as I install Device Doctor onto other computers. Most of these people don't have a dime to their name or are just eking out a living. So they can't afford to buy new computers or even the software to help them out. At least I have a job - so I try to make a difference. Device Doctor has helped tremendously in that respect.

Thanks again for being there! Big Grin

**Thomas** · 03-03-2011, 11:34 AM

Your donations are highly appreciated, yet it's even more satisfactory for us to hear about how you are successfully using DD to help others. Truly amazing and inspirational for us! THANK YOU!

markem · 04-23-2011, 03:01 AM

I am sorry to report that one of the first people I helped with Device Doctor has passed away. Her name was Dee Shaike. She was an accountant and she was 80 years old. She thought she was having a heart attack and was taken to the hospital but was found to just be suffering from an anxiety attack. Unfortunately, while in the hospital, she got a staff infection that led to pneumonia. I have known Dee since the mid 1990s as a Mensa person. She was always kind and gentle and when she had computer problems I always tried to help her. After the terrific help Device Doctor did for me I took the program over to her and it found most (if not all) of her device drivers were out of date. Her computer ran perfectly after downloading and installing all of the updated device drivers and some nagging problems disappeared off of her computer with the updates. Dee was the last of her family and she will be missed terribly. Up until the final months Dee was busy at work. The person with whom she had worked for over twenty years finally laid her off two months ago because he was retiring and had sold the company's assets to another company. She will be greatly missed.

ComputerGuy85 · 07-10-2011, 09:04 PM

Hi everyone! Its nice to see such a lively community of helpful people, I'm new to Device Doctor and had a couple questions.
Okay so first of all does Device Doctor install the drivers? Or does it just download them and you have to go into the directory and manually install it? Second of all, if it downloads a driver that doesn't suite your PC, how can you identify the exact driver that doesn't belong? Lastly, if you find the corrupt driver that doesn't match your PC, can you roll it back to the previous version? Or do you have to restore your system to an earlier state causing ALL of your newly installed drivers to rollback as well. Please help I'm very concerned about my computer!

(01-06-2011 03:22 AM)markem Wrote: First - January donation completed.

I have been introducing everyone I know to Device Doctor. Most people are ho-hum about it until I get them to run the program. Then they are like "Wow! I didn't know there were that many updates to my computer!" I also hint to them that they should make a donation to help keep Device Doctor up and going. Don't know how well they are taking the hint though. Still, hope things are going well for you guys!

markem · 07-11-2011, 01:33 AM

(07-10-2011 09:04 PM)ComputerGuy85 Wrote: Hi everyone! Its nice to see such a lively community of helpful people, I'm new to Device Doctor and had a couple questions.
Okay so first of all does Device Doctor install the drivers? Or does it just download them and you have to go into the directory and manually install it? Second of all, if it downloads a driver that doesn't suite your PC, how can you identify the exact driver that doesn't belong? Lastly, if you find the corrupt driver that doesn't match your PC, can you roll it back to the previous version? Or do you have to restore your system to an earlier state causing ALL of your newly installed drivers to rollback as well. Please help I'm very concerned about my computer!

Hey! And welcome to Device Doctor! I, like you, found it and it was simply amazing! :-) I hope it does as well for you. Here are my answers:

1. No. Device Doctor is the free version. The non-free version will do the installs for you. However, it is really easy to do a driver install. Usually you just double-click on the icon of the file you downloaded and it will install itself. You may need to reboot after an install though because once you have booted your system all drivers are then in memory and the only safe way to load the new drivers is with a reboot. So be prepared to reboot a lot sometimes and sometimes not at all. It all depends upon the way the manufacturer set up the install program.

2. Ok - first, if you do not have the hardware and you try to install a driver - many times the driver software will say the hardware isn't there and give you a chance to cancel the installation. Secondly, if you did install a driver for a piece of hardware that isn't there - the system will ignore it. The reason it ignores it is because there isn't anything asking for that piece of software to be installed.

2a. Ok - let's say that someone installed a particular driver by forcing the system to install it and somehow that person managed to get the system to display something as if that piece of hardware were actually a part of the system. The thing to do here is to just tell the system to: 1)Uninstall the software, and 2)Remove the hardware from the system. Both of these actions can be accomplished by right-clicking on the "My Computer" icon and selecting "Properties". Once the dialog has come up just select the "Hardware" tab and then the "Device Manager" button. Find the hardware in the tree list, right-click->Properties on the hardware, click on the "Driver" tab and then the "Uninstall" button. Once the software has been uninstalled you can close that dialog, go back to the tree list, right-click on the device and tell the system to uninstall the device.

2b. At no time should you have to physically remove anything. All devices since about 1996 are able to talk to the OS and tell it what kind of a driver it needs. So all installation of drivers is done via software.

2c. Rollback. Yes, you can try doing a rollback - however, I have found that doing the uninstall and then reinstall works better (for me) than doing a rollback. Unknown why, but before doing anything else, always have your base drivers at hand (if you have them that is). Remember that the first place to look for drivers for your hardware is at your hardware manufacturer's location. So if you bought a Dell - go to http://www.dell.com first. If you bought an HP - http://www.hp.com, and so on. Download ALL of the drivers for your system and make a copy on a CD, DVD, SD Card, external HD, or someplace other than the computer you are going to update drivers on. This is a "Just in case" scenario. I also recommend putting everything into the same folder names as what is used on the website. THEN use Device Doctor to find the updates. If, like me, you don't have any choice (because I reverted to XP from System 7) then the only thing you can do is to use Device Doctor.

3. You never have to roll your entire system back to an earlier state UNLESS the driver in some way, shape, or form causes your entire system to croak. Otherwise, try the rollback if you want or do the uninstall/reinstall for that one device.

Notes: Device Doctor will, sometimes, pick the wrong driver for a given device. The reasons are many and varied but usually come down to a manufacturer making their device say it is another device. They do this to make their devices compatible with other devices. Similar to how Intel makes graphic chips but then makes them say they are ATI chips so programs that are looking for ATI chips only will be fooled into thinking the Intel chips are ATI chips. Unfortunately, then sometimes ATI drivers think it is an ATI chip too when it isn't and they try to install and run the graphics chips. (I've had this happen a couple of times.) In these cases, it is the intelligence of the person sitting at the computer that has to come in to play. Although ATI software NOW will stop the install if there isn't an actual ATI chip there - it used to be that I had to go "I don't think I've got an ATI graphics chip in my computer" and I'd stop, go to Device Manager, and look. Luckily now, ATI has modified its software to recognize that the Intel chipset is just trying to emulate an ATI graphics card and it doesn't even ask - it just dumps you out of trying to install the ATI software. So what am I saying? I'm saying use common sense. Although the Device Manager is not a wealth of information about what all is installed in your computer - it can help you identify what is there. There are also other programs out there that are engineered to ONLY tell you what all is installed on your system. Most of these programs are free too. So go get one first, run it, and print out (or PDF it) so you know what hardware is on your system. Then, when you run Device Doctor you will know immediately if it got the right driver for your system.

I hope this helps. :-)

Mark

ComputerGuy85 · 07-11-2011, 07:06 AM

Thanks! So on the free version if Device Doctor lists all the drivers you need, and you click the download button, then you click the install button after it downloads, it completely installs the driver and you're set to go, correct? And I recently downloaded and installed many drivers and then when my computer rebooted and I ran device doctor, there was one driver that I thought I already installed and it showed up on the scan again. But when I checked the driver version, and compared it to the one in the driver list in device manager, it was the same version. So I know I installed the driver correctly but why is device doctor listing it again? And finally I noticed on my :C/ drive, there was a folder called "drivers" is that where device doctor places the downloaded files? If so, can I delete the contents of that folder after I install the drivers successfully?

-Dan

(07-11-2011 01:33 AM)markem Wrote:
(07-10-2011 09:04 PM)ComputerGuy85 Wrote: Hi everyone! Its nice to see such a lively community of helpful people, I'm new to Device Doctor and had a couple questions.
Okay so first of all does Device Doctor install the drivers? Or does it just download them and you have to go into the directory and manually install it? Second of all, if it downloads a driver that doesn't suite your PC, how can you identify the exact driver that doesn't belong? Lastly, if you find the corrupt driver that doesn't match your PC, can you roll it back to the previous version? Or do you have to restore your system to an earlier state causing ALL of your newly installed drivers to rollback as well. Please help I'm very concerned about my computer!

Hey! And welcome to Device Doctor! I, like you, found it and it was simply amazing! :-) I hope it does as well for you. Here are my answers:

1. No. Device Doctor is the free version. The non-free version will do the installs for you. However, it is really easy to do a driver install. Usually you just double-click on the icon of the file you downloaded and it will install itself. You may need to reboot after an install though because once you have booted your system all drivers are then in memory and the only safe way to load the new drivers is with a reboot. So be prepared to reboot a lot sometimes and sometimes not at all. It all depends upon the way the manufacturer set up the install program.

2. Ok - first, if you do not have the hardware and you try to install a driver - many times the driver software will say the hardware isn't there and give you a chance to cancel the installation. Secondly, if you did install a driver for a piece of hardware that isn't there - the system will ignore it. The reason it ignores it is because there isn't anything asking for that piece of software to be installed.

2a. Ok - let's say that someone installed a particular driver by forcing the system to install it and somehow that person managed to get the system to display something as if that piece of hardware were actually a part of the system. The thing to do here is to just tell the system to: 1)Uninstall the software, and 2)Remove the hardware from the system. Both of these actions can be accomplished by right-clicking on the "My Computer" icon and selecting "Properties". Once the dialog has come up just select the "Hardware" tab and then the "Device Manager" button. Find the hardware in the tree list, right-click->Properties on the hardware, click on the "Driver" tab and then the "Uninstall" button. Once the software has been uninstalled you can close that dialog, go back to the tree list, right-click on the device and tell the system to uninstall the device.

2b. At no time should you have to physically remove anything. All devices since about 1996 are able to talk to the OS and tell it what kind of a driver it needs. So all installation of drivers is done via software.

2c. Rollback. Yes, you can try doing a rollback - however, I have found that doing the uninstall and then reinstall works better (for me) than doing a rollback. Unknown why, but before doing anything else, always have your base drivers at hand (if you have them that is). Remember that the first place to look for drivers for your hardware is at your hardware manufacturer's location. So if you bought a Dell - go to http://www.dell.com first. If you bought an HP - http://www.hp.com, and so on. Download ALL of the drivers for your system and make a copy on a CD, DVD, SD Card, external HD, or someplace other than the computer you are going to update drivers on. This is a "Just in case" scenario. I also recommend putting everything into the same folder names as what is used on the website. THEN use Device Doctor to find the updates. If, like me, you don't have any choice (because I reverted to XP from System 7) then the only thing you can do is to use Device Doctor.

3. You never have to roll your entire system back to an earlier state UNLESS the driver in some way, shape, or form causes your entire system to croak. Otherwise, try the rollback if you want or do the uninstall/reinstall for that one device.

Notes: Device Doctor will, sometimes, pick the wrong driver for a given device. The reasons are many and varied but usually come down to a manufacturer making their device say it is another device. They do this to make their devices compatible with other devices. Similar to how Intel makes graphic chips but then makes them say they are ATI chips so programs that are looking for ATI chips only will be fooled into thinking the Intel chips are ATI chips. Unfortunately, then sometimes ATI drivers think it is an ATI chip too when it isn't and they try to install and run the graphics chips. (I've had this happen a couple of times.) In these cases, it is the intelligence of the person sitting at the computer that has to come in to play. Although ATI software NOW will stop the install if there isn't an actual ATI chip there - it used to be that I had to go "I don't think I've got an ATI graphics chip in my computer" and I'd stop, go to Device Manager, and look. Luckily now, ATI has modified its software to recognize that the Intel chipset is just trying to emulate an ATI graphics card and it doesn't even ask - it just dumps you out of trying to install the ATI software. So what am I saying? I'm saying use common sense. Although the Device Manager is not a wealth of information about what all is installed in your computer - it can help you identify what is there. There are also other programs out there that are engineered to ONLY tell you what all is installed on your system. Most of these programs are free too. So go get one first, run it, and print out (or PDF it) so you know what hardware is on your system. Then, when you run Device Doctor you will know immediately if it got the right driver for your system.

I hope this helps. :-)

Mark

**Thomas** · 07-11-2011, 08:39 AM

Hi Dan,

actually Device Doctor only has free version, there are no paid versions, though there are kind people like Mark (markem) who donated to help with the costs involved.

> Second of all, if it downloads a driver that doesn't suite your PC, how can you identify the exact driver that doesn't belong? Lastly, if you find the corrupt
> driver that doesn't match your PC, can you roll it back to the previous version?

As for the roll-back, please check the end of the FAQ at http://www.devicedoctor.com/device-doctor-faq.php

Yes you can delete the content of Drivers folder after installation.

Hard to say why exactly the driver is still showing up after it was installed, but unless you have some particular problem with your computer that you need to have solved and believe this driver is part of it, I'd suggest to ignore the issue, it wouldn't probably be worth of the troubleshooting involved, it might happen due to a number of reasons.

ComputerGuy85 · 07-11-2011, 12:50 PM

Thanks but on my C drive, I have a folder thats just Drivers, then I have a folder called downloads which leads to yet another folder called drivers. Which one can I delete after installation and which one should I leave?

(07-11-2011 08:39 AM)Thomas Wrote: Hi Dan,

actually Device Doctor only has free version, there are no paid versions, though there are kind people like Mark (markem) who donated to help with the costs involved.

> Second of all, if it downloads a driver that doesn't suite your PC, how can you identify the exact driver that doesn't belong? Lastly, if you find the corrupt
> driver that doesn't match your PC, can you roll it back to the previous version?

As for the roll-back, please check the end of the FAQ at http://www.devicedoctor.com/device-doctor-faq.php

Yes you can delete the content of Drivers folder after installation.

Hard to say why exactly the driver is still showing up after it was installed, but unless you have some particular problem with your computer that you need to have solved and believe this driver is part of it, I'd suggest to ignore the issue, it wouldn't probably be worth of the troubleshooting involved, it might happen due to a number of reasons.

**Thomas** · (This post was last modified: 07-12-2011 08:54 AM by Thomas.)

I'm sorry I can't check this at this very moment, with older versions or with portable version the downloads were to your regular download folder.
With the new version however you can click Download History link in the top right corner of the program window, to see the file names involved, from that you can find out which files to delete. (From that you can also find out which folder is used.)