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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