Intel has released a hardware driver update that can boost the graphics performance of some computers by more than one-third. Intel released a graphics driver update for its “Sandy Bridge” processors. According to Intel, the update will improve performance on the its 2nd generation Intel Core processors with Intel HD graphics by as much as 37% on some ultra-low voltage platforms.

Driver Updates Can Deliver Performance Improvements

Ultra-low voltage devices are usually the super-thin or compact notebooks, and have been widely used by Hewlett Packard and Samsung. According to Intel, these devices will see the most improvement, but any device with a Sandy Bridge processor will benefit from the driver update. The driver is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. The upgrade will improve playability on certain 3D games and other graphics-intensive applications.

Intel is also working on improvements to its processor architecture and expects to release its Ivy Bridge processor early next year. The Ivy Bridge processor will be optimized to handle multiple 4K HD video, among other things.

The driver update is a good reminder that routine driver maintenance can deliver more than just patches, fixes and stability to an existing driver. Users sometimes take driver updates for granted, assuming that the updates are offered to “fix” problems. When everything is working, there’s little incentive to update a driver.
In this case, users can experience a significant performance boost just by updating a driver. Updating drivers isn’t hard work, but it can take a lot of time. If you know a driver update is waiting, you can download it, or in some cases Windows will download it for you.

If you apply the update and for some reason don’t like it, you’ll need to go back to the manufacturer’s site to download the older version of the driver and re-install it. Driver management software like Driver Detective will enable you to roll back from a driver update without all of the fuss. Driver Detective keeps backup copies of the current driver and provides rollback capabilities if the new driver application doesn’t work as you would like it to.

In addition, Driver Detective will go out and find new driver updates, so you don’t have to worry about missing out on performance boosts, patches and fixes again. Driver Detective is easy to load, easy to configure and easy to use. Download your copy today and find out why more than 1,000,000 users have turned over their driver management to Driver Detective.

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The wraps have been taken off Windows 8 (for awhile at least) at the Microsoft Build conference. The event is designed to introduce developers to Windows 8 in advance of the operating system’s official release, likely in 2012. The current beta version of Windows 8 gives a little preview of what users can expect in terms of the look and feel of the product, the role of Windows hardware drivers as well as some of the new baked-in security features.

Windows 8 Still Has Device Drivers

It’s unlikely that Windows hardware drivers will go away anytime soon, and Windows 8 confirms that. There’s still a lot of work to be done in terms of having operable drivers, but that’s one reason the Windows 8 beta has been handed over to developers a year or more before it’s consumer release.

Windows 8 is clearly focused on mobile computing, touch screen support and mobile devices will be right at home with the newest version of Windows. That doesn’t mean that the desktop crowd will be short-changed, however. Windows 8 will still provide exceptional support to office-based computers.

There are no plans to dump the good work that Windows 7 has done, so that means Windows 8 will be more like an extension of the current Windows OS rather than a forklift replacement. Windows 8 does support Adobe Flash, sort of; initially, there was some concern that Flash support would be excluded altogether. Not quite the case, but W8 won’t support plug-ins for IE10.

If you want to view plug-in content, Windows 8 will help you out. If you want to run Flash content, you’ll need to run an older version of the OS with plug-in support. It’s not a compromise that’s bound to make a lot of people happy, but many observers speculate that Flash is on its last legs anyway. HTML5 provides a much more attractive (and Flash-free) viewing alternative for the user. Apple has already dumped Flash support on mobile devices like the iPhone and the iPad.

From the advertiser’s perspective, HTML5 can deliver ad support without the need for Flash. Microsoft feels comfortable in deprecating its support for Flash on mobile devices because a viable alternative already exists in the marketplace, and that alternative is being used significantly.

Security is also being taken seriously in the new Windows 8 build. All boot components must reauthenticate each time the system is booted, and if a discrepancy is noted, the system automatically goes into the Windows Recovery Environment. This alone will make it much harder for rootkits, viruses and other nasties to take up residence on a mobile (or stationary) device running Windows 8.

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By all accounts, Intel had been planning to launch its latest processor platforms for both laptops and netbooks in September, but new reports suggest that Intel’s third-generation Atom chipsets did not achieve Windows 7 certification on schedule. The revised release estimate for the Cedar Trail M and Atom chipsets is November. The holdup surrounds the platform’s graphics drivers.

Thinner Notebooks Kept Waiting

Netbook manufacturers that planned to Cedar Trail, will need to wait until the chipset achieves Microsoft’s Windows 7 certification, which may not occur until October or later. The new netbook chipsets are reportedly smaller and more efficient. The change in design will allow manufacturers to jettison the cooling fan, and offer a battery life of about 10 hours.

The Atom, Intel’s netbook and mobile device platform, was first introduced in 2008. The newest version of the chipset will offer Blu-Ray support, Fast Boot, HDMI and DisplayPort output options, Intel Wireless Music and Wireless Display, PC Sync and more. The new chipset could make netbooks (as well as other platforms) much more attractive and versatile.

There’s no indication that the delay in certification will cause delays for Intel’s next chipset release, the Medfield, which offers a system-on-a-chip (SoC) design, or the Clover Trail chip, which is expected in the second half of 2012. The Medfield is currently expected to hit the market in the first half of 2012.

For such a media-intensive chip, the failure of the graphics drivers to pass certification requirements is significant. Intel will no doubt redouble its efforts to bring the chipset to market before the end of 2011. How problematic the certification delay is remains to be seen.

Netbooks were an almost instant hit when they were first introduced to the market, but consumers have turned their attentions to tablet computers. The delay of an updated Cedar Trail netbook platform by sixty days may not put a significant dent in sales or consumer interest in new netbook products.

The Atom, however, is designed to support mobile devices, and its absence or delay could put a crimp in the plans of a wide range of mobile device manufacturers. The delay could mean reduced holiday availability of new mobile devices, something both manufacturers and retailers would prefer not to miss. Nonetheless, Windows 7 certification is exceptionally important for Microsoft, since the company is pinning future OS development on the Vista/Windows 7 platform.

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Your computer may perform flawlessly for weeks or months. It’s a circumstance that every computer user appreciates. For some mysterious reason, however, your computer may suddenly start to misbehave in some very strange ways. For example, your computer may no longer be able to detect a USB device that’s plugged into it. Or it can detect the device, but can’t access it. Plugging the device into another computer reveals that the device works just fine. So what gives? Hardware driver problems can cause a raft of strange symptoms ranging from the Device Manager failing to recognize a device, to unusual device behavior, to system crashes and more.

Detecting Hardware Driver Failure

At its core, a device driver is a piece of program code. Like any other program code on your computer, your driver code can get fouled up. System crashes have unpredictable effects on your computer, and may result in the loss of data from the hard disk, or a corruption of the existing data that renders a device driver unusable.

The first step is to divide the problem in half. When symptoms first start to appear, you need to decide whether the device or the computer is having trouble. If you can plug the device in question into a different system and determine that it’s working properly, you’re one step closer to the problem, and you know that you should focus your troubleshooting efforts on the computer.

If the computer crashes when you attempt to access the device, or it doesn’t recognize the device when you plug it in, my first step would be to open the Device Manager and verify that the driver is loaded. If it is, but the device is still unrecognized, unload the driver and replace it. Be sure to download and install the latest version of the device driver. Drivers are usually available on the support Web site operated by the device manufacturer.

If the device starts to work after you’ve replaced the driver, you can be fairly confident that the device driver was at fault. The driver could have been corrupted or rendered obsolete by an operating system upgrade or patch.

If replacing the driver doesn’t correct the problem, you may have additional difficulties that you’ll need to correct before you can get back to work. Run the available system diagnostics to check for corruptions in the operating system that may be preventing your device from working properly. If you find issues using one of the disk scanning/repair tools, fix whatever you’ve found and try reloading the device driver again. You might also consider using driver management software like Driver Detective to monitor and maintain your hardware drivers.

In most cases, this should repair the problem. In a very small number of cases, you may need to take more drastic measures like reloading the OS, but this should be considered only as a last resort.

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