Last week, Nvidia indicated that users of its GeForce graphics cards should remove drivers contained in package 196.75 that may cause the host computer to overheat and crash. The company has instructed users to install package 197.13, which rectifies the overheating issue. Alternately, users can revert to 196.21, the previous driver release. The driver problem affects Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP users who have the GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, and 300 series desktop GPUs and Ion desktop GPUs.

Driver Maintenance Is Critical

Maintaining drivers for Windows is a critical function and the Nvidia problem illustrates how important it can be for users to keep their driver packages up-to-date. In this particular case, an overheating condition can cause damage to other system components. Some Nvidia users reported difficulty with their automatic fan speed controls. Other users reported that Windows games would hang on computers where the faulty driver update had been applied.

With a driver management software package like Driver Detective, there is no long arc to figure out that you have a driver problem, and no delay in applying the updated driver. Driver Detective searches out new drivers automatically and downloads and installs updates as they are released from the manufacturer. Driver Detective can help you avoid critical problems with your hardware and operating system software.

The alternative to using driver management software isn’t pretty. For each hardware item installed into or attached externally to your computer, you’ll need to seek driver updates manually. This means that you’ll need to go to each manufacturer’s Web site and seek out new drivers, or ask Windows to check for updates. When an update is found, you’ll need to download and install the driver update manually. This kind of maintenance can waste a lot of time, and it isn’t foolproof.

You can also set up Windows to download and install drivers as “critical updates.” Unfortunately, this method isn’t foolproof either, as Windows sometimes selects the incorrect driver, or fails to identify important driver updates. That doesn’t happen with Driver Detective. Driver Detective locates, downloads and installs the correct driver for your computer setup. It also backs up the drivers it has installed. This is important because Driver Detective can immediately tell if a driver has become corrupted and will replace the faulty driver immediately.

Driver Detective is a great way to keep your PC maintained and make sure your computer’s drivers are always up-to-date.

Photo Credit: Kecko, via Flickr

Diagnosing and solving driver problems can occupy a lot of time, and if you don’t know much about your computer, the task can seem monumental. Nonetheless, some people are naturally interested in what makes their computers tick.

Driver Problem Troubleshooting Tools

Unless you want to go hard-core on your driver problems, there are only a few tools you may want to put in your driver-problem troubleshooting toolkit. Some of these tools will already be loaded on your computer because they come with the system. Others are worth having but you may need to find or buy them.

One free program you may want to consider is called DriverView. DriverView is a nice utility that is available for both the 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows. DriverView is nice because it helps you identify immediately which drivers belong to the operating system and which ones are third-party drivers. I’ve often found that people tend to turn off (or even remove) system drivers they don’t recognize. They do this because they don’t recognize the driver and can’t tell that it rightfully belongs where it is!

Third-party drivers can also be problematic, since sometimes old, obsolete drivers get left behind when a piece of hardware is removed or replaced. The old driver acts like a bit of a zombie, taking up resources that it doesn’t need and potentially causing conflicts with other drivers.

DriverView will provide in-depth information about each driver it finds, and will allow you to get a better picture of the drivers that are loaded, the version number and other important information. Windows does have a command-line tool called driverquery.exe, but for ease of use, I’d recommend DriverView.

DriverView won’t actually diagnose or correct problems with Windows drivers. You could take the information that DriverView gives you and do your own driver research, but I find it easier to let Driver Detective locate the latest drivers and install them. Driver Detective can also diagnose and repair corrupted or missing drivers, which makes it worth its weight in gold. The program will also remove old drivers that are no longer in use. This alone reduces the chance of driver problems because abandoned drivers don’t accumulate, waiting for an opportunity to “rise from the dead.”

Driver Detective isn’t free, but it’s well worth the money. It does a better job of finding and installing the correct drivers for your computer system.

Photo Credit: Nalilo, via Flickr