Service Pack Won't Load? Check Your Drivers

Drivers Can Cause Installation Failures

When this kind of failure happens, you can roll back the OS to its previous state easily enough, but how do you solve the problem of updating when the SP won’t load? There are several prime suspects when you get this kind of error, but one of the most common reason for service pack installation failures is the drivers loaded onto the computer.

A good prophylactic step is to review all of your Windows drivers. Remove the drivers you’re no longer using and update all drivers you are using to their active revision level. Drivers – either those too old or those unused – can interfere with operating system updates and installations for important things like service packs.

The importance of driver maintenance can’t be understated here because it can make the difference between working on a more safe, more secure and more stable OS and working on an OS that’s vulnerable to third-party attack or chronic instability.

If you can’t bear the thought of doing regular driver maintenance, and your Windows OS doesn’t seem to find all of the driver updates you need, consider a different approach to driver management. Driver Detective is a driver management software program that can maintain and monitor your system drivers for you, leaving you available to take care of more important matters.

Driver Detective has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times and has received excellent reviews from users and professionals alike. Driver Detective will download and install new driver software, remove old drivers, and maintain a local backup copy of the current driver revision. Driver Detective will save time and effort over the long run because you won’t waste your time on fruitless installations, troubleshooting and rollbacks.

Driver Detective will find and apply new updates automatically, so you don’t even need to go out looking for updates. When an update for a driver your system uses is made available, Driver Detective will find it, download it, install it, back it up and archive the old driver. You can also roll back to the older driver version if you need to. Seriously, it doesn’t get any better than this!

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Solving Windows Driver Problems

Drastic Measures Are Rarely Necessary

There was a time when “blowing away” the offending drive and starting over was the preferred option, but I find that as Windows has become more complex and sophisticated, this option becomes less and less attractive. A driver, while exceptionally important, isn’t so integral to the system that a corrupted driver requires an Armageddon-style approach.

I find that avoiding Windows driver problems in the first place is my preferred method of dealing with this. But how do you avoid driver problems? Drivers can be problematic because they become corrupted or outdated, or a conflict arises between a new OS update and the existing driver. Driver problems can also arise when the wrong driver is installed as the result of a faulty update. Firmware updates can also cause driver problems. I’ve even run into issues where two “identical” computers have different revisions of a piece of hardware. Following an update, one works and the other doesn’t. Few, if any of these things are under the control of the user, right?

True, you can’t control corruptions, or OS updates, or firmware updates, and you can’t help which hardware revisions a manufacturer uses in your computer. You may or may not be able to spot a faulty installation, depending upon how well you know your system. So how do I manage this and avoid Windows driver problems? I don’t.

I rely on driver management software – specifically Driver Detective – to manage my Windows drivers. Driver Detective inventories a system, notes the correct drivers for all hardware components and then monitors and manages the drivers. If a driver becomes corrupted, Driver Detective will load a fresh copy of the driver. If a driver is accidentally (or purposely) deleted, Driver Detective will replace it. Driver Detective also monitors driver updates. When a new driver is found, Driver Detective backs up the old driver, downloads the new one, installs it and makes a copy of the new driver. If the new driver doesn’t perform as expected, or causes unanticipated problems, rolling back to the old driver is quick and easy.

I don’t worry about my drivers anymore and I don’t spend time on a Saturday checking for hardware driver updates. I let Driver Detective do the work and I enjoy my weekend!

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Solution For Simple Windows Driver Problems

Sometimes Windows Doesn’t See The Hardware Device

The improvements have been so good that it’s almost surprising today to plug in certain devices and have Windows NOT see them. One area in which users experience consistent problems, however, is with USB devices. The USB standard has undergone some changes, and more changes are on the way, but USB connections have proven to be extremely popular with users, in part because the devices are portable, reliable and they’re easy to connect.

So what happens when you plug in a USB device and Windows doesn’t see it? What are your options for correcting the problem?

USB connections are good, but they’re not foolproof. USB hubs, for example, are quite popular with users, primarily because the number of USB devices has virtually exploded, but the number of USB ports on a computer still hovers around 2 or 3! Once you plug in a USB keyboard and a USB mouse, you’re not left with a lot of extra space for your iPod, digital camera, USB printer or other devices you may want to use. Enter the USB hub. The hub allows your USB devices to share a single USB port. That’s the good part. The bad part is that USB hubs don’t often pass along all of the information Windows needs to detect a USB device properly.

If you plug in a USB device into a hub, rather than into the computer directly, and Windows can’t see it, try plugging your device directly into the USB port on the computer to see if you get better “visibility.” If so, you know that there’s a communications issue between your device, your USB hub and Windows. There may not be a neat solution to this one, other than using an available USB port on your computer.

You can also try to get the Device Manager to give you a hand by uninstalling the USB host controller. (Start > Properties>Device Manager>USB Controllers – Uninstall) Sounds dangerous, but it’s not. Once you’ve uninstalled the USB host controller, restart your computer. Windows will re-install the controller on startup and if all goes well, your devices should now be able to communicate with Windows. If it doesn’t and your hub came with a driver disc, re-install the hardware driver from the disc and you should be back in business.

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Microsoft Makes Kinect Drivers For Windows Available In SDK

Hardware Drivers Mean Everything

With the availability of the Kinect drivers, consumers should expect to see new gaming opportunities for Windows 7 applications, as well as apps that are programmed using Visual Basic/Visual Studio 2010, C++ or C#. This is good news for gamers who don’t have an Xbox 360 system but still want to take advantage of the technology. It may also be a way for Xbox 360 gamers who have the Kinect system to extend the technology to their PCs.

The availability of Kinect drivers may also open some other creative uses of the Kinect technology. For the most part, it’s designed to be a game controller, but the technology could also provide precise control for non-gaming applications. One potential might be applications that study or use human motion. The Kinect technology may also be useful for designing more realistic animations.

The availability of hardware drivers is essential to support any hardware-based technology in Windows. Keeping drivers updated and properly maintained is also important to ensure that a Windows computer system interacts reliably with the attached peripheral devices.

With third party drivers for Windows-compatible hardware, there is no predictable development or update cycle. Each manufacturer is responsible for updating and distributing its own drivers. This complicates driver maintenance because the user must continually check for new driver updates. The Windows operating system does have a way to automate driver updates, but not all manufacturers use it and not all driver updates need to be loaded.

To manage and maintain drivers, consider using a driver management program like Driver Detective. Driver Detective will monitor your system for driver updates, and will track which updates are required for your particular system. In addition, it will download, install and back up any new drivers, and keep a fresh copy available on the system in the event that the driver software becomes corrupted, or is accidentally removed.

Driver Detective also takes the drudgery out of maintaining your system. You don’t have to remember to look for updates because Driver Detective does that for you, quickly and reliably, every time. More than 1,000,000 users have downloaded and installed Driver Detective. Download your copy today!

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Microsoft Won't Touch WebGL Due To Vulnerable Video Drivers

Driver Vulnerability Risks Too Great

At the heart of the company’s concern is the fact that the WebGL approach could allow a malicious Web site to exploit a computer’s video and graphics hardware to get to system-level functions that are usually insulated from such attacks. Because of the way WebGL (and OpenGL) are designed, there is no good way to resolve the concerns. In addition, the open source nature of the WebGL development gives Microsoft additional pause.

Video and graphics drivers have never been considered a possible attack vector, and aren’t hardened the way other potentially vulnerable parts of the operating system are. Changing the way WebGL works won’t necessarily resolve the list of open issues. The problem is more related to potential vulnerabilities in the most common video and graphics drivers, which are written by third party manufacturers. Microsoft (and other browser authors that have already implemented WebGL support) don’t have enough control over driver construction to ensure that users will have a safe experience while using WebGL services. Microsoft has publicly complained that these hardware driver authors have never before been concerned about device security, so it’s unlikely that they will begin writing more secure hardware driver code as part of their WebGL support.

Microsoft has long history of dealing with security flaws and the resulting exploits. In recent versions of the operating system, the company has gone to great lengths to ensure that its operating system and component parts are safe and secure. Having made user security a significant element of its product development cycle, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the company would reject WebGL on the basis of security.

WebGL support has been built into the latest version of Firefox, Chrome and Safari, although it is not enabled by default in Safari, as it is in Firefox and Chrome. For its part, Microsoft states that it believes that WebGL will become a source of “hard-to-fix vulnerabilities.” The widespread adoption of WebGL remains to be seen. While the service is attractive to the gaming community because it provides hardware accelerated graphics for Web-based games, nagging concerns about security may see the majority of users disabling WebGL support at the browser level.

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USB 64-bit Windows Drivers For Palm/Garnet Have Arrived

Hardware Drivers Hold The Line Against Obsolescense
Enter Aceeca. Aceeca licenses the Garnet OS from ACCESS and has just released USB 64-bit drivers that will work for products that run either the Garnet OS or the Palm OS, versions 4.x or 5.x. This development now makes it possible to sync older Palm PDAs with computers running newer versions of Windows. Without the Aceeca drivers, Palm users would need to sync with a computer running a 32-bit Windows OS, like Windows XP.

Although Aceeca didn’t specifically write the driver for Palm OS products, the compatibility between the two licensed versions of the Palm OS illustrate neatly the problems that hardware users may have when manufacturers don’t make updated hardware drivers available. Users can either choose to be stuck in the past, maintaining older (sometimes non-supported) equipment and software to preserve functions, or they can find a newer (and perhaps less desirable) replacement for otherwise good, working hardware that no longer has the ability to talk to an updated computer.

Don’t assume that only older hardware finds itself in this position. Hardware manufacturers can easily decide to stop supporting even their most popular product lines. Often, the reasons are complex, but relate more to the cost of future development rather than the size of the “installed” user base. Future development can be frustrated by major changes to the primary operating systems – such as the switch from 32-bit processors to 64-bit processors.
In other cases, future development for existing products may rest on business decisions like acquisitions and mergers. It’s not unheard of for a competitor to purchase a rival to extinguish it.

In the mean time, the emergence of 64-bit drivers that work with Palm 4.x and 5.x devices is good news, at least for Palm users. Perhaps the availability of drivers will spur interest in the older Palm devices, or maybe even inspire others to produce drivers that will help re-acquaint orphaned hardware with the latest operating systems.

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New Tool Adoption Driver For Windows 7?

What Will It Take To Boost Windows Adoption?

Microsoft even took the more dramatic step of switching to signed hardware drivers for Windows 7. While Windows 7 will still boot with unsigned drivers, the process of acknowledging and accepting unsigned drivers is slow and annoying, to say the least. At the enterprise level, these concerns are minor in comparison to roll-out issues with network-friendly functions like Active Directory support, and the sheer cost of switching desktop platforms on potentially hundreds or thousands of computers – especially when the upgrade process requires a completely fresh installation.

One other speed bump appears to be that some organizations are using the opportunity to consider other options – and additional options – to enhance their computing environment. Virtual desktops, virtual applications, and remote support considerations all present an opportunity to recapture something meaningful for IT in consideration for the time and effort required to roll out Windows 7.

Migrating to Windows 7 will take more than time alone. The oldest desktops will not provide a positive user experience, although Microsoft did a notable job in making sure the hardware requirements for Windows 7 weren’t onerous.

Tools to improve the migration process have sprung up everywhere, in an effort to persuade corporations to go the Windows 7 route. These tools enable the IT Department to virtualize a Windows 7 desktop, configure it and do all of the necessary tweaks and changes, then port the entire image – complete with applications and hardware drivers – to waiting desktop clients. Once the techs restore the user data, the task of migration is done. This will significantly speed the process of moving Windows 7 to the corporate environment.

At the same time, enterprise users can add new elements to the network environment that make future rollouts and user support easier and faster to accomplish.

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Windows Drivers Required For Game Controllers

Some Game Controllers Are Must-Haves

Keep in mind that game controllers can be wired or wireless. In either case, you’ll get good gameplay results with a Windows Xbox 360 controller. The wired controller is no trick to use; it simply plugs into any open USB port on your Windows computer. You won’t really need any special drivers; your Windows PC should recognize the hardware when you plug it in.

The device should work without any additional effort on your part. In the event that your PC doesn’t recognize the game controller, or the controller doesn’t work, that probably means you don’t have the driver installed on your computer. You can download the Microsoft driver from the Microsoft Web site. Install the Windows driver as you would any other piece of software, and start playing.

If you want to use the wireless version of the Xbox 360 controller, you’ll need to do a little extra work. Your Xbox 360 has a wireless receiver built into it, but your PC probably doesn’t. You’ll need to scare up a wireless receiver that can plug into your PC. In short, this is an extra piece of hardware that you’ll need to buy. You can find them at game stores, electronic stores and online electronics/gaming retailers. These devices plug into an open USB port on your computer, just as a wired Xbox 360 controller would.

As with the wired controller, the computer should recognize the newly installed hardware and grab the correct driver. If your PC balks, you can download the driver from Microsoft. After the driver is installed, you’re still not quite ready to go. The computer will recognize the controller, but the game itself may not. You may have to configure the game for use with your Xbox 360 controller.

The application itself may provide a way to do this. Using the game interface, map the controller keys to the game functions and then you’re free to play. You may need to repeat this step with every game application you use.

If the game doesn’t provide a way to map the controller, you may need to create (or download) a special file that provides the application with instructions on how to use the controller. Each game is different, and chances are good that some helpful person has already gone through the trouble of creating this file for other, less technically inclined gamers. Do an online search for an existing controller configuration file that you can use. If you find one, download it, place it in the folder with your game files and enjoy your new gaming controller.

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A World Without Hardware Drivers? Maybe.

What Would A World Without Drivers Look Like?

If Google doesn’t plan do introduce drivers into its OS, how will it supply (and receive) information to (and from) peripherals? Google introduced its “cloud printing” plans earlier this week. The plan is to replace myriad printer drivers that are designed only to work with a specific piece of hardware with a printing infrastructure that can talk to anything from anything, anywhere, anytime.

This sounds like a dream come true for Windows PC users who have valiantly battled stubborn hardware drivers for years. But what exactly is “the Cloud” Google refers to. The applications that operate in the Chrome OS are all Web apps, which means that they don’t reside on the user’s computer in the first place. Essentially, Google will take care of getting it to the right place. The trick for Google will be to identify and deliver the print job to the user’s printer. Google does battle with the printers and users just get their stuff.

Will it work? Cloud computing isn’t new, so there’s a good bet that it will. The question for users becomes one of trust. Do you trust Google with your information? If so, then carry on. If not, you’re probably not likely to be using the Chrome OS much anyway given that you’ll be accessing all of your applications and documents on the Web.

Will the cloud approach extend to everything? That remains to be seen, but there’s no reason it couldn’t. The centralized control of hardware functions would mean less overall work for the end user, but it would also mean less overall control for those in this world who support IT.

Personally, I don’t see a major shift away from Windows anytime in the near future. Businesses simply don’t operate that quickly. I do see that Software as a Service (SaaS) may play a larger role, which may mean that users will need to get much cozier with software publishers in the not-so-distant future.

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Making A Bootable USB Drive

Not All Netbooks Are Created Equal

The major issue with netbooks is that the earliest models came pre-loaded with Windows XP and an upgrade to Windows 7 would require a clean installation – a neat trick when you don’t have a CD/DVD drive from which to boot. To be fair, you can attach an external USB CD/DVD drive to a netbook and get along just fine using the standard-issue Window 7 media.

One disadvantage of this method is that the data transfer rates between the netbook and the CD/DVD drive will be slow. Upgrading or performing a clean installation on a capable netbook may take up a lot more time than you thought it might. In fairness, reading media from any external device will seem slow. The USB stick uses faster data transfer protocols so the process moves along much faster.

One last consideration: not all BIOS support booting from USB drives or other external devices. You’ll need to go into your BIOS setup to determine whether you can boot from a USB drive. Even if your BIOS does support external booting, computers aren’t always configured to look for boot sectors on devices other than the hard disk. If yours can, you’ll need to activate this setting if it’s not already activated. You may have to change more than one BIOS setting to enable this function. You normally access the BIOS settings immediately after you turn on your computer. You’ll see a direction that says something like Press F(N) to Enter Setup. (N) will be a number. Press the corresponding “F-key” to enter your computer’s BIOS setup.

Now, down to brass tacks – making a bootable USB drive. You’ll need to start out with a USB stick that has at least 4GB of space to accommodate the Windows installation media. If you can use a dedicated stick, better for you. You’ll need to wipe the stick’s contents, so if you can’t permanently commit your USB stick to the role of being bootable, you’ll have to transfer the data you have stored on it somewhere else temporarily. You’ll also need to use a computer that’s running Windows Vista or Windows 7 and have administrator privileges to make the bootable USB stick.

1. Attach your USB drive to the computer. Select Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.
2. At the command prompt, type DISKPART. (Press enter)
3. Type LIST DISK. (Press Enter) The disk number of your USB drive will be displayed. Note this.
4. Type SELECT DISK #. (Replace # with the disk number of your USB drive, noted in Step 3.)
5. Type CLEAN (Press Enter)
6. Type CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY (Press Enter)
7. Type SELECT PARTITION 1 (Press Enter)
8. Type ACTIVE (Press Enter)
9. Type ASSIGN (Press Enter)
10. Type DETAIL DISK (Press Enter).
11. Type EXIT (Press Enter)

Note the drive letter of your DVD drive and the drive letter of your USB stick.

12. Type FORMAT #:/fs:fat32/q (# is the assigned drive letter for your USB stick. Press Enter)
Approve the warning that appears regarding the information on the USB stick (Press Y, press Enter.)

13. Enter a label name for your USB drive and press Enter.
14. Put your Windows 7 DVD into your DVD drive
15. Type xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f #:\

This command string assumes that d:\ is your DVD drive. If your DVD drive has a different letter, substitute it for d:\. Also substitute the drive letter for your USB drive for the # in the command string above.
Once the copying is finished, you should have a bootable USB drive loaded with Windows 7 media.

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