DriverDoc always recommends viewing the ReadMe before installing any driver for specific installation instructions or known issues. Readme can be found on the Driver Information window in the Driver Information tab as a link (when available) under Driver Update, alternatively it may also be found in the compressed driver installation file or driver installation directory.
If your device drivers are working fine, why upgrade to the latest driver? Examine the Readme file as mentioned above to see whether there is a compelling reason to upgrade.
A few reasons why you might want to update your drivers:
A device driver is a software program that manages communication between your computer and a hardware device. Devices like keyboards, mice, disk drives, and printers all use a software driver to interact with the operating system and other software applications.
When you buy an operating system like Microsoft Windows XP, many device drivers are built into the operating system. However, if you buy a new type of device that the operating system did not anticipate, you'll have to install a new device driver. A device driver essentially converts the more general input/output instructions of the operating system to messages that the device can understand. Learn more here [Wikipedia].
The first time you launch DriverDoc or when you select Auto Select in either the Tools or Welcome screens, a request is made to our server to identify your machine using a proprietary machine intelligence algorithm. The machine intelligence data is used during a Driver Scan to provide you the most accurate drivers for your computer.
The Auto Select IQ progress bar is a graphical representation of how well DriverDoc was able to identify your computer using machine intelligence. If you notice that only the Machine Brand or Product Line boxes are selected automatically by the Auto Select button, please select the remaining fields manually.
If your computer is custom built please select Use DriverDoc Universal Match Intelligence.
NOTE: It is always better to select all three Machine Brand, Product Line and Product Model fields to provide DriverDoc with as much information as possible about your computer for the most accurate driver recommendations.
Users with a branded computer such as a Dell™, HP™, Compaq™ or any other brand that do not find your computer listed, please use Ask DriverDoc support staff a question and send us your machine information.
You can easily get support for DriverDoc by clicking the down arrow next to Help. Registered users may ask questions about a specific device by clicking the Help icon on the Scan Result screen.
To ensure a speedy resolution, please provide us with as much information as possible about the issue you are experiencing.
All questions will be answered within 24 hours; many times questions will be answered sooner.
Ask a question
Ask a question (Device specific)
The default behavior of DriverDoc is to automatically detect a successful driver installation; however, there may be times when you want to inform DriverDoc that your driver installed successfully.
How it works
When you inform DriverDoc that your driver updated successfully by selecting Yes on the Installation Options window, your driver will report as up to date on the Scan Result screen and also on all subsequent Scans/Rescans until we publish a new driver update in our database for your device. If you leave Detect it for me selected, DriverDoc will attempt to detect the successful driver installation automatically after you perform a ReScan. You can toggle between these values for any driver at any time simply by selecting the Installation Options Icon.
Notes:
Installation Options - Successful (Driver Installation)
Installation Options - Successful (Scan Result)
DriverDoc is an industry first in providing manufacturer specific drivers for your computer. For example, if you own a Dell™ computer DriverDoc will recommend drivers specifically for your Dell™ computer.
Many of our Drivers in our newly revised database are specifically for a particular brand of computer. We still maintain all universal drivers as we always have, all of the manufacturer specific drivers are in addition to our vast collection of universal drivers.
If you own a Dell™, HP™, Compaq™ or other branded computer it is important that you select your Machine Brand, Product Line and Product Model in DriverDoc. For example, if you own a Dell™ XPS Dimension 9150, you will select Dell as the Machine Brand, XPS Dimension as the Product Line and 400/9150 as the Product Model. Alternatively you may use Auto Select.
Selecting the correct Machine Brand, Product Line and Product Model of your computer insures that DriverDoc will always recommend the correct driver for your computer. You will know DriverDoc has found a manufacturer match by a special download icon in the Scan Result screen.
Users that have a custom built computer please select Use DriverDoc Universal Match Intelligence By selecting this you are informing DriverDoc to only look for universal drivers and ignore all manufacturer specific drivers.
Users with a branded computer such as a Dell™, HP™, Compaq™ or any other brand that do not find your computer listed, please use Ask DriverDoc Support Team and send us your machine information.
Change system information (Branded computer)
Change system information (Custom built computer)
The Driver Information window provides you with everything you need to know about your device. You can easily view information about your current driver, driver update (if available), device information as well as the ability to download alternative drivers.
DriverDoc uses the best scanning technology on the planet, however there are cases where manufacturers use the same identifiers for many of their products. In these cases you will need to utilize the alternative driver tab and manually find the correct driver for your device.
DriverDoc always recommends viewing the ReadMe before installing any driver for specific installation instructions or known issues. Readme can be found on the Driver Information window in the Driver Information tab as a link (when available) under Driver Update, alternatively it may also be found in the compressed driver installation file or driver installation directory.
Driver Information provides the following key features:
View Driver Information (New Scan)
View Driver Information (History)
Downloading drivers with DriverDoc has never been easier. Downloaded drivers are automatically saved in your driver download directory which may be changed in Tools. All downloaded drivers are accessing from History.
DriverDoc always recommends viewing the ReadMe before installing any driver for specific installation instructions or known issues.Readme can be found on the Driver Information window in the Driver Information tab as a link (when available) under Driver Update, alternatively it may also be found in the compressed driver installation file or driver installation directory.
NOTE: Installing an alternative driver for a device may result in the device still showing as out of date on a subsequent scan.
Download a recommended driver
Download an alternative driver (Existing Scan)
Download an alternative driver (New Scan)
Download an alternative driver (History)
DriverDoc always recommends viewing the ReadMe before installing any driver for specific installation instructions or known issues. Readme can be found on the Driver Information window in the Driver Information tab as a link (when available) under Driver Update, alternatively it may also be found in the compressed driver installation file or driver installation directory.
Downloaded drivers will either be self-installing, self-extracting or in a compressed format (.zip, .rar, or another format). For compressed files, DriverDoc will attempt to automatically open the file with your computers default compression utility. If you do not have a compression utility associated with the file, you will be displayed an Open With window, when you see the Open With window you know that you need to download a compression utility to uncompress the file.
NOTE: Some drivers require a machine restart. driverdoc.us recommends installing one driver at a time and restarting your computer after each driver install.
The following companies have free/trial downloads for uncompression software:
Installing a Driver (New Scan)
Installing a Driver (History)
Download History is accessible by simply clicking History. All downloaded drivers are automatically saved in download History. At the beginning of each driver row you will notice an information icon, click this icon to open up the Driver Information window for the selected driver.
DriverDoc always recommends viewing the ReadMe before installing any driver for specific installation instructions or known issues. Readme can be found on the Driver Information window in the Driver Information tab as a link (when available) under Driver Update, alternatively it may also be found in the compressed driver installation file or driver installation directory.
Download History provides the following key features:
Backing up drivers
NOTE: DriverDoc may report your chipset driver as being out of date even after a chipset driver install. This is due to the fact that chipset drivers do not install any software drivers, users should install chipset drivers immediately after a fresh install of an operating system (reload scenario).
NOTE: For Intel chipset drivers follow the following steps to insure DriverDoc will report the driver as up to date:
Additional Information:
A chipset software installation utility only informs the operating system how to identify components; it does not install any drivers for your system. If DriverDoc detects the device as not having a driver you will need to install a chipset utility.
If a chipset software installation utility is required for your system, it should be installed immediately after installing your operating system and any operating system service packs, but before installing any other device drivers.
A chipset software installation utility informs the operating system how to properly configure the chipset for specific functionality, such as AGP, USB, Core PCI and ISA PnP services. In order to be able to install any chipset-related drivers (e.g. graphics, IDE, etc.), your operating system must first be able to recognize your chipset.
Once a chipset software installation utility has been installed, all of your remaining chipset-related device drivers should install correctly.
For more information on chipset software installation utilities please visit these websites:
An "Unplugged" device is any type of plug and play [Wikipedia] device that is currently not attached to your computer. Devices like cameras, MP3 players, and USB drives that are unplugged will show up in "Unplugged Devices" in the Scan Result screen.
Registered users may turn off this feature in Tools.
You may notice old hardware that has been replaced in your system in "Unplugged Devices". To fix this problem you will need to install a registry cleaner.
Communication Errors
Upgrading to the latest versions of these products will most likely alleviate the problem. As a last resort you can try to completely uninstall one of the above programs.
Explanation
These applications are inserting additional information into the data packet that is sent to our servers causing our servers to deny the request and issue a 400 Bad Request error. You should contact Norton or VCOM if you cannot remedy this situation by upgrading to the latest version of their software.
Font Errors
DriverDoc uses Arial and Microsoft Sans Serif fonts which are native to the Windows Operating System. If you are experiencing errors dealing with these fonts, please visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314960. This article will give you instructions for repairing your standard Windows fonts.
As always we are here for you, contact us anytime at: support (at) driverdoc.us
You can uninstall DriverDoc from your computer if you no longer use it or if you want to free up space on your hard disk. You can use Programs and Features to uninstall programs or to change the program's configuration by adding or removing certain options.
...After your program fixed the drivers, I haven't had anymore freezes or errors on my computer. Thank you for the service you provide...
...DriverDoc found and updated all the missing and conflicting drivers that were causing problems... the computer was running faster again with a printer that actually worked...
