Where are people getting their drivers?

[glricht]

Earlier today I got an old Gateway ESX E4000 tower built in 2003 that a customer wanted a N&P done (Win XP Pro). There was no recovery partition and she couldn't find the CDs, so I did a normal OEM XP install and set about locating the drivers individually (video, audio, ethernet, etc). I had done an Everest report before the rebuild so I knew what the devices were originally.

Armed with PC's model and s/n, I went to the Gateway site. But it didn't recognize the PC, in fact, it didn't even have a listing for an E4000 at all! Not only were there no drivers available, there was no way to order a set of recovery CDs.

After about 2 hours and numerous searchs of Google & various manufacturer's sites, Device Manager is now clean. But what a chore!

What is everybody using as a best source (free or paid) for drivers? I saw DriverPacks mentioned in another TN post, but that appears to be for creating installation images, not for installing a specific driver.

There must be a thousand "we got your driver" sites out there, but most of them seem untrustworthy at best.

Looking for suggestions.

 

[goldmercury]

Google double driver, its a small utility that can backu all drivers on a system bfore a nuke and pave. Only thing I noticed about using it was after restoring the drivers to a clean install the sound card was not selected within the sound configuration so you have to manually go in an adjust that.

Heard about it here - saves me a lot of time

 

[edmar]

No, driverpacks is not just for creating installation images.

I use driverpacks if I'm working with a Windows XP machine. I had 99% chance of locating a missing driver using driverpacks.

I don't have that big of a success with Vista though.

When working with Windows 7, I just use the automatic update feature of 7

 

[diggauk]

+1 for DoubleDriver

And if I still have missing drivers, I get the VEN & DEV ID's from device manager, then go to http://www.pcidatabase.com for info on what driver you need.

 

[Methical]

I know this isn't pretty .. but its a script I wrote ages ago for Double Driver

@ECHO Off
if exist "DrvBackLogFile.txt" (del DrvBackLogFile.txt) > nul
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%A IN ('DATE/T') DO FOR %%B IN (%%A) DO SET Today=%%B
FOR /F "tokens=1-3 delims=/-" %%A IN ("%Today%") DO (
    SET Month=%%A
    SET Day=%%B
    SET Year=%%C
)
    IF %Month%==01 SET MonthName="January"
    IF %Month%==02 SET MonthName="February"
    IF %Month%==03 SET MonthName="March"
    IF %Month%==04 SET MonthName="April"
    IF %Month%==05 SET MonthName="May"
    IF %Month%==06 SET MonthName="June"
    IF %Month%==07 SET MonthName="July"
    IF %Month%==08 SET MonthName="August"
    IF %Month%==09 SET MonthName="September"
    IF %Month%==10 SET MonthName="October"
    IF %Month%==11 SET MonthName="November"
    IF %Month%==12 SET MonthName="December"
set bkuppath=%CD%
echo.
echo Backing up %computername% drivers..
echo Please wait ..
echo.
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 3 -w 10 > nul 
 if not exist "%systemdrive%\Drivers" mkdir "%systemdrive%\Drivers"
 Apps\DrvBK2\DrvBK.exe MODE="BACKUP" BKPATH="C:\Drivers\" BKDESC="%MonthName% %Year% Backup" BKFILE="Backup %Month%%Day%%Year% su %COMPUTERNAME%.bki" BKPATHFTM="Drivers %COMPUTERNAME%_%Month%%Day%%Year%"  OPT="AL"
xcopy C:\Drivers "Backup\Drivers" /y /s > nul
GOTO :end
:end
echo Script is Done
echo.
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 3 -w 10 > nul 
echo Returning to menu ..
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 3 -w 10 > nul 
:eof

It was released in 'Methicals Windows Script'

 

[glricht]

Thanks for the pointer to Double Driver. Played with it a bit -- looks like it would have saved me a BUNCH of time! I especially like that it will work with a non-bootable system.

@edmar - I'll have to go back and re-visit DriverPacks, didn't realize it could be used for an individual driver install.

 

[Martyn]

+1 for DoubleDriver

And if I still have missing drivers, I get the VEN & DEV ID's from device manager, then go to http://www.pcidatabase.com for info on what driver you need.

Exactly what I use. msinfo32 for the dev and ven

 

[mkeathley]

No, driverpacks is not just for creating installation images.

I use driverpacks if I'm working with a Windows XP machine. I had 99% chance of locating a missing driver using driverpacks.

I don't have that big of a success with Vista though.

When working with Windows 7, I just use the automatic update feature of 7

I've seen ppl talk about driver packs a bunch. I've dl'd them and yet have no idea how to actually use them. How can I tell what driver is for what?

 

[Kitten Kong]

Personally I would be vary wary of installing the original drivers back into the system, after a n&p, as virus(s) can be very ripe in them.

If I require a driver, which is not available on the manu's site, as above, I use www.driveragent.com

It can cost a bit, depending on how often you use it, but I've personally found it a godsend.

All the drivers are listed there, complete with direct downloads. Even if a pc has the driver installed, it will tell you if there is a updated one available.

 

[mraikes]

I've used Drivermax with good success.

 

[meanderer]

I find the driver tools to be hard to use, so I usually just go straight to the device properties and look for vendor code and device code, then get it straight from the manufacturer's site.
A bit cumbersome but still works for me so far.
The branding badges on laptops help a lot when you see VGA adapters not working on the best resolution. same with centrino and boardcom badges.

 

[meanderer]

I've seen ppl talk about driver packs a bunch. I've dl'd them and yet have no idea how to actually use them. How can I tell what driver is for what?

supposedly, you integrate them into your windows XP install disc with tools like nLite. I didn't see it working last time I tried however. Not every driver were installed, I still need to find some myself.

 

[shamrin]

I've used Drivermax with good success.

Drivermax looks interesting, how do you use it? Do you go to the website and search and download the file you need or do you use the client program?

 

[mraikes]

Drivermax looks interesting, how do you use it? Do you go to the website and search and download the file you need or do you use the client program?

It's an application you install that automatically checks for updated and (more importantly) missing drivers. It will also backup & restore existing drivers.

It works particularly well for those times you missed backing up a driver or are trying to figure out "unknown hardware".

For straight machine to same machine backup & restoration, there are more lightweight tools, but Drivermax is a good all-around solution that does that, plus really helps with unknown hardware & broken drivers.

 

[elegia]

Drivereasy or slimdrivers.

Both good. Driver easy will list all drivers and ones in red are the missing ones. But it does take a while to download each driver.

Slimdrivers is very good - after the scan it will list all the windows updates needed too, though you can ignore them if you want (only pain with that is that all the ones you want to ignore have to be checked individually.
However when downloading the drivers it will download and install each driver in turn. You will have to click through the install set up manually, but once each driver is installed slim drivers reboots the computer and will automatically begin downloading the next driver. Works pretty fast and I have had no problems so far with using it.

 

[ell]

I like DeviceDr, if that doesn't find it I just go to pci data base and google like crazy

 

[Pc Fixed Right]

isnt esx 4000 just the series of the machine and not the actual model? If so here is the gateway link I dont think they list ESX but instead list it as E-4xxx
If I am wrong than here is a better link =)

Here is another link just incase I am wrong twice lol

 

[MobileTechie]

I've been using that russian driverpacks dvd DriverPack Solution 9 Professional - the one that resets the home page to some russian search page! Other than that annoyance it does a great job of analysing the drivers, finding unknown device drivers and installing/updating them. It has a big stock of drivers on it but will also update from the driverpacks site too. Seems to solve almost all driver problems for free.

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives...re-device-drivers-for-windows-xp-vista-and-7/

 

[Pc Fixed Right]

nice find thanks .........

I can't read the captcha argh and google wont translate it

 

[gazza]

I use driverbackup 2 to backup drivers.