Installing Drivers

[raaman rai]

i have always wondered this things....suppose we are completely format a system and we do not know what drivers are required. Lets assume that we dont have the CD for drivers. Now i wonder how should we know which drivers are exactly required by the system. I think one option is to open the computer and find out what chipsets are there inside. But this step is quite tedious. So, what exactly i wanted to know was to have a software which would scan the system for the hardware and list the drivers required.This would really ease people like us who is not much sound with hardware knowledge. Infact i tried some softwares among which Everst Home was one of them. But i couldnt make out anything from there .i.e a yellow question mark and suggesting IRQ 10 PCI Device, which makes no sense to me.

I mean recently my friend upgraded his system and asked me to fix with the drivers. I managed to find drivers for network and graphic but couldnt find anything for audio and still what i see in the device manager is that two yellow question mark, one represents PCI Device and the other SM Bus Controller. And i dont understand what driver is demanded by this yellow question mark.

So any help in making me understand me would be nice of you all.

[Stang02GT]

You can look on the computer manufactures web site to find what drivers you will need and there is also software you can download that will determine the drivers you need and i think it even gets them and installs them for you.

[questionit]

Hi

1- You can look for your device details such as manufacturer, model no, etc and then get its driver from internet, use Google. or get driver on Cd if you can find it.

2- Run online drivers scan. There are many websites that runs online drivers scan and installs required drivers.

Qi

[Stang02GT]

Hi

1- You can look for your device details such as manufacturer, model no, etc and then get its driver from internet, use Google. or get driver on Cd if you can find it.

2- Run online drivers scan. There are many websites that runs online drivers scan and installs required drivers.

Qi

lol at least you didn't repeat what i said :)

[raaman rai]

Yes thanks 4 the ideas and i agree that would be the case if the computer is a branded one. But if it is an assembled computer, then i dont think this option would help. Well, to narrate a situation, i have run Everest Home Edition to find out what audio driver is required in my friends machine, and it shows Intel 82801GB ICH7-High Definition Audio Controller [A-1]. For this, i googled and downloaded with the driver but unfortunately, it doesnt work. So, its ridicolous...please enlighten me further.

[questionit]

Yes thanks 4 the ideas and i agree that would be the case if the computer is a branded one. But if it is an assembled computer, then i dont think this option would help. Well, to narrate a situation, i have run Everest Home Edition to find out what audio driver is required in my friends machine, and it shows Intel 82801GB ICH7-High Definition Audio Controller [A-1]. For this, i googled and downloaded with the driver but unfortunately, it doesnt work. So, its ridicolous...please enlighten me further.

Hi

Make sure you download driver for your Audio device for the same Windows that you are running i.e Windows 2000, XP, etc

One you have exhausted your right driver installation and if it still doesn't work, it could be because your audio device has a problem.

your windows might still be detecting it and prompting you to install driver for it, and even you have installed the right driver, it wouldn;t work.

So consider this also but before this try installing right driver for the windows you are running

Qi

[raaman rai]

can u give me any idea on the software u are refering to?

[questionit]

can u give me any idea on the software u are refering to?

Make sure you have the right driver. if you go onto the manufacturer's website, you can find the most appropriate driver from there.

Also, why not test your device by installing it in another PC. See it if works there with the right driver?

You can also run Windows Update, it can also find you the right driver for your device.

Let us know how it goes

Qi

[jg007]

I have to do this quite often, one understated source is microsoft update as I have often found that it picks up drivers that are not installed.

if you cannot get the drivers from here then you need to know the manufacturer that you are looking for.

what type of audio is it? is it onboard and if so is it an AMD or intel board? either way pop the side and look for the motherboard model number then google it.

if you have problems you can right click the device , go to properties and then the details tab, look for the Hardware ID's option and check the VEN id which is the hardware vendor ID and google it the ID should be something similar to

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00EA&CC_0401

this identifies the vendor as - 10DE which I can see from a quick google is realtek, once you know that it is realtek you may be able to narrow it down further with the device ID but if not you can always see if they do a multi device download

[raaman rai]

thanks buddy for your post which was completely a new finding for me.

well, still i do have a situation where if i go to the device manager, i find a yellow question mark with the device name as PCI Device and another with SM Bus Controller. Now the thing is that i dont understand what that means. I wonder what hardware is that which is demanding a driver. if the device name was for sound represented as audio device, i would understand that a sound driver is required. But as narrated, it says PCI Device and i dont understand what it is.

So any help would be appreciated.

[questionit]

thanks buddy for your post which was completely a new finding for me.

well, still i do have a situation where if i go to the device manager, i find a yellow question mark with the device name as PCI Device and another with SM Bus Controller. Now the thing is that i dont understand what that means. I wonder what hardware is that which is demanding a driver. if the device name was for sound represented as audio device, i would understand that a sound driver is required. But as narrated, it says PCI Device and i dont understand what it is.

So any help would be appreciated.

Hi

Device name with question mark means that driver for this device is not propery installed or not installed at all.

Even if it shows question mark, you can still go into its properties and then click on 'details' tab and get the vendor ID.

Hope it helps
Qi

[jg007]

thanks buddy for your post which was completely a new finding for me.

well, still i do have a situation where if i go to the device manager, i find a yellow question mark with the device name as PCI Device and another with SM Bus Controller. Now the thing is that i dont understand what that means. I wonder what hardware is that which is demanding a driver. if the device name was for sound represented as audio device, i would understand that a sound driver is required. But as narrated, it says PCI Device and i dont understand what it is.

So any help would be appreciated.

unfortunately this device is one that windows cannot currently recognise at all and as it is connected to the PCI Bus it is getting called a pci device, I would definately try going to MS update site and try an advanced update as it may well work if not try as above with the vendor ID.

[Plater]

When in doubt:
"Install every possible driver on your system"

Windows will look for "compatible" drivers for a given device. If installing the driver you think it should be doesn't make it popup on the list, install every other driver.
One of them is bound to work.


Generally though, especialy on a built system, you will want to look inside the computer at the chipsets. Keeping the packaging/materials that came with the hardware when you bought it is generally a good idea as well.