Is it possible to update drivers on a laptop? How to update drivers on a laptop? What drivers are needed for a laptop. Problems with driver installation and hardware performance

A driver is a special program that allows a PC to recognize commands from a particular device and translate them into program code, thereby ensuring the operation of the device. Equipment connected to the computer will not work correctly if a driver is not installed for it.

As a rule, a driver disk is included with the equipment when you purchase it. However, over time, the driver installed from the disk becomes outdated, as a result of which not only the equipment itself, but also the computer may not work correctly. To fix the glitch, the driver needs to be updated.

How to update drivers on a computer: two ways

You can update drivers on your PC in two ways - using standard Windows tools and using third-party programs. In the first case, the update is performed using a tool called Device Manager, which can be found in the Toolbox.

As for the second case, it must be said that today there is, of course, more than one program for updating drivers. In our article we will look at the process of updating drivers using the example of one of the most popular programs in this area - Driver Booster. This program has a number of advantages - it is free, has a simple, understandable and, most importantly, Russified interface.

How to update drivers in Windows 7 using standard system tools

As we said above, updating Windows drivers using standard system tools is carried out using the Tool Manager tool. How to find it and update using it, read the instructions below:

2. In the window that opens, opposite the word “View”, set the value to “Small icons” (upper right corner).

4. A window will appear in front of you, in which you need to select the device for which you need to update the driver - for example, we need to update the video adapter driver.

5. Right-click on the video adapter model and select “Properties”.

6. In the window that opens, select the “Driver” tab and click the “Update” button.

7. You will be offered two update options - automatic and manual. In the first case, the system will independently search for an update for the driver of this video adapter on the Internet, download it and install it, in the second, the system will search for the update only on the PC and will be able to install it only if you have previously downloaded the update yourself.

You can download the necessary driver yourself on the Internet. To do this, you will need to enter into a search engine the model of the device for which a driver is required, select a trusted site from the query results (many recommend the site driver.ru) and download the necessary driver.

8. After pressing the appropriate button, the system will start working - first it will search for programs, and then the update process will begin.

It is possible that the system will notify you that the driver of the selected device does not need to be updated. This means that you really do not need to update the driver, and the system or hardware glitch is not due to an outdated driver, but to another reason.

9. When the update is completed, restart your computer. Done - the driver is updated!

How to update drivers in Windows 7 using Driver Booster

Updating Windows drivers can be done very easily using the special Drive Booster program. How to do it? Follow the instructions below:

1. Download the program from of this resource. It will be downloaded as a single extension file.exe - double-click on it with the left mouse button, and the installation will take place automatically.

2. Launch the program - the first time you launch it, it will automatically detect which drivers are outdated and require updating.

3. When the program generates a report, you can either update all drivers at once, or carry out a selective update by unchecking those updates that you do not want to install.

4. The procedure for updating drivers takes a lot of time, and therefore, if you update many drivers at once, there is no point in sitting at your PC waiting for the process to complete, especially since the process is also resource-intensive and you will not be able to do some work normally, especially if you have a weak PC.

Note! Significant glitches and lags during the update process are quite acceptable!

5. Once the update process is complete, all you have to do is restart your PC and the program will notify you of the success of the operation.

Results

So, now you know how to update drivers on your computer and you understand that this task is quite simple. It’s up to you to decide which update method to choose. But in general, if you need to update one driver and you know which one, standard Windows tools are enough, you don’t need to download any third-party software. And if you don’t know which driver is the problem and/or want to update several drivers at once, you are, of course, better off using Driver Booster. We wish you good luck and hope everything works out for you!

Updating drivers is one of the best methods for optimizing your computer and increasing OS stability. You can update drivers in several ways: manually downloading drivers from the manufacturer’s website, using the automatic Update Center service, and using the software method of installing drivers. This will be discussed in the article.

Automatic driver updates in Windows

To automatically update drivers in Windows 7, we need to go to the “ Devices and Printers" and open " Devices". Next, look for an icon with a picture of a computer and right-click on it, and then select and click on “ Options installations devices". It looks like this:

In the tab that opens, we will need to check the box next to the inscription “ Do This automatically«.

Well, our last action will be to click on the “ Save“, and from now on our OS will independently search for the latest driver updates and install them on the computer.

Just in case, let's look at another way to semi-automatically update drivers. So, let's open " Dispatcher devices“, click on the button to update the equipment configuration.

Following this, in order, we open the tabs of all the devices on our computer that are available. Let's start with video adapters. We need to right-click on them and select “ Update drivers«.

As we see in the picture, in the next menu we need select driver search mode. If new drivers have not yet been released, or the computer installed them itself, then you will see a window with a message stating that all necessary drivers have already been installed. And if there are such drivers, the OS itself will install them.

There are times when the automatic search does not produce results at all, then we act on a different plan. We need download the necessary drivers in any possible way on the manufacturer's website, at the address that you will find in the documentation for the device being updated.

However, before downloading a file, it is better to check whether this file has digital signature. You will be surprised, but in 50% of cases there is no trace of this very signature in the drivers. If you are downloading a file from a normal (official site), then simply check the box to confirm that you agree to install a driver that does not have a digital signature.

If the driver being installed consists of only one application, then it can automatically turn on at startup installation utility, which you should launch and follow all the instructions one by one. Once the installation process is complete, you can go (optional) to “ Dispatcher devices"and see for yourself that all your updated drivers already have the latest version.

Automatic installation of drivers using programs

Sooner or later, every user faces the question of finding drivers for certain devices. Currently, there are a huge number of drivers for absolutely any device, but still the most asked questions on various forums are: “ Where to download drivers for free? And " Where to download drivers for video card (sound card)?».

Fortunately, now there are a lot of programs that really make the task of users easier, because these programs find the necessary drivers themselves, when required, and install them on our computers. To use such programs, you must have the Internet and the appropriate program installed on your computer, the installation process of which will not take you much time and will not require special knowledge. You just have to click the mouse a few times and the program will already be installed.

Let's start with the program (), probably one of the most popular programs, which became so thanks to its ease of use and, most importantly, without losing its functionality. This program is based on intelligent technologies, thanks to which in automatic mode searches for all uninstalled drivers, finds updates on the Internet and only then offers to reinstall them.

On the main window of the program you can always see a list of all drivers that are already installed and that should be installed. You do not have to update all the drivers offered by the program, because you can update only those that (in your opinion) are most needed. The program has two installation modes - manual and automatic.

The program has ability to install drivers offline. This is very convenient if you have a situation where there are no drivers for a network card and, accordingly, no Internet access. A very big plus of the program is that it Compatible with almost all operating systems and can work in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Program Carambis works as follows. At the first stage a full scan of your computer is performed to detect existing drivers and those drivers that need updating or initial installation. Following this the program downloads all the necessary drivers from the network. At the third stage the user is asked to install all required drivers.

Just like here, the user can independently choose whether to install drivers for this or that equipment, or there is no particular need for this yet. If you want to install all the drivers offered by the program, then you need to click the " Load all“, and if you need to selectively install some drivers, then download these files separately.

All drivers in the program are divided into logical groups. If there is a need to update drivers for only one device, for example, a sound card or video card, then you should select “ Video and audio devices«.

The program displays all current system characteristics, and also displays all outdated and current drivers as a percentage. In order to download drivers you will need Internet access.

For the initial settings of the program, it is best to use a function in which it will check for all available updates automatically when the OS starts. And one more thing - when the program downloads or installs updates, it does not block any other processes on your computer, so you are not limited in your actions.

Don’t be lazy to update the drivers on your computer, because today every user, with Internet access, has the opportunity to download and install absolutely free (with just a few clicks) many programs for automatically updating drivers.

Drivers are the most important specialized programs, on which the stable and full functioning of the hardware installed in the computer, as well as the operation of the operating system and all programs installed in it, especially gaming and specialized ones, directly depends. Thanks to the drivers, the operating system has the ability to correctly recognize certain devices and interact with them, which is called “in full”, making maximum use of the available hardware resources, be it a processor, video card or other device. Also, drivers (with the help of special utilities supplied with them) can provide users with access to very important additional hardware settings.

Unlike most modern software, which updates itself automatically or promptly notifies the user about the release of an updated version (via integrated messaging services), most drivers do not have an automatic update function. Each user must independently monitor the relevance of hardware drivers installed on their computer and update them promptly. There are two ways to do this correctly and correctly, which we will discuss below.

1. Update via "Device Manager"

Updating using this method is only possible in manual mode. Opening start menu. On the right side, select the option"Control Panel".

In the window that opens (in the upper right corner) we find "View" option, click on it and select the option "Small Icons". Next, among the list of elements displayed in the main window, look for "Device Manager"(tentatively located in the second row) and click on it.

In the manager window that opens, you will be presented with a list of all devices installed on your computer. Hardware for which drivers are not installed (or the installed drivers do not work correctly and the device conflicts with the system) will be marked yellow triangle with exclamation mark! You need to pay attention to them first!

To quickly update driver, right-click on the desired device and select the option "Update drivers".

In the dialog box that appears, you will be offered two search and installation options: automatic (Windows itself will try to find the required driver in Microsoft’s internal or online databases) and manual "Search for drivers on this computer". By selecting the second function, you can independently indicate to the installation wizard the folder on your hard drive where the drivers you have for the selected device are located.

The manual update and installation option is very often used in situations where the driver does not want to be installed or, in principle, cannot be installed automatically through the installer!

Also, here you can use additional option and select the required driver from the list of drivers already installed on the system, suitable for this device, or drivers compatible with it. Drivers previously installed by the user may also be located here.

In addition to this, here you can install drivers from boot disk using another additional option "Install from disk"(some computer devices require this installation option).

To complete the installation, click the button "Further" and wait for the wizard to complete. After successfully installing the driver, do not forget to restart your computer.

2. Automatic update through special utilities

Programs for searching and installing drivers Indeed, in many cases they can really help the user quickly and efficiently solve a problem of this kind. To date, quite a lot of such applications have already been created. The most popular of them: DriverMax, Driver Pack Solution and Driver Boost. We invite our users to take advantage of the latest product. However, if you are not satisfied with it in some way, you can always choose any other software by looking at this set of programs on our portal.

Or just once a month, you need to update the drivers, as new versions are released from time to time. When reinstalling Windows, most often the drivers are installed immediately, but naturally they are not so new. To update drivers There are at least two options - manual and automatic.

First option update drivers on your computer– find and download the latest versions yourself from the official websites of manufacturers. Then install them. This option is quite long and complicated. For example, to You will need to find out its manufacturer, name and series. To do this, you need to open Device Manager and look for details about your equipment there. And only then enter the corresponding query into the search engine.

This option works quite well, but it takes a long time. We find the official website, look for the Drivers section and select the appropriate driver for our equipment. Well, or, as a last resort, we can find driver on the Internet. Another option is to find and update the driver by hardware ID. We find out the ID of our, for example, video card, all in the same Device Manager, and using this ID we find the driver we need. I described in more detail how to update drivers using this method in the lesson: . But this is still too long; this manual mode is more suitable when you need to update only one or two drivers, for example, downloading updates for a video card or processor once every couple of months.

I suggest another option - use a special program for updating drivers. Such a program automatically scans the equipment, then goes to the official websites of the manufacturers and checks if there are updates for your drivers. If there are updates, then all we have to do is confirm the intention to download. You don't have to download anything yourself.

Driver update program– a great option to save yourself time and effort. It remains to decide which one to use, to study in more detail what programs exist for updating drivers, you can use any search engine and enter the appropriate phrase. I use one of the most popular ones called Driver Genius. I’ll tell you about her. You need to download and install it.

Immediately after launching, the program prompts us to update its database. This is a must do.

We are waiting for the updates to download.

When the updates are downloaded, the program will automatically open and we will see its main window. In the middle there is a big green button “Start checking”, click on it to check if it is required driver update on our computer.

The device will begin scanning and searching for the necessary drivers.

In a few seconds we will see a list of drivers that are out of date and require updating. Check all the boxes and click the “Next” button.

Now we need to download all these drivers, fortunately the driver update program will do this itself, so we won’t need to climb websites and click on links. Click the “Download all” button and wait until all drivers are downloaded.

After everything has been downloaded, you can begin installing the drivers. To do this, right-click on the driver name and select “Install” from the list that appears.

And we install the driver as a regular program, then proceed to the second and so on until everything is ready. Then we restart the computer.

The described program has one drawback - it is paid. If this bothers you, then I have a backup option for you. I recently learned about another driver update program called Driver Booster. It is free and works no worse than its paid counterparts: it automatically detects outdated drivers, installs them in one click, is fast and safe. In general, let's look at how you can update drivers in Driver Booster.

First, download the latest version of the program from the official website: http://ru.iobit.com/driver-boosterby clicking on the big green button “ Download for free».

After downloading, let's start installing it. In the first window, immediately select the item “ Custom installation» and remove the extra checkboxes.

Driver Booster is installed. We launch it and click on the large, round “Start” button.

The program will check everything and if there are updates, it will offer to download and install them.

These methods, using driver update programs, I adopted it three years ago. This method is the simplest; the search and download of drivers occurs automatically, and this is the main thing. Simplicity and convenience! Usually, users, even experienced ones, have a lot of problems when searching for drivers manually on the Internet.

So driver update programs help us out a lot. And I’ll end here, I hope that now you won’t have any problems with driver updates.

Good luck and the latest driver versions to you!

Owners of laptops, as well as owners of stationary computer terminals, sometimes need to install or update device drivers themselves, despite the fact that initially the system installs almost all of them itself. We will discuss how to update drivers on a laptop later. Several basic methods are offered for consideration that any user can use without any problems, and this applies not only to laptops. Some solutions will also be useful in the case of stationary PCs running Windows operating systems.

What drivers are needed for a laptop?

In general, if we proceed from the basic understanding that a driver is special software for managing hardware and some virtual devices, it is not difficult to guess that their installation is mandatory for absolutely all components that are included in the configuration being used.

For now, we won’t talk about virtual devices, but let’s focus on computer hardware. Actually, you can view all installed components in the standard “Device Manager”, additionally enabling the display of hidden devices. Here, with the exception of special controllers, all the hardware is presented (monitors, keyboards, touchpads, graphics, sound and network cards, cameras, additional ports, card readers and much more).

Automatic installation of drivers when installing Windows

Initially, at the operating system installation stage, all the main drivers are installed automatically by the OS itself using its own database or system updates when connected to the Internet. However, in most cases, standard (most suitable) drivers are installed, the versions of which may be out of date.

In addition, the laptop may include some devices for which the drivers contained in the installation distribution may not be available, for example, some Wi-Fi drivers. In this case, you will have to install them on the laptop yourself.

You can see that the driver for such a component is missing or installed incorrectly in the same “Device Manager”, where the non-working component will be marked with a yellow marker. You can, of course, use the update directly from here, but if you don’t have such a driver in your own database, you don’t have to try to perform such operations (it won’t give any effect anyway).

On the other hand, you can use either the original driver disk, which is required when purchasing the device, or use disk utilities like DriverPack Solution, which contain expanded databases compared to those used by Windows systems. At the same time, you don’t even need to think about which drivers to install on your laptop, since utilities of this rank install all the necessary software automatically and can even completely update drivers to the latest versions, however, provided that you have an Internet connection. Let's dwell on this separately.

How to find drivers for non-standard equipment?

Now let's see what can be done to update if the driver for some component is missing in the system database. Searching the Internet for a site to download software, asking in the search, for example, “Wi-Fi drivers for a laptop” is a thankless task.

This is understandable, because each specific component requires a specific driver version. But how can you find out exactly what this component is? To do this, you need to use the same “Device Manager”, select the desired device, use the RMB menu to call up the properties section and go to the details tab.

Here, in the drop-down menu located at the top of the window, you need to select the equipment ID, after which one or more lines containing the values ​​of VEN and DEV will be displayed in the window below. These are the very unique identifiers that allow you to accurately identify the device. If several lines appear, you need to select the longest one, copy it or write it down, and then search for drivers using these values ​​(to do this, you can use specialized sites or contact the driver developer’s resource or the laptop manufacturer’s website).

Contacting support

In general, visiting the laptop manufacturer’s website is the best solution. As a rule, such resources have a special support section where you can find and use online configuration testing tools.

This may take quite a lot of time, but in the results you will be able to see not only the main system parameters, but also an assessment of performance or energy consumption, as well as information about missing or incorrectly installed drivers. You can install or update drivers on your laptop directly on the website. In this case, a full guarantee of the device’s functionality is provided after installing the appropriate software or updates.

How to update drivers on a laptop (Windows 7) in the classic way

But in some cases, you can update the driver yourself if it becomes outdated or the device is not working. Drivers for a laptop (Windows 10, 8, 7 or any other version) can be updated from the “Device Manager”.

Via RMB, just select the item to update the device software or, using the properties menu, click on the corresponding button. However, the software will be reinstalled using the databases of the system itself. In this case, even deleting the device and re-identifying it will not help.

Problems with driver installation and hardware performance

But sometimes updating drivers on a laptop using this method turns out to be very problematic. In such a situation, if the user has downloaded and saved the updated driver on the hard drive or removable media, you should either search for drivers on this computer, or use the browse button to establish the exact location of the required software.

As already mentioned, drivers can be found through the use of identifiers. Otherwise, the system will install what it considers most relevant.

Update using special utilities

It is believed that you can update drivers on a laptop using a simpler method, which consists of using special applications to automatically search for and install driver updates.

You can use the utility described above (DriverPack Solution) or seek help from Driver Booster, Slim Drivers and the like. After the application starts, it starts an automatic scan and gives a verdict on the state of the drivers. To update, simply agree to the offer to install updates, wait for the process to complete, and restart the computer system.

Please note: since such programs access directly the websites of developers or equipment manufacturers, an uninterrupted Internet connection is required to search and install updates.

Brief summary

That, in fact, is all that concerns updating the necessary drivers for laptops. It remains to answer the last question regarding which of the proposed solutions is best to use. Perhaps many users will agree that searching for and installing updates manually is a rather labor-intensive and time-consuming process. This approach can only be used in cases where there is no Internet at home, and the search is carried out from another device and in another place. If everything is in order with the connection, in order not to suffer, the easiest way is to install some kind of automatic update utility, especially since in this case the necessary drivers will be installed and the equipment will work correctly, since initially the drivers are downloaded directly from the resources of developers and manufacturers. And virus infection is reduced to almost zero, in contrast to situations where the user downloads it independently, and even from dubious sites.