Device Driver Database Resource

[ami...@afterhourscr.com]

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to post a great resource I frequently use to resolve device driver issues:

http://www.pcidatabase.com/

I've seen a lot of new client devices (desktops, laptops, tablets, etc.) over the past year and half the time our OS driver packages we're out of date. We used the database to look up the unresolved hardware devices with ease. Each device item provides the Manufacture and a description of the hardware, and a link to where you can find the driver at. The links are not always accurate, but given the Manufacture and the device type, it should be enough to get you started. 

Hope this helps! 

[Roger Hopkins]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents on this...

I love the DriverPacks project! (driverpacks.net). They collect drivers for every device imaginable and maintain packages where you can download all of them. Using their software, the DriverPacks BASE, you can integrate these drivers with your Windows Installation disks. This means that once Windows is installed, it will already have all of the drivers for your hardware preinstalled! How convenient!

But a lot of the time we have to work on systems where Windows is already installed and may have out of date drivers installed or drivers missing. That is where DriverPack Solution (drp.su) comes in! You can download all 10 gigs worth of drivers to a USB key, and with this program it will automatically check for driver upgrades and install them. This tool has saved me so much trouble and grief. I have taken computers where other techs have spent hours trying to find the correct driver for a piece of hardware and fixed the problem in a mere few minutes simply using this program! It is a lifesaver! That being said, it has other software bundled, so be careful what you click if you don't want it. You can swap out the bundled software with software that you actually want to install, so you can make an all-in-one installer USB with all of your favorite programs!

[Randy Lee]

Also, if you are updating someone's PC, the best way to make sure they have the correct drivers is to check the driver ID and google it. A lot of laptops and desktops that are the same models will still have different hardware inside of it like graphics cards and nic cards. If you open up device manager and click on the drivers in question. You can go to device manager, click on the hardware in question, right-click and select properties, click on the details tab, find the dropdown menu, select hardware ID, and copy/paste that into google to make sure your customer is getting the nvidia/amd/realtek/etc driver that is right for their computer. A basic hardware ID looks like this,

HID\VID_1038&PID_1384&REV_0108&MI_01&Col01

HID\VID_1038&PID_1384&MI_01&Col01

HID\VID_1038&UP:0001_U:0002

HID_DEVICE_SYSTEM_MOUSE

HID_DEVICE_UP:0001_U:0002

HID_DEVICE

[Stacy French199]

Driversolutions.

[Dennis Costea]

pcidatabase.com is a great resource and for the more recently manufactured devices, these are identified by the "VEN" (Vendor) and "DEV" (Device) portions of the 'Hardware Id' string. I have encountered a VERY small number of Devices not listed in the PCIdatabase.com tables and have been using it since (at least) 2006.

One small note of caution on "foreign" (non-us) Domains such as "drp.su": This Domain is the Russian Republic, formerly the Soviet Union (.su), and all Technicians should be EXTREMELY careful about using ALL non-us sourced software. There is always a chance, however small, drivers sourced from websites other than the original equipment vendor could contain "undesirable" (sleeper) code. So Drivers are very critical in terms of safety and U.S. clientele do not need an equivalent of stuxnet lying in wait on any of their systems.

Google searches such as: [laserjet 6500a site:hp.com ] will limit the returned results to only the Domain specified by the "site:" qualifier and this search technique has personally saved me hundreds of times.

(this is my 'Hello' post, I hope it helps!)