XP Drivers

1. Check the device manufacturer’s web site for the most current drivers available for your hardware. Note: Many drivers come packaged with software that automatically installs the driver. The manufacturer’s website will tell you if the driver download is packaged this way and if so, the steps below aren’t usually necessary.
2. Open Device Manager
3. Locate the hardware device you wish to update drivers for.Click on the [+] icon to expand the categories.
4. After finding the hardware you’re updating drivers for, right click on the hardware’s name or icon and choose Properties. In this Properties window, click the Driver tab.

5. Click the Update Driver… button. The Hardware Update Wizard will begin.

6. Click the No, not this time button and then click the Next > button. When asked “Can Windows connect to Windows Update to search for software?”
7. Choose the Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) button and then click the Next > button. When asked What do you want the wizard to do?” The next window that appears will be the Please choose your search and installation options. window containing several buttons and checkboxes.
8. Choose the Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install button and then click the Next > button.
9. Click the Have Disk… button on the Select the device driver you want to install for this hardware. window.
10. Click the Browse… button on the Install From Disk dialog box that appeared.
11. Click the INF file that displays in the file list and click the Open button.
12. Click the OK button back on the Install From Disk dialog box.
13. Choose the newly added hardware back on the Select the device driver you want to install for this hardware. window and then click the Next > button.

    If you’re prompted with a message warning you about the software for the hardware device not passing the Windows Logo testing, click the Continue Anyway button. Many drivers are not Windows certified but are still perfectly safe to install. (If you’re installing a driver obtained from anywhere other than the manufacturer of the hardware, click the STOP Installation button instead and obtain drivers from the manufacturer directly.)

14. The Hardware Update Wizard will now use the instructions provided in the INF file from Step 11 to install the updated drivers for your hardware. Follow any additional instructions on screen to complete the driver update.
15. After the driver update is complete, click Yes to the “Do you want to restart your computer now?” question on System Settings Change and other important areas of your computer. Restarting your machine is a good way to confirm that updating drivers hasn’t negatively impacted some other area of Windows. dialog box. Not all driver updates require a restart of your computer. Even if you’re not prompted, I always recommend restarting anyway. The driver update process involves changes to the Windows Registry (If a driver update causes an issue, you can always roll back the driver)
    

Need drivers for your digital camera? (If you want to download the pictures from your digital camera to save, print or email, you first need to install the drivers onto your  computer.) The drivers that you need usually come in the original camera box on a CD. You can also download them from your camera manufacturer’s web site.

To get the pictures off your camera, either take the memory card out of your camera and plug it into a card reader, or plug your camera into your computer using a USB cable. Most of the CDs that are included in your camera package also include an editing software and also a digital photo album.

Click Here for a list of popular digital camera manufacturers and the links to their driver download pages.

Are you confused about drivers? Do you have a device that keeps throwing errors or restarting itself? Ready to pull your hair out? Here are some tips on how to find the best drivers for your hardware.

Usually, the best drivers are found on the manufacturer’s website. Find the support page of the manufacturer’s web site. Most manufacturer’s will have a button for drivers and updates. Search for your device name/model number and the website will list drivers/updates available for you to download. If after downloading and installing the driver you continue to have problems, try sending the manufacturer an e-mail detailing the issues you are having. Many updates are developed because of user complaints.

If your hardware is fairly old, the manufacturer might not have the drivers for it in their database of drivers. Try searching the Internet for different websites that have drivers available for download. Include your device manufacturer’s name and model number, and you might find other people posting comments on message boards about what issues/fixes they have found for the same device.

Downloading the latest drivers for your device usually solves the problem. However, there are cases in which the driver will not work. Even a driver from the manufacturer’s website might not work (on rare occasions). You can try to roll back the driver to an older version. Sometimes it won’t have all the new features, but at least your device might work. Are you hesitant to try the older version of your driver? Newer doesn’t necessarily mean better, the best driver is the one your hardware performs best with! Again, try searching the Internet for message boards to see what other people have experienced.

Sometimes you will encounter a problem because the driver files are corrupted. You can solve this by just reinstalling the driver. (It isn’t necessary to upgrade or roll back your driver.) Errors can also be caused by faulty hardware installation. Hardware drivers from the manufacturer’s website should be trusted and preferred over drivers picked randomly off the Web!

Here is a list of popular digital camera manufacturers. Click on the link for their driver download page.

Sony -http://esupport.sony.com/perl/select-system.pl

Canon -http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=DownloadIndexAct

Nikon -http://www.nikonusa.com/Service-And-Support/Download-Center.page

Fujifilm -http://www.fujifilm.com/support/download/

Minolta -http://ca.konicaminolta.com/support/americas/index.html

Pentax -http://www.pentaximaging.com/support/manuals-and-literature/

Olympus -http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_downloads.asp?id=1

HP – http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html

Casio -http://support.casio.com/download.php?cid=001&pid=145&rgn=1

GE – http://www.general-imaging.com/us/supportDetail.aspx?id=435

The “Microsoft UAA Bus driver for High Definition Audio” needs to be installed for you to use your PC’s High Definition audio feature.

To find out if it is working correctly, follow these steps:

Click Start, then Right Click on My Computer

Click on Properties then click on the Hardware tab. Next click on the Device Manager button

Towards the bottom of the list,you should see a heading called "System devices". Click the plus sign next to it to expand more listings. Look for a line that says "Microsoft UAA Bus driver for High Definition Audio"

If you see a yellow exclamation mark ( ) next to the ‘Microsoft UAA Bus driver for High Definition Audio’ listing, then there is a problem affecting the UAA Bus driver on your system. To fix the issue, first try installing Windows XP Service Pack 3.

If installing Windows XP Service Pack didn’t correct the issue, or you are using Windows XP Service Pack 1 or 2, Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003, then you will need to download a special Microsoft UAA Bus driver update (see related links, above, for the download link) and restart your system.

After installing the patch, go back to the Device Manager and check the status of your Microsoft UAA Bus Driver. If the Microsoft UAA Bus driver has appeared without the yellow symbol (pictured right), you should now be ready for the next step of installing the High Definition audio driver. You need to first determine which High Definition audio controller is on your system, then visit the manufacturer’s site for an update or for further instructions. To check the status of the audio driver on your system, open the Device Manager again and click on the heading ‘Sound Video and Game controllers.’ Once again, a yellow exclamation mark means there is a problem and it’s time to hit the Troubleshoot button or download a new driver.

If you are still experiencing issues after downloading the drivers, (remember you need to restart your computer), go back to the Device Manager, right click on the ‘Microsoft UAA Bus driver for High Definition Audio’ entry and select Properties. Click on the ‘Troubleshoot’ button and follow the prompts. In most cases this will help find a solution. Alternatively, right-click and select ‘Update driver’ while your computer is connected to the Internet.

A driver is a small file that helps a computer communicate with a certain hardware device. (Such as audio/video controllers, printers, scanners, etc.) It contains information the computer needs to recognize and control the device. In Windows-based PCs, a driver is often packaged as a dynamic link library, or .dll file.

Most driver errors occur because:

• They are incompatible with the operating system
• There is a missing or busy resource
• There is something corrupt in the driver or the operating system component causing buffer errors in the system
• The driver is poorly designed with low frame rates which can reduce your system stability and performance
• The registry entries may be corrupt or incorrect (Click here to run a free registry scan)

Here are some examples of common driver errors, generated due to a missing or damaged driver file.

STOP: 0xc0000221 [Unable to load device driver] DriverName

STOP: 0xc000026C [Unable to load device driver] DriverName

STOP: 0xc0000221. Bad image check sum, the image NV4_disp.dll is possibly corrupt. The header check sum does not match the computed check sum.

Most often, the error message won’t indicate the cause of the problem. You’ll have to isolate the problem by checking the device settings.

To check your device settings, follow the instructions below:

Click on the Start menu, then right click on My Computer

Click on Properties, then click on the Hardware tab. Next Click on Device Manager. The Device Manager provides you with information related to devices installed on your system. You can browse through various component categories to identify the device with conflicts. Double-clicking the problematic device will enable you to open a new dialog box that will give you information related to the nature of the problem.

Most hardware problems are due to a faulty device driver. To fix these problems, you can choose to upgrade to a new driver version, rollback to an older version, or reinstall the device driver. You can also use the recovery console to replace the corrupt driver file with the original file.

To reinstall the driver, open Device Manager and navigate to the hardware you need to reinstall. Right-click the device and select the Uninstall. Next, select OK and then Yes to restart your computer. When you restart your computer, your Windows system will automatically detect the hardware and attempt to install the driver for it.

To upgrade the driver for your hardware, click here to run a free scan, then download the updated driver. Install the driver software and restart your computer.

To rollback a driver to a previous version, first identify the hardware in the Device Manager window. Next, right-click the hardware and select Properties. In the properties dialog box of the hardware, select the Driver tab, and finally click the Roll Back Driver button to restore the previously installed driver.

If all else fails, restart your computer with the Windows XP CD-ROM and select ‘R’ from the Welcome to Setup screen to open the Recovery Console. Login using the administrator password and run the command “cd windows\system32\drivers”. Next, rename the damaged driver file by running the “ren DriverName.sys DriverName.bak”. Now copy the original driver file from the Windows XP CD-ROM to the Drivers folder by running the command ‘copy CD-Drive:\i386 DriverName‘. Finally, exit the recovery console and restart the system.

If none of the above suggestions fix the problem, you might have to reinstall or replace the hardware. If the errors still persist, then you might need to restore or reinstall the operating system.

You can also  scan your system registry using a reliable registry cleaner software. This software helps you to eliminating unwanted and corrupt entries from the registry, thereby enabling you to prevent the occurrence of frequent errors on your PC.

HP Printer not working? Drivers missing? Software update needed?

To update your HP Printer drivers or software, follow these easy steps:

Click Here to go to HP’s driver update page. Follow the steps to identify your printer.

Select your operating system

Now you will see a list of drivers available for download. Also, if there are software updates you can download them from this page as well.

By clicking on one of the links, you are redirected to a webpage that explains (in most of the cases) what the software products is designed to do. That page contains the actual download link.

By clicking on the download link, a download window appears. Then choose a location where to save the file to. (I suggest creating a separate folder, name it after your printer and burn it on a CD later (it will save you from repeating this process whenever you format your hard drive or install a new version of Windows). After you have saved the file, go to that location, and double click it. It will bring up a warning window and you choose to run or cancel it. (Since we know it is downloaded from the manufacturer’s official website, it does not contain any viruses, spyware, or adware.) Click Run: and follow the prompts.

Is your Xerox printer not working? Missing Drivers? Does your software need to be updated?

To update your Xerox printer drivers or software, follow these easy steps:

Click Here to go to the Xerox driver update page. Follow the steps to identify your printer.

After you have selected your device, you will be directed to a screen that has information pertinent to your device. You can download the drivers and from this page, as well as any software updates the device might need.

Save the download to your computer and double click on it to run. Follow the screen prompts.

Here is a list of popular printer manufacturers. Click on the link for their driver download page.

HP – http://www.hp.com/#Support

Canon – http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=SupportIndexAct

Brother – http://www.brother-usa.com/downloads/default.aspx?ProductGroupID=1&WT.cg_n=Support&WT.cg_s=Downloads

Lexmark – http://support.lexmark.com/index?page=home&locale=EN&userlocale=EN_US&segment=DOWNLOAD

Dell - http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&ServiceTag=&SystemID=DIMENSION%201000&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=

Fujitsu – http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/peripherals/printers/support/downloads.html

Epson – http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/SupportIndex.jsp

IBM – http://www.ibm.com/support/us/en/

Konica Minolta - http://kmbs.konicaminolta.us/content/support/supporthome.html

Kyocera – http://usa.kyoceramita.com/americas/jsp/Kyocera/download_center.jsp

Olympus – http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_downloads.asp?id=94

Panasonic – http://www.panasonic.com/Business/office/support-downloads.asp

Xerox – http://www.support.xerox.com/go/prodselect.asp?Xlang=en_US&metrics=HDR

Drivers are crucial for your computer and devices to work right. If your device isn’t working right, you might try to reinstall the driver.

To reinstall a device driver, follow the steps below:

• Log on to your computer as an administrator
• Click Start, right-click My Computer, and click Manage
• Under System Tools, click Device Manager
• In the right pane, expand any of the categories to find the hardware you need to reinstall. Right-click the device, and then click Uninstall
• In the Confirm Device Removal dialog box, click the OK button
• If you see a message asking if you want to restart your computer, click Yes. You can also manually restart your computer

After the restart, Windows should automatically detect and reinstall the hardware.