Dell Drivers

Working with your Dell drivers

When you first purchased your Dell computer, it likely came with several instruction booklets and a Dell recovery CD. On this recovery CD you'll find all kinds of Dell drivers. These drivers are useful when recovering from a system crash, upgrading your operating system, or troubleshooting malfunctioning hardware devices.

Because each Dell model uses different hardware configurations, you must use the recovery CD that came with your system – not your brother-in-law's or neighbor's recovery disk. For example, if your system has a Sound Blaster soundcard installed on it and your brother-in-law's Dell doesn't, his recovery CD won't have the Sound Blaster device drivers that your Dell needs.

In most cases, you're better off not using the recovery disk in the first place. Why? Because the Dell drivers that came with your computer are most likely obsolete. Hardware device manufacturers regularly update their products and issue updated drivers that enhance functionality and repair known problems and conflicts. Why install out-of-date Dell drivers when you can easily download updated drivers that will repair problems, increase performance, and add new features to your hardware devices?

Updating Dell drivers "the hard way"

Dell offers “Dell certified drivers” for many of their products on their Web site. For example, many of their NVIDIA and ATI graphics drivers are Dell certified which means that they have undergone stringent testing and have met strict requirements for compatibility and application performance.

When updating drivers on your Dell, you could go to each device manufacturer's website independently and begin searching for the appropriate drivers for each component. Doing so is time-consuming and confusing. Instead, either go to the Dell website and download drivers based on the model computer that you own or use a device driver updating software program that automatically detects all hardware on your system and located the appropriate updated driver for each device.

Where to find your Dell drivers updates

Dell's Drivers and Download site is fairly easy to use. You can search by Dell model or enter the “Service Tag” number which is found on a barcode on your computer or peripheral device. When selecting the Dell model, you'll go through a series of prompts including product family (desktop, laptop, etc), product line (Dimension, Inspiron, etc), and model number. Once you've drilled down to your model, you'll confirm it and then fill in details about the operating system, driver language, desired driver categories, and importance (recommended, urgent, or optional drivers).

Once you've narrowed your search, you'll see a list of Dell drivers that meet your criteria. From here, you can browse through each driver and download the ones that you want. You can also place several Dell drivers in an area called “My Downloads” for later downloading. This feature is similar to a shopping cart system when shopping online.

After downloading Dell drivers, you must install them. This process varies depending on how the drivers are packaged. If they are in a self-executing file, you may not need to do anything other than follow a few prompts. If not, you may need to go into Device Manager and manually install each driver.

The fastest, easiest way to manage your Dell drivers updates

The other option for obtaining the latest Dell drivers for your computer is to use software designed for updating device drivers such as DriverCure. This program is one of the easiest ways to keep your system's hardware current with the latest drivers. Simply allow the scanner to scan your system, identify its hardware devices, and search for the most current Dell drivers for each component.

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Drivers

Dell Drivers

Working with your Dell drivers

Updating Dell drivers "the hard way"

Where to find your Dell drivers updates

The fastest, easiest way to manage your Dell drivers updates