Should I update my Windows drivers manually?

There comes a time in any person’s life when you feel that your PC might need an upgrade. In which case you tend to weigh in on the priorities of what you are doing with your PC and decide, what kind of hardware you want to replace. After this choice, you can set off on a quest to upgrade your drivers. Of course, in a perfect world, new hardware works automatically and you don’t have to lift a finger. But things happen differently down here and usually, the installation of hardware signifies a series of events that will eventually lead to the inevitable question: should I update drivers manually? There are no wrong answers in this instance because it depends on the troubleshooting issue. Let’s walk through some of the most likely concerns and figure out what might be the best solution for you.

What are drivers?

In layman’s terms, drivers are computer programs that allow the communication between the operating system and other applications to interact with a hardware device. Your computer doesn’t know how to use all those features on your video card, so it needs a mediator, a translator of sorts – a so-called driver. Just like your operating system and hardware, drivers have service packs to fix the bugs and add features. Whenever you change your hardware be aware that you will need a new, updated driver to complement the new addition. Having a driver that is curated towards greater compatibility with your new hardware, enhances the overall performance of your PC.

When should I update my drivers?

First and foremost, and this cannot be stressed enough – if it’s not broken or doesn’t give you grief about any kind of incompatibility – don’t fix it! Without proper experience you are more likely to do more harm than good, so think twice before embarking on the boat to[AB7] ‘fixer island’, otherwise you might not find your way back! It’s actually safe to say that if your driver is working correctly, it’s better to leave it be. But let’s say you have a request and you desperately need the upgrade – what to do and how to deal with upgrading your drivers manually and not mess the equilibrium up – find out below!

How do I check my drivers for updates?

To find out how to update drivers in Windows 10, you should know where to find them first. When researching for troubleshooting options be sure to look for specific forum entries about your version of operating system and device. Otherwise, you might end up taking steps towards fixing a particular driver update that is ill-suited to your current situation. In order to check the driver version, use the Start Menu search box on your computer and open up Device Manager. Then, find the driver in the list, right-click on that and choose Properties. Once in that tab, you will see the version information and date on the driver tab. This is also the place where you go if you want to disable and uninstall a driver in order to re-install it again after the update to your system if need be.

How do I update my Driver?

When you’ve located the Driver in the Device Manager you can right-click on the device and choose Update Driver Software. This is the safest way to upgrade your driver using Windows 10. Upgrading your driver will probably solve all the issues that you were having (if any) and bring you up to speed with the current troubleshooting methods for the particular concern you have. If you have chosen a Windows automatic update, it will install the update right away and ask you to reboot. This should fix your issues, but in case it doesn’t, you can always roll back the driver and look for other ways to solve the complication.

What if there is a problem with my upgrade?

Let’s say your computer has been running slow lately and you’ve opted to replace some hardware to speed it up. After the installation, it might not work the same as before for many reasons. But you’ve upgraded your drives and it still doesn’t work? Hard drive errors can be fixed if you know what you’re looking for, particularly, soft or hard bad sectors.

What are bad sectors?

Hard drives are essentially tiny clusters of storage space and sometimes one of these sectors can appear to be defective or erroneous. Which means that whenever there is a process that requires the request of this particular sector, it will not respond to commands. These bad sectors can be found both in traditional magnetic hard drives and modern solid-state drives, but there are two types of them. The so-called ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ bad sectors are results of problems occurring respectively with hardware and software.

What can be wrong with a hard bad sector?

This type of bad sector is associated with ‘physical’ damage of the hard drive. Modern devices are intricate and very fragile, so a speck of dust can damage the inside of the hard drive and cause malfunction, or, in the case of solid-state drives, the drive’s flash memory card could have been worn out. Just general wear-and-tear issues can cause a defect in your device. When your drive has been physically damaged it could mean that it’s beyond repair and its time to move on.

What can be wrong with a soft bad sector?

A soft bad sector leaves more potential to be explored. This usually means there is a ‘logical’ or software issue. A soft bad cluster can appear to not be working properly and sound the alarm for a driver update. In this case, the operating system could have tried to read the data on the hard drive from this sector and encountered an error-correcting code that didn’t match the contents of this sector, which lead us to conclude that something is misplaced or flawed.

What do I do to protect my PC?

A handy invention inside your operating system will guide you through the process of figuring out what could go wrong and how to deal with upgrading your drivers manually. The cause of these corruptions is most likely viruses and malware. In this case, it might be prudent to use Windows’ Disk Check took and repair such bad sectors. It scans your hard drive for bad sectors and repairs the soft ones to make them readable again. Try figuring out what could be wrong by following this guide.

What is the worst that could happen?

If you’ve encountered the problems described above, you should know that you are taking a risk either way: malfunction with your hard drive can lead to data loss and hard drive failure. The bad sector can develop over time and, even if your hard drive is working properly, corrupt the data. This is one of the main reasons that you should always back up your data and sensitive data in multiple copies. If, by using the Disk Check tool you have found that your hard disk is corrupted it doesn’t mean that your hard drive is about to fail, however, is the process continues and the amount of these sectors increases – that can be construed as a sign for a failing hard drive.