Thursday, January 1, 2009

The Benefits of Having Up-to-Date PC Drivers

By Vinny

Drivers are as essential to your PC as the operating system or any software on your PC. Drivers are small software applications which allow hardware to communicate with the rest of the computer. Essentially, the drivers of a piece of hardware, such as a video card, act as a sort of bridge between the video card and the computer, providing the hardware with a set of instructions which tell it how to operate.

Computer drivers are, therefore, absolutely essential. It's essential also to understand how to keep your computer's drivers up-to-date, as outdated drivers can reduce your computer's performance potential and may even cause serious problems.

Another essential concept is different types of drivers your PC may use. Some pieces of hardware in your computer may use Windows drivers-a default set of drivers which were installed when your operating system was installed. Other pieces of hardware, such as your video card and sound card, may use their own set of drivers. Whether you're using Windows drivers or specific hardware drivers, it's important to ensure they're up-to-date, both to optimize your PC and to prevent crashes and other problems.

One of the most important reasons to keep your drivers up-to-date is simply that computer component manufacturing companies-particularly those which make video cards-release new and improved versions of drivers which improve the way the hardware operates. Updating the drivers for your video or sound card often improve the performance of the card and your entire computer, and may even provide you with some new features for the hardware.

Additionally, keeping your drivers up-to-date will help prevent crashes, because old and outdated drivers are more likely to become corrupt. When this happens the associated hardware may stop performing correctly-and this can often cause your computer to crash while carrying out certain operations.

Finally, if your computer is simply performing sluggishly, or there's something wrong and your efforts to determine the source of the problem haven't yet paid off, checking for new versions of the drivers your computer uses can often provide a solution.

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