Driver Detective

[S0V13T]

I'm one of those guys that formats my comp every couple of months, and I have a bunch of people that I know that are always asking me to come over and fix their comps.

 

So anyways, I was thinking about making a cd with a whole bunch of drivers on it, for the event that I go to fix some one's comp, and need to install / reinstall a certian driver for them. As you know it's a huge hassel to have to open up the case, take out some obscure controller card, get a serial number off it and google for drivers.

 

But then, I found this app on the net, and I'm thinking of buying it. What do you guys think, good idea, or friviolus purchace?

[TetsuoShima]

Just had a quick look at it.

 

A few remarks.

 

You'll need an OS with some connectivity allready installed and working before it'll function (if I understood correctly).

How well does it work? (can it recognise devices with no previous drivers installed or is it only good for updates? And how good is it for finding updates?)

 

It's $30, quite expensive imo, but since it's a once in a lifetime payment it would be acceptable if it really does what I'd expect it to do.

 

I'd test it on a few computers first, preferably on a few with a fresh and clean install of windows without any previous drivers installed and with some 'obscure' devices hooked up. If it performs well, it might be worth it.

[Guest c4evap]

It's $30' date=' quite expensive imo, but since it's a once in a lifetime payment it would be acceptable if it really does what I'd expect it to do.[/quote']

It can be had cheaper. ;)

 

c4 :D

[S0V13T]

You can download a crippled version of the program for free. What it does is scans your system, gives you a list of hardware you have installed, amd then tells you if you have a driver, or the latest driver installed. If you don't have adriver at all, it will still detect what the device is, and give you a link to install a driver. Or if you already have a driver, it will give you alink for an updated version of it.

 

On my system, that I had JUST reinstalled XP onto it found 5 drivers that either were non existant, or were out of date, out of a possible 15).

 

The main reason I think that this app might be useful, is becuase I do a noticable amount of trekking around town installing drivers onto peoples comps. They either format it out of frusteration, not knowing that almost all problems can be repaired, or they just never had the proper drivers installed in the first place, had the default windows XP video card drivers installed for eg, and wonder why they can't game very well.

 

It really IS a huge hassel to have to crack a system open and google an obscure serial / model number to not JUST find a driver, but to find out what the hell the card chipset actually is. Especially prevailant in pre 2003 pre made computer systems.

[S0V13T]

It's $30' date=' quite expensive imo, but since it's a once in a lifetime payment it would be acceptable if it really does what I'd expect it to do.[/quote']

It can be had cheaper. ;)

 

c4 :D

 

The $30 isn;t for a serial key Dee, it's for a membership (user / pass). The only site that I can think of that has ever had any sucess for 'borrowing' other peoples account info is bugmenot.com, and the only user adn pass there dosen't work.

 

Then again, I didn;t really go out and search hard at all for 'alternatives'.

[TetsuoShima]

You can download a crippled version of the program for free. What it does is scans your system, gives you a list of hardware you have installed, amd then tells you if you have a driver, or the latest driver installed. If you don't have adriver at all, it will still detect what the device is, and give you a link to install a driver. Or if you already have a driver, it will give you alink for an updated version of it.

 

On my system, that I had JUST reinstalled XP onto it found 5 drivers that either were non existant, or were out of date, out of a possible 15).

 

The main reason I think that this app might be useful, is becuase I do a noticable amount of trekking around town installing drivers onto peoples comps. They either format it out of frusteration, not knowing that almost all problems can be repaired, or they just never had the proper drivers installed in the first place, had the default windows XP video card drivers installed for eg, and wonder why they can't game very well.

 

It really IS a huge hassel to have to crack a system open and google an obscure serial / model number to not JUST find a driver, but to find out what the hell the card chipset actually is. Especially prevailant in pre 2003 pre made computer systems.

 

Well, if it saves you time and it works, go for it, it is a once in a lifetime payment anyway. And since they say they've been doing that since '96, I doubt they'll decide to quit very soon.

 

What does caught my attention was: 5 out of 15??

 

So it didn't find 10 device drivers? Were it the easy one or the hard one it didn't find? (graphics cards/processors/chipsets/... are generally the easy ones, the plugin PCI cards (or even ISA) are the ones that are hard to find usually)

 

Since if it found only the ones you would have had no problem finding yourself, then it isn't really worth it, saves you only the time to open the case, have a quick look and type in a link (most well known hardware manufacturers links I know by heart, so I guess you do to). Or the time to install some free diagnostic program (or maybe even carry it on USB stick?) and read what that tell's you (they don't know the obscure ones without drivers though)... But if it really finds the ones that are causing trouble, it really can save you a lot more time. Depending on the obscurity, it can save you literally hours...

 

Or is the crippled version so crippled that it finds less? I only had a quick look and didn't read it all. So here's what I'd do: if it works well, buy it, it'll be a real bargain and timesaver. If it only finds the easy ones, don't (unless it finds some obscure ones too, in which case it might be worth it after all).

 

The longer I think about it, the more it sounds like a good deal, $30 for a lifetime subscription.