New Win7 Install - Do I need to install manufacture drivers?

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Kuo

Gawd
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Jun 7, 2001
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I feel like an idiot for asking this question... but do I need to install manufacture drivers? Specifically, with some of the previous OS's, things never worked until I installed drivers from the manufacturers of my components. For example, my on-board LAN might not work until I installed the LAN Chipset from the company that made my motherboard (be it asus, msi, etc.)

This time around, after installing Win7, everything seems to magically work. Out of habit, I've gone to Asus's website (I have an Asus P5Q Pro Mobo) and downloaded the chipset, realtek audio, LAN/NIC, and various SATA drivers. But... do I need to actually install any of that? I'm thinking of installing the realtek audio drivers, but if what does the other stuff accomplish? What does installing Asus chipset drivers do for me? If my internet is already working, do I have to bother w/ LAN/NIC? And similarly I can detect all my SATA devices too..

At the moment, I'm thinking of only really installing 2 drivers... (1) Realtek Audio (2) ATI Catalyst (for video card).

Should I be installing the other ones?
 
Windows 7 automatically finds new drivers from Windows Update.

Vista does this, too, but it didn't seem as majic, lol.
XP is supposed to do this, but it rarely worked for me.

I'd only recommend installing (1) if it gives you surround sound (wierd thing on some notebooks, like the m1210 from Dell) and (2) if you really think you need it.

ATi driver updates are few and between, and Windows Update typically provides them up-to-date,
 
Honestly, you shouldn't need to worry about it. Windows already found the correct drivers and will keep them up-to-date on it's own.

I tried installing my drivers after Win 7 did it for me, and all it did was re-download a more up to date version!
 
On my laptop I had to install the manufacture drivers because A. the windows default driver for my chipset was missing the "coprocessor" part and B. The nvidia drivers via windows update caused major display issues.
 
Wow, thanks for the quick replies!

I guess I'll hold off on audio drivers until I discover something I use to be able to do that I can't do anymore.. if such a thing exists, haha.

ATI.. I like using that Catalyst Control Center, so I think I'll still go grab that.

Thanks for the input :)
 
techie81 said:
On my laptop I had to install the manufacture drivers because A. the windows default driver for my chipset was missing the "coprocessor" part and B. The nvidia drivers via windows update cause major display issues.
Click to expand...

Sorry, what do you mean by the "coprocessor" part?
 
Device manager was missing the driver for "coprocessor", after I installed the drivers off the Compaq site it was all good.
 
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