Does anyone use automatic driver update utilities?

[nelsonm]

hi all,

I recently disinfected a group of pc's using: combofix, malwarebytes and superantispyware. Allthough the pc's are working fine, all the pc's are registering an unknown driver.

Has anyone used any of the automatic driver update utilities like: DriverGenius Professional, DriverDetective or DriverCure to find the unknown driver?

Or better yet, other than downloading and reinstalling the pc manufacture's driver's for each pc, is there a better way of finding the unknown driver?

I'm thinking the best solution is to use a driver backup utility before attempting any repairs or disinfections.

thanks.

 

[coffee]

There sure is a better way.

Go into the properties of the unknown device and check its hardware id. There are two that you want. One is the manufactuers id and then the product id. Then look them up on the web. This should give you the device and help you locate a driver.

Take your two id's and try this link:

http://www.pcidatabase.com/

Hope this helps,

coffee

 

[SilverLeaf]

I recently disinfected a group of pc's using: combofix, malwarebytes and superantispyware. Allthough the pc's are working fine, all the pc's are registering an unknown driver.

...snip.....

I've had a few occasions recently with missing drivers after malware removal, specifically with USB mass storage devices / card readers. I can tell you in theses cases, it is not simply a matter of finding and installing the correct driver. The problems were much deeper, and resulted in a N&P on at least one occasion.

If this is not your circumstance, coffee's advice is spot on. I am leery of 3rd party driver-finding tools, as I don't really know where the drivers are coming from. I rely on Windows Update and/or the manufacturer's websites for drivers in all but the rarest of circumstances.

 

[coffee]

Yes, Seems that most of the 3rd party driver stuff is just going to infect you again. I dont trust them either.

You can always boot a linux mint dvd live session and open up a term window and type in:

lspci -vv |more

Would show all devices and then match the manufactuer id and product id to what is listed.

Just another way of doing it.

coffee

 

[SilverLeaf]

Yep, and

 # lshw -X

will open a hierarchical graphical hardware browser and allow you to save the output as a text, html, or xml. Run as root to get the most complete information.

 

[coffee]

Now, Did you add to my reputation ?

 

[mraikes]

I've used Drivermax for years. Rarely fails to identify and install unknown drivers and not once has has ever broken anything or resulted in additional problems.

Yes, you can drill down into the properties and find the vendor ID, etc, use a lookup database from various sources to convert the ID's to something useful and then search out the actual driver from the vendor, computer manufacturer or whoever. But I don't have time to do that unless there's no other choice.

Or you can install Drivermax. Allow it to scan and ID unidentified stuff. Download and install drivers. It's a one stop shop. Between the two choices, Drivermax is always the first choice for me in terms of speed and convenience.

Of course there's also Driver Packs, but I can't testify to how well they work with actual "unknown" hardware vs known-but-missing-drivers hardware.

EDIT: I don't have specific experience with "DriverGenius Professional, DriverDetective or DriverCure" that the OP mentions, but in general I remove all such programs during tuneups/cleanups. Seems like most programs like that in the hands of an end-user just aren't that useful and can cause more problems then solve.

 

[nelsonm]

Thanks guys...

I now have a few more tools to solve these kinds of problems. I will try both methods on my test system asap.

However, would you all agree that it's best to backup all drivers, for possible restore, using some driver backup utility?

 

[coffee]

I've used Drivermax for years. Rarely fails to identify and install unknown drivers and not once has has ever broken anything or resulted in additional problems.

Yes, you can drill down into the properties and find the vendor ID, etc, use a lookup database from various sources to convert the ID's to something useful and then search out the actual driver from the vendor, computer manufacturer or whoever. But I don't have time to do that unless there's no other choice.

Or you can install Drivermax. Allow it to scan and ID unidentified stuff. Download and install drivers. It's a one stop shop. Between the two choices, Drivermax is always the first choice for me in terms of speed and convenience.

Of course there's also Driver Packs, but I can't testify to how well they work with actual "unknown" hardware vs known-but-missing-drivers hardware.

EDIT: I don't have specific experience with "DriverGenius Professional, DriverDetective or DriverCure" that the OP mentions, but in general I remove all such programs during tuneups/cleanups. Seems like most programs like that in the hands of an end-user just aren't that useful and can cause more problems then solve.

Whatever works for you is the basic idea. However, I had some spare time and loaded driver max in my VM of win7. You have to install it, Create a user account, Eventually pay for it. Its just alot simpler to boot a live linux cd and "lspci -v " or do what Silverleaf used.

coffee

 

[nelsonm]

ok... thanks, I will try it.

 

[mraikes]

Whatever works for you is the basic idea. However, I had some spare time and loaded driver max in my VM of win7. You have to install it, Create a user account, Eventually pay for it. Its just alot simpler to boot a live linux cd and "lspci -v " or do what Silverleaf used.

coffee

Simpler is in the eye of the beholder. And having an account and paying for the software ($29?) isn't an unusual requirement for techs. Some of the very best tools bandied about on TN are "paid" (I'm lookin' at YOU D7!)

My process: Install software. Enter username & password. Run scan. Download drivers directly from the scan results screen.

The alternative? Leave the Windows environment, boot up a Linux tool, run a command, gather the info, return to Windows and conduct an Easter egg hunt to find the drivers.

Even if you stay in Windows and don't use a Linux tool, manually identifying and tracking down more than one driver will take longer than DM. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with doing it that way. I'm just resistant to the time it takes to achieve positive results compared to more automated methods.

Now in fairness, a downside to Drivermax is that it is limited to 20 uses before you have to pay for it again. And a 1.45 per use may seem like a lot. But even at my hourly rate, which is less than many others here, I can't spend more than 90 seconds fiddling around with the "free" approach before I've wasted more money than I would have spent just getting it done with DM.

If I had an hourly bench tech working for me, I know which approach I'd want him to try first. Even if I were lucky enough that the research and discovery only took 10 minutes or so - I still would have been ahead paying the $1.45 instead.

 

[mm201]

Yes, Seems that most of the 3rd party driver stuff is just going to infect you again. I dont trust them either.

You can always boot a linux mint dvd live session and open up a term window and type in:

lspci -vv |more

Would show all devices and then match the manufactuer id and product id to what is listed.

Just another way of doing it.

coffee

Is there any particular version of Mint that you'd recommend?

 

[coffee]

Is there any particular version of Mint that you'd recommend?

lspci is a basic command found in all linux distros. I just said mint as its easy to navigate. You should always be running the latest which is mint 14.

Best Regards,

coffee

 

[coffee]

Simpler is in the eye of the beholder. And having an account and paying for the software ($29?) isn't an unusual requirement for techs. Some of the very best tools bandied about on TN are "paid" (I'm lookin' at YOU D7!)

My process: Install software. Enter username & password. Run scan. Download drivers directly from the scan results screen.

The alternative? Leave the Windows environment, boot up a Linux tool, run a command, gather the info, return to Windows and conduct an Easter egg hunt to find the drivers.

Even if you stay in Windows and don't use a Linux tool, manually identifying and tracking down more than one driver will take longer than DM. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with doing it that way. I'm just resistant to the time it takes to achieve positive results compared to more automated methods.

Now in fairness, a downside to Drivermax is that it is limited to 20 uses before you have to pay for it again. And a 1.45 per use may seem like a lot. But even at my hourly rate, which is less than many others here, I can't spend more than 90 seconds fiddling around with the "free" approach before I've wasted more money than I would have spent just getting it done with DM.

If I had an hourly bench tech working for me, I know which approach I'd want him to try first. Even if I were lucky enough that the research and discovery only took 10 minutes or so - I still would have been ahead paying the $1.45 instead.

Hummmm?

1. Boot live linux cd.
2. Open term window.
3. Type in lspci -v

There is only 3 steps here.

You saved 30 bucks.
You learned something new.
You can do it as many times as you want and not have to buy anything.

If you want, You can save it to a text file:

lspci -v > devices.txt

If you are curious to other command line options just type in:

man lspci

Now, Since you have a live cd running the show why not test the hardware and make sure everything works as it should. Then if you are having a problem in windows you know its a software issue.

I can't spend more than 90 seconds fiddling around with the "free" approach before I've wasted more money than I would have spent just getting it done with DM.

90 seconds versus 30 bucks or more? Really????

 

[mraikes]

Am I mistaken in thinking that after your third step you only have a list of the devices?

Or does that actually download and install the appropriate drivers too?

 

[shamrin]

90 seconds versus 30 bucks or more? Really????

If you're going to break this down into seconds, don't you need to include the time it takes to reboot the computer into Linux as well? My Ubuntu CD normally requires 2-3 minutes to come to the desktop plus a response that I'm not installing, just trying it. I suppose you could speed this up by using a USB but then that doesn't work about half the time so you'd need to include the time wasted phaffing around with that.

I'm not just picking nits here because mraikes makes a good point that time is money and that's often missed by techies looking for reasons to use Linux to solve Windows problems. Having said that, you've taught me a new trick here that might come in handy some time and I thank you for that sir.

 

[glricht]

I've used most of the mentioned programs/techniques over the years with varying degrees of success.

I've been using DriverEasy (http://www.drivereasy.com/) for a while now and suggest you may wish to take a look at it. It scans the PC, identifies missing and outdated drivers, and optionally downloads and installs the drivers. In it's free mode, downloads are kind of slow. Registered users get high-speed downloads and you can download all needed drivers at one time.

Most consumer-type driver update programs are either crap or glorified malware. But DriverEasy works for me. YMMV

 

[Martyn]

I've used most of the mentioned programs/techniques over the years with varying degrees of success.

I've been using DriverEasy (http://www.drivereasy.com/) for a while now and suggest you may wish to take a look at it. It scans the PC, identifies missing and outdated drivers, and optionally downloads and installs the drivers. In it's free mode, downloads are kind of slow. Registered users get high-speed downloads and you can download all needed drivers at one time.

Most consumer-type driver update programs are either crap or glorified malware. But DriverEasy works for me. YMMV

Looks good I think I will give it a try

 

[SilverLeaf]

If you're going to break this down into seconds, don't you need to include the time it takes to reboot the computer into Linux as well? My Ubuntu CD normally requires 2-3 minutes to come to the desktop plus a response that I'm not installing, just trying it. I suppose you could speed this up by using a USB but then that doesn't work about half the time so you'd need to include the time wasted phaffing around with that.

I'm not just picking nits here because mraikes makes a good point that time is money and that's often missed by techies looking for reasons to use Linux to solve Windows problems. Having said that, you've taught me a new trick here that might come in handy some time and I thank you for that sir.

If you are already using Linux for hardware diagnostics (say Parted Magic) it's fairly trivial to just go ahead and save this info while your there, in case you need it further down the road. This is now part of my diagnostic routine/checklist, and every machine that comes in for service gets a hardware diagnostic right after check in.

On the other hand, if you don't use Linux to run your diagnostics, are on site and can't run full diagnostics, are don't generally run hardware diagnostics at all; then yeah, it does take more time than using some of the Windows utilities. But again, given the choice, I prefer to get drivers from a trusted source. So, I'll take a little extra time and get them directly from the manufacturer after manually determining what I need. Maybe I'm just overly cautious, but its really not that much of a burden to do it this way.

 

[coffee]

Am I mistaken in thinking that after your third step you only have a list of the devices?

Or does that actually download and install the appropriate drivers too?

Sure, You have your devices and also vender id, product id. Its not a hard deal to go and look them up.

But I respect your want of using "driver max" . I just do not want to fork out the money to know what driver I need. I look at it like this: If I use this program 40 times then thats 60 bucks. - 20 times and you have to repurchase it right?