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I am VERY, VERY AFRAID!!!

post #1 of 8
6/20/06 at 2:07am
Thread Starter 
http://driveragent.com/?ref=90

I ran this free utility and it told me all sorts of stuff was outdated on my Sager 9860.

Now I'm not the smartest guy around, but I'm smart enough to know that many manufacturer's drivers are "tailored" and "tweaked" by the manufacturer to run on the Sager 9860, so I didn't download/install any of the updates.

WHAT IS THE COLLECTIVE'S THOUGHTS ON THIS?

Try running the utility yourself and see how many drivers are outdated on YOUR rig.

Here's the link to all the outdated drivers on my system:
http://driveragent.com/driveragent_r...ca3a&n=2568157


hopefully the link above will work 'cause what is printed below does not show what it said was reported as bad or outdated drivers:


Instant Access to 90,866 Device Driver Updates

Driver Agent Scan Results
Print
Good Drivers (57%)
Bad Drivers (43%)

Driver Agent has determined that your computer is missing significant driver updates.


GEORGE-6BECB5A7 (system summary) Good Bad Download
Disk Drives
HP psc 2175xi USB Device
FUJITSU MHT2080BH SCSI Disk Device
Display adapters
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800
DVD/CD-ROM drives
TOSHIBA CD/DVDW SD-R6472
IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 266F
Imaging device
BisonCam, USB2.0
Infrared devices
IrDA Fast Infrared Port
Keyboards
Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mice and other pointing devices
Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad
Monitors
Plug and Play Monitor
Network adapters
802.11g MiniPCI Wireless Network Adapter
Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit Ethernet NIC
PCMCIA adapters
Texas Instruments PCI-1410 CardBus Controller
Ports
Communications Port (COM1)
ECP Printer Port (LPT1)
Printers
hp psc 2170 series
hp psc 2170 series
SCSI and RAID controllers
WinXP Promise SATA378 (tm) IDE Controller
Sound, video and game controllers
psc 2170 (DOT4USB)
Unimodem Full-Duplex Audio Device
System Devices
Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Universal Serial Bus controllers
USB Mass Storage Device
USB Printing Support
USB Composite Device
Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 265C
Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265B
Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265A
Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2659
Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2658

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GOOD - Your computer has the latest driver for this device, no updates are necessary.

BAD - DriverAgent has a newer or better driver for this device.

DOWNLOAD - Click on the Download Diskette to download the device driver package.
NOTE: In the event you see a Download Diskette next to a 'green check' you do not need to download the driver. However, you can use the download as a back-up.
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post #2 of 8
6/20/06 at 2:48am
WHAT IS THE COLLECTIVE'S THOUGHTS ON THIS?

I don't know the collective thought, but mine is:

Don't try to fix it if it ain't broken....

I only update drivers when 1. something doesn't work or 2. there is a known improvement (specially with video drivers).
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post #3 of 8
6/20/06 at 10:48am
i second that.......
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post #4 of 8
6/20/06 at 2:47pm
Laptops generally rely on OEM and not Manufacturer drivers for the most part. Sometimes the updated manufaturer drivers will work and work better; however, it's really a "crap shoot" and the performance, after update, may actually be worse than the original configurations. I would recomment that you proceed with caution on the driver updates. Also insure that the drives are not "scab" updates from one or more creative entities. These sometimes work well; while other times, will present their own unique problems.
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post #5 of 8
6/20/06 at 3:38pm
I've only updated when I've needed to, otherwise, my drivers are the same as the day my laptop shipped.

I also only download drivers from the company/manufacturer's direct site.
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post #6 of 8
6/21/06 at 12:21am
Thread Starter 
thank you all ... i think i will leave well enough alone. don't have time to do a full reinstall if i muck something up
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post #7 of 8
6/21/06 at 1:07pm
check this thread of people that aren't afraid
if a better driver is available, i don't think of any reason for you to have afraid.
the manufacturers simply don't give a care about this issue. they test the drivers when the product is about to be launched, and, once in a while, and sometimes never, they release the updated drivers.
my wireless connection was poor, i updated the intel drivers and voila... problem gone!
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post #8 of 8
12/10/10 at 3:22pm
After notifying you of the end of life as we know it, did the "free" utility try to sell you something? Lately, drivers are becoming harder to find, IMHO because so many vendors collect and sell them while clogging search engines with their advertising, making it difficult for end users to find them. The worst thing to happen to the internet is commercialism, and the governments allowing spamming without requiring address verification and therefore accountability.

I'd expect the better drivers to come from the manufacturer of the hardware, and certainly not the author of shareware trying to scare you into buying his product. I've even seen supposedly helpful programs hijack the computers they're supposedly trying to help until the owner finally capitulates and buys this otherwise worthless pile of poo.

There are plenty of excellent free utilities, written by old school companies (like Sun) and programmers. You'll find these on reputable freeware/shareware sites like download.com, who make their money the old fashioned way, selling advertising, or offering a free lower octave product to sell a higher priced "pro" version, or as a GPL'd project. Avast! antivirus, Glary Utilities, Ava Find, Media Player Classic Home Cinema, ffvshow, etc. These all have legions of devoted followers, plenty of great reviews, and a smattering of complaints and such because no one can please everyone. All of these, I found through word of mouth, searches on download.com, and such, but never from advertisements, pop-ups, or mysteriously appearing on your computer. Whenever I find an uninvited intruder in my house, I assume he's a criminal.

I find updated drivers by purposely looking for them.

Manufacturers have the best reason to update drivers. Their reputation. When it comes time to replace your old drive, will you buy one with a reputation for short life, or one known long life and reliability?

Often, drivers will fail simply because of hard disk error. (Ever wonder what's in those "FILEnnnn.CHK" files produced by chkdsk, scandisk, etc.? Look inside them with a hex editor. Some of these are just plain scary - and these are just the ones you can read.) Reinstalling it will fix this.


-Mike
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