Dell PP29L What Is a Driver?, Identifying Drivers, Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities, 100

Drivers

What Is a Driver?

A driver is a program that controls a device such as a printer, mouse, or keyboard. All devices require a driver program.

A driver acts like a translator between the device and any other programs that use the device. Each device has its own set of specialized commands that only its driver recognizes.

Dell ships your computer to you with required drivers already installed—no further installation or configuration is needed.

NOTICE: Your Drivers and Utilities media may contain drivers for operating systems that are not on your computer. Ensure that you are installing software appropriate for your operating system.

Many drivers, such as the keyboard driver, come with your Microsoft® Windows® operating system. You may need to install drivers if you:

•Upgrade your operating system.

•Reinstall your operating system.

•Connect or install a new device.

Identifying Drivers

If you experience a problem with any device, identify whether the driver is the source of your problem and, if necessary, update the driver.

1Click Start→Control Panel→System.

2In the System Properties window, click the Hardware tab, and click Device Manager.

Scroll down the list of devices and check for an exclamation point (a circle with a [!]) next to the device name. If an exclamation point is next to the device name, you may need to reinstall the driver or install a new driver (see "Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities" on page 100).

Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities

NOTICE: The Dell Support website at support.dell.com and your Drivers and Utilities media provide approved drivers for Dell computers. If you install drivers obtained from other sources, your computer might not work correctly.

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Troubleshooting