4. The next page is essentially a list of every hardware device driver
included with Windows Vista. Choose a manufacturer from the list on
the left, and then the specific model number from the list on the right.
If the driver you seek is not listed and you don??™t see a driver for a similar device
that might be usable, you??™ll have to obtain a driver from the manufacturer.
Dealing with Drivers and Other Tales of Hardware Troubleshooting | 315
Troubleshooting
How to update a driver
In nearly all cases, Device Manager (devmgmt.msc, also in Control Panel)
will show an entry for the device you??™re installing, whether it??™s working or
not. If the device isn??™t working, it either pops open automatically with a
teensy, yellow exclamation point over its icon, or shows up in the Unknown
Devices branch, as shown in Figure 6-10.
These are often symptoms of a driver problem, and this can be fixed. (Of
course, it may also be an errant BIOS setting, as described in Appendix A, or
a problem with the hardware itself...but usually, it??™s the driver.)
To see what driver a device is currently using, double-click the device in
Device Manager and choose the Driver tab. An easy (but certainly not
Figure 6-10. Here are two signs that Windows isn??™t loading the driver for your device
316 | Chapter 6: Troubleshooting
foolproof) way to tell whether you??™re using the driver that came with Windows
Vista is to look at the driver date??”it should be June 21, 2006 (for the
initial release, that is)??”and its version number should be 6.
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