Unrealiable Dell update programs

Trust me, DELL is not the only company that makes Driver Updates a chore!  While "update programs" sound great ~ because after all, they DO check under your System 'hood' and it is reasonable to HOPE the driver detective (read 'Update Program') would find ALL 'driver errors' and quickly display this:

1. Which drivers NEED newer/better "updates" AND which drivers are 'bad' with Device Manager errors?

2. THEN OFFER to download the PROPER  "Fixes" for EASY installs?!

How tough is that?  And I'm sure we all agree ~ one of the PRIME responsibilities ALL computer companies AND hardware companies (video cards/add-ons etc) is to keep ALL drivers 'Fresh' and dependable!

But matters get worse when new Operating Systems are launched (i.e. Windows 10) and OUR company decides to leave thousands and thousands of System owners totally without support!  Now there is a LEGION of Systems that STILL WORK... but WON'T be supported with current software... but I digress...

Most vendor 'Update Programs' are rather small, so how "efficient" can we expect them to be?  Real problems occur when "fault detection" is not properly "married" to the right drivers or the newest Drivers!  OR the "company" does NOT update the 'test result lookup' with the latest Drivers and that is never good (but perhaps that is saying the same thing?)!

Also sometimes a 'new' driver may have issues and your system still crashes systems or fails in some way?  Thankfully many vendors sites and others offer "old drivers" that may actually work fine!

The next choice is to turn to 'third party' software (read costs money) to interrogate the hardware actually in our Systems... The program then offers the best Driver it can find.  Many times this approach worked out best for me when VENDORS don't make it easy.

Anthony

Which SW are you using for mass driver management of your computers (over the Internet) ?? 
BTW: my computers are not in the same LAN. 

It is a rather small program called:  "IOBit Driver Booster Pro"   BUT!...

I am compelled to tell you this little bugger installed FOUR OTHER "junk" programs I didn't want or expect!  And those four installed before IOBit offered me paid registration... Not nice! 

At about $23 U.S.. the home screens looked impressive so I registered.  There is a "free version, but I wanted "all options" and that license is good for 3 systems for 1 year... 

After registration IOBit did find my illusive driver and replaced two other drivers with newer versions too...

Still quite unhappy about the SPAM programs, I used the "uninstaller" to delete the IOBit program.  Oh the uninstaller did stop to ask if I wanted to keep my selected IOBit options = NO.  Did I want to keep my IOBit Registration information = NO to that too.  There was one more 'keep' option but I don't recall what it was?  = NO

Soon a popup said IOBit  "was completely uninstalled" = WRONG!

Using a nifty *free* program called REGISTRAR MANAGER  I searched my Registry and it found 20 more entries for "IOBit"!  Next I checked for "Driver Booster" and it found 6 more hits!  NOT NICE.

It took even more time to uninstall the JUNK programs because IOBit did not have the courtesy to delete them too...

While IOBit did work for me, I do NOT want to support a company that slams in other "JUNK" programs without asking ~ especially when one pays for registration! 

Therefore, I do NOT recommend IOBit Driver Booster Pro to anyone ... but that choice is yours.

Anthony

Yesterday I wanted to update one computer (Optiplex). 

I tried to use Support assist (which was unable to find new updates) and Dell update utility (which are in the Spanish language even after reinstall and was unable to find any update too). 

I had manually search website for new drivers, BIOS, etc and install it. 

The question is, why the update programs are unable to detect new drivers/firmware? Even web utility was unable to detect all available drivers.

I guess the problem is just those 3 lines in the 3050 support assistant shows, confuse you

well that is normal,,,, 

the thing should use  simple English like this.

The main FIRMWARE BIOS needs to be upgraded  to the ENDLESS intel patches

for  that is all that needs to be said and the name of the patch.

Meltdown and Spectre

OP my post #2

are you a business and need , to buy DELL assistance support; that it?,  dell may offer many solutions ask them?

no PS stated at all just Vague OptiPlex. 1993 to  now.   oops photos shows 3050  and is GOOD

that  photo , in DELL dKlington English means all BIOS needs up dates, end to end or suffer the WRATH of the endless  INTEL, "EXPLOITS"  this means 3billion PCs need to be flash upgrade I guess and is the most amazing, demand ever done on earth this folly,  vast PCs get bricked flashing BIOS,,

if you do flash, I recommend only using he F12 key update BIOS key and no OTHER WAY (1 or 3) oK>

no OS stated, at all.

are all LAN (sublan) PC allowed internet access?  firewalls , etc ? set wrong?

can I presume (unstated) you are running fresh copy of support assistant. and the newest version? first?

runs on w7 to 10 .

did you look first on the support assistant page to be sure YOUR PC is supported at all MOST ARE NOT.

just those in the list here it is. YES IT IS.

https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/dell-supportassist-pcs-tablets_reference-guide2_en-us.pdf

it only supports a small fraction of OptiPlex.. "fraction" ok?

html version below, direct.

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/us/en/19/dell-supportassist-pcs-tablets/sosrsm/supported-optiplex-systems?guid=guid-5beec0a8-843b-4431-b022-9190163a75db&lang=en-us

so there are many classes of updates on PC

Windows  10 , endless 8 + majors. and many minors  (I run PRO 10 and delay all major updates for 6 months) GPO done.

Drivers, (I keep window driver update off , forever)

Drives via Support assistant,  sure run that.

application updates , endless, on my PC 100s of them.  I only update if im in the mood to waste time.

all those update engines In startup, I turn off. (adobe,xyz, print  driver updates, google shut off totally, etc)

and last  of all class 4 updates very risk call FIRMWARE FLASH updates, use F12 hot key or risk bricking PCs.

some Big Businesses do this with script file to run flash eeprom updates and the code is run by dell uses a driver mode. (this prevents OS from preempting critical flash timing and bricking the FIRMWARE DEAD)

this driver mode load  a driver and the driver, burns the EEPROM then exits and the erased the driver.

DP  by accident slow dell forum servers.(no complaints)

OP: (did you say 80PC?)_

them you post unable  to find drivers, (well first they most be too old/expired or it will LIST NONE)

but you do know the PC assistant software  works like this: ( really its Dell version of  PnP) but deeper.

1: I'D's what PC this is.3050

2: then scans PC for all things it monitors (pci scans for sure and all drivers in the registry)

3: then goes online ( if access to dell is impossible this fails , for ANY REASON , firewalls ?)

4: then line 2 is compared to line 3 and if not matching tells you that. (makes a list for you to take actions)

if I wrote your program above, ID test for full DELL.com access on the web first, even speed .

if the program uses MS.com driver catalogs?, and it's down (gee golly it was last week, oops) it fails.

if  fail?,  it would pop a box, "NO ENTENET ACCESS " NOW, fix that first. or speed is dial up speed now, BAD.

if your wifi Ethernet or 3/4/5G/LTE  cards are all dead, then this happens

if firewalls blocking you sure.

Firewalls love to block APPS, or others in your DOMAIN (if has) can tune firewalls up and not TELL YOU THEY DID,  (super common in all smart businesses , "IT" does that.

if on a domain login to dell EMC for that;. ok>?