Image Restore Vs. Firmwares & Drivers

Hi people, long time, been busy.

After two years I did a Dell PC Restore on my Dimension 9200 / XPS 410, XP Pro, SPK 3 ( I had a couple of issues, too many installs and uninstalls apps and such, gliches and bugs ). I think everything went smoothly, still checking performance. However, updating all the drivers and apps, is tedious work. I understand that the upgraded Firmwares for hardware should still be there, and there should be no need to flash then again. Am I right ? I ask because when I upgraded the firmware and driver ( Firm. R176603.EXE, Driv. R176587.EXE; released 1/16/2008 ) for the 13 in 1 Teac CA200 card reader for enhanced 19 in 1 and icons, it installed very nice icons for each of the devices and now they are gone ( back with orignal icons ). Should I flash the firmware again or just the driver ? Thank you.

What a mess this new forum is. I am gone for a couple of months and every one went bunkers at our house and I say so because that was the way I felt when I visited this forum, where you could feel comfortable, secure and new every one ( at least by sign ).