"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  This is particularly true when it comes to device drivers and BIOS flashes.

I agree with Motrac's statement up to a point; if your system is stable now, then trying new drivers out just for the sake of being totally up-to-date can be a risky proposition to maintaining that stability, especially if you are a new computer user, or just not a technically inclined individual. However, newer drivers can occasionally offer superior performance or enhanced functionality over the older ones. For example: There is a complete PC subculture dedicated to testing and tweaking new video card drivers in order to gain fractional increases in 3D game performance. Another example are the drivers for my HP Photo printer: the drivers that came with it were about as stripped down as they could get, while the ones currently offered for download unlock many of the features of this printer that I paid for that were previously unaccessable from the PC, like using the 2 sided-printing feature,.. or using the flash memory slot on it as another removable media I/O for my PC.

It is on the head of each individual user to do the complete research on each newer driver offered to see if the performance/ functionality gains promised are worth the risk of possibly screwing up your system real good, and having to spend the time and effort recovering from a mistake. Some, you will find, might just be worth it... while others are totally not.

 

All that being said,.. I generally don't trust the drivers offered by the Windows Update utility for the most part, and tend to ignore them when offered. Instead I go to the website of the vendors of each piece of hardware I have installed and see what driver updates they are offering.

Yeah,.. I guess the point I was trying to make, in my own particular roundabout, not-so-concise way, is that not every driver update should be automatically discounted, but that you should look into it and see if the possible advantages of upgrading outweigh the potential risks to your system in doing so.

Give it a few weeks after it's offered, and then see what others are saying about it; if it helped or if it hurt, or if it made no difference at all. I guess that the same can be said of almost any software update you come across.

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@edlib wrote:

There is a complete PC subculture dedicated to testing and tweaking new video card drivers in order to gain fractional increases in 3D game performance.

@hsweet wrote:

I am not having any problems now. 

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Enough said.

Ed,

Thank you for your very thoughtful response. Come to think of it, some time ago I updated a driver and ended up with problems instead of solutions. I think that you have a good idea there in going back to the source. Thanks again.

Herb Sweet