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MichaelWayne
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September 15th, 2008 14:00
Should I install drivers drom Dell or from Windows Update?
Hi. For some time we were always told that if we buy a computer from a manufacturer (like Dell) instead of building one, we should always download and install the drivers offered by that particular manufacturer. I reinstalled Vista on my Inspiron Deskto 530S, but found out that a couple of drivers offered in the support.dell.com site are like a year older than the ones offered when I run Windows Update. So my question is, if the rule of installing drivers from a Manufacturer still applies? Or can we trust Vista, that the drivers offered from Windows Update are not generic, but specific to the brand we have? Thanks a lot in advanced.
Madana Prasad
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Posted September 16th, 2008 13:00
Test postMichaelWayne
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Posted September 16th, 2008 16:00
Thanks for the answer. In case this is useful to anyone here is my experience:
I installed a fresh copy of Vista Ultimate on my Inspiron Desktop 530s. Then going by the book, downloaded and installed all drivers from Dell, but I noticed that most of the drivers were from 2007. After all the drivers were installed, ran Windows Update, in order to download SP1. Did like three rounds of updates and after that it just gave a message that my Windows was up to date, but without giving me the option to install SP1. Is then when I found out that it was giving me options for Video driver (integrated) and audio (integrated). Saw a tech document on the Microsoft site, that if SP1 was not being shown in Windows Update, one of the reasons might be that the drivers were not fully updated. So went ahead and installed the drivers offered and after restart, the system gave me the option to install SP1! So I don't know if to be happy knowing that Windows Update is working better than ever offering the latest drivers for my system, or being freaked out that Dell is offering outdated drivers in their site, for my two months old computer. Anyway my system is running great now.
Jesse L (retired)
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Posted September 15th, 2008 14:00
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
The Windows Updates from Microsoft are different from the drivers from Dell. I personally always update Microsoft Updates. If Dell has a driver that I need that is newer than the one I have installed I will download it as well.
Jesse L (retired)