How do I find out if my drivers need updating and where?

[Confused Newby]

Hello all.

I'm currently using a Toshiba Satelite AMD Turion 64 bit lapton I bought over 3 years ago. I have never updated the device drivers / bios or anything else except thought through windows update. Do I need to update what is on my machine?? and if so how and where from. My machine is running very very slow compared when new and takes foreever to to anything.. and thoughts to check the sytem out??? many thanks James

 

[mike1959]

Hi, The MS windows update only relates to the Windows operating system plus MS Office and MS security programs if you have them installed.
The other devices that make up your pc will have the same drivers that were installed at the time it was built, and it could be that they are still the best version for your pc.
You have a way of checking for updated drivers through 'Control Panel', 'Hardware', 'Device manager'.
If you right-click on the 'Display' entry, and select the 'update drivers' option, it will find an update if there is one.
The device drivers come from the manufacturer of each device, rather than Microsoft.
If you think your pc is running slowly, that's partly due to installing more software than you started with.
But some maintenance never is a bad thing, and on my pc I use;
- CCleaner www.piriform.com/ccleaner (Use this with all the settings as it installs, please don't be tempted to tick all the options, you could be in for a long wait.
-Auslogics disk defrag http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download/
-Ultradefrag http://www.filehippo.com/download_ultradefrag/
-Iobit Smart defrag 2 http://download.cnet.com/Smart-Defrag/3000-2094_4-10759533.html?tag=mncol;1#editorsreview

These are available from the Downloads section of this site, or use the links above.
I would say to avoid any links or programs that promise to update everything for you, or to fix all the problems on your pc.
You may find you are paying for software that is actually free.

 

[Confused Newby]

Thanks mike, I will try these out and see if it makes all the difference.

Regards

James