Firmware and drivers

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PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Why are drivers and firmware so important? Once upon a time, you would set up a computer and any display adapter driver o
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Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Kathy Stevens, fisher75, oldfry, deuce120, DLivesInTexas, lmacri, geekdom, rc primak, Alex5723

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I recently updated my Intel display graphics driver and the Intel ARC driver in a 12th-gen Intel tower PC. Microsoft Update kept trying to install two Intel graphics drivers which were at least one version out of date for that PC. The only difference in names was that the up to date graphics driver is WHQL, while the MS Update versions are bare-bones graphics drivers. In the end, I had to use the wushowhide troubleshooter to hide the MS Updates versions of the graphics driver.

So sometimes, even with Windows 11 Pro 22H2, you do need to use the old wushowhide tool if there’s a persistent incorrect driver replacement from Microsoft. I am amazed that this troubleshooter still works after surviving so many Windows version upgrades over the years. In some situations, it’s still a good tool to use.

I generally can get the correct driver updates through MS Update, so it’s not worth my trouble to change the settings to block all driver updates through MS update.

-- rc primak

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So if you see that pending-reboot icon down in the system tray, make sure you close all your files and windows, and reboot as soon as you can.

Reboot is the de fecto fixer-upper.

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
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geekdom wrote:

Reboot is the de fecto fixer-upper.

That’s de facto.

Sometimes a reboot cures all, sometimes not.

Reboot is generally a good, basic first step.

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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geekdom wrote:

de fecto

Good one.

2 users thanked author for this post.

wavy, geekdom

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Will Fastie wrote:

geekdom wrote:

de fecto

Good one.

Inadvertent. I sometimes wish I were half as clever as my typing.

And sometimes reboot cures all; sometimes not.

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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On this topic of drivers, I recently encountered a Lenovo Thinkpad with i7-7820HQ processor, supposedly supported for Windows 11, but apparently not.  The response by a Lenovo person on the Lenovo forum was baffling:

“Systems with the i7-7820HQ were built on a legacy (NON DHC) platform used throughout all the P51 & P71 system types which did not include Modern (DHC), this was done to avoid mixing hardware in the market place, they will remain with the legacy drivers.”

Are we talking chipset drivers, video drivers or both?  Intel would provide the baseline drivers in any case, for its motherboard chipset and graphics built into the CPU.  Did Lenovo somehow muck up the Intel drivers when packaging them for its product, or is this across the board among all brands of laptops with the i7-7820HQ?  Did the respondent really mean “Windows Declarative Componentized Hardware (DCH)”, not DHC?

The following Microsoft link corroborates the requirement for DCH drivers, and it would seem that Intel’s authorship of the drivers is the culprit:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/600509/i7-7820hq-is-supported-for-windows-11-but-pc-healt

 

 

 

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With Windows 8.1, I almost never accepted driver updates from Microsoft.  I (almost) always got the update from the manufacturer.  This was because once I accepted a Microsoft driver update (either for printer or  video card) and it scrambled my system.  It took me some time to recover since I didn’t have a backup at that point in time.

One should also be careful with manufacturers updates.  They are not always perfect.

Mark

 

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I have always seen the ‘manufacturer’s’ drivers recommended. But in the case of a M/B with onboard wifi, ethernet, video, USB, SATA … does this mean the chip manufacturer’s drivers or the M/B’s which are quite often very old?

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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wavy wrote:

onboard wifi, ethernet, video, USB, SATA

Onboard components are from various OEMs and so are the motherboards.
I use only manufacturer’s’ drivers.

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Alex5723 wrote:

Onboard components are from various OEMs and so are the motherboards.
I use only manufacturer’s’ drivers.

Thanks however …
That was a completely ambiguous answer from my point of view.

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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