Nothing but problems with my 6400:

Windows Update only finds a few hardware/software updates that are not microsoft's own. On the Dell site you'll find a LOT more...and even then you can find more up-to-date drivers on the actual manufacturers pages...like: Intel, Seagate, Creative etc. Dell usually lags behiund quite a bit with their updates but when they do show up at their site at least you know that the drivers are tested and approved for your systems (or they should be anyway )

 

lol... Dell test things...


lol...

 

Thanks, so I should go do more updates from Dell then. If that's the case, which ones do I choose to do (among the "Recommended" and "Urgent" ones), when there are updates for both "application" and "driver" that relate to the same thing (for example, DCP)? I ask because since I already have DCP the application on the computer, does the "application" itself also get updates, or is it really only the "drivers"?

Also, (stupid question, I know, but....) if I download a driver from the Dell site, but my computer already has the updated drivers, will the computer actually tell me this when I download the driver, or will it somehow override the existing driver (even though the existing one is already the most up-to-date one)? Does this question make sense?

Thanks v. much!

 

i know

@Circus boi

Yes it could be that the drivers you have are already the latest version. To the right you'll see the date the update was released and some divers/apps are still the initial release and havent been updated at all. The system will tell you if you already have the latest drivers and there's no need to run the install then.

Yes, you need to install both driver and software. Both get updates, not just the drivers. Sometimes the app might contain the driver itself but just do both to be sure. If you're installing these after a fresh OS install be sure to check out this page http://support.dell.com/support/top...&component=-1&lang=-1&doclang=en&toggle=false
You need to install the drivers in a certain order to prevent any issues. It seems there's something wrong with the page now, but check this if you need to do a fresh install...you can also just do a search on "driver order" on the Dell site.

Hope this helps

 

Thanks v. much for your advice. When you say that "the system will tell you if you already have the latest drivers", does this mean I FIRST download the latest drivers/software, THEN when I click to run the downloaded files, the computer will tell me if it's unnecessary?

In other words, the Dell update page is NOT like the Windows update page where (for Windows update), ONLY those drivers that need to be updated are shown on the page, and so all I do is download EVERYTHING that's listed on the page. For Dell, I download first, and then see if I actually need it or not?

Sorry if this is a n00b question, but with the new computer, I want to make sure (as much as possible) that I do things the right way....

Thanks again!