Installing - reinstalling drivers

If you want to see what your computer is doing you need a monitor. lf you want to type, you need a keyboard. You also probably want a mouse, a printer, a scanner, network card, modem and so on. When Windows boots up it detects things that are plugged into the computer and starts looking through the hard drive for information on what the stuff is and how to use it. That information is in the form of programs. Windows finds and reads the programs associated with the stuff and is then able to make things like printers and mousses work....just like you read directions to make something work. These device information programs are called drivers. A driver sounds like a thing with pulleys and gears and stuff but it's just a program. Occasionally, a driver gets a little scrambled and Windows can't read it. When that happens you have to reinstall the driver to get its associated device to work.

Before you attempt to reinstall a driver, make sure you have the right one. Windows, itself, has many generic drivers that are ok for mice, keyboards and monitors but for printers, scanners, cameras, etc. do not rely on Windows to have the right one. Go to the device manufacturer's homepage and download the driver for the specific device. Like, if you have an HP scanner, go to the HP homepage, look for "downloads" or "drivers" or "support" and get the driver for the exact model of your device. How do you find the homepage? .... type the name of your device manufacturer in your browser and look for it. When you download it, put it in a folder where you can find it. Some drivers require files from the Windows Installation disk so have it handy. Some driver downloads may be "zip" files. If you don't know what that is, go to www.brvar.com/faq/ziphelp.htm and find out how to unzip files.

Before you install a driver, uninstall the old one that's messed up. Open the "Device Manager" ... if you don't know how to get to the Device Manager, read the Windows help files. In the Device Manager, choose (highlight) the problem device and click "Remove." Restart your computer.

When your computer reboots it will find the device and search for a driver for it. If it's a simple device, Windows will automatically find and install a driver. Life is rarely simple so Windows is probably going to ask you where the driver is. Follow the directions...show it where the driver is and it will get installed. If you have the driver in a folder make sure you direct Windows to that folder. If you have it on a disk it may get a little more complicated. For instance, if it says to insert the Win 98 installation disk, and you put it in the D: drive (cdrom), then specifying that it is in the D: drive will not be enough. Windows will say it can't find the file. You must type "D: win98" where it is reading from. In other words, you may have to specify which disk and which file on the disk. You may have to mess around with this till you get the hang of it. It can be maddening. Crying is ok.