Job 7 - Install or Upgrade a Driver

For a hardware device to work you need to install software to go with it, think of it like the hardware being told what to do and the driver telling the other components 'I'm here and this is what I do'

So in this tutorial I'm going to be installing a sound card driver to a computer system, first you need to take precautionary steps into finding out a little about your computer specifications and match these with the driver specification  for example here is a list of typical requirements the driver will need to know before either downloading/disk and installing on your computer

• Operating System 
• RAM Requirements
• Hard Drive Free Space
• Version Number of your Hardware 

(most computers that people use already have an integrated sound card on the motherboard with a driver pre-installed when configuring the system but sometimes these need updating manually and when searching for a driver you will need to know of the make and model and version number of your motherboard)

Im going to be doing an integrated motherboard sound card driver re install, follow these steps


Step 1 - Finding Motherboard Model Number
There are 3 ways to find this

1. To find your motherboard model number you can type the model number in to a search engine and find the tech specs of your computer, this will give you the required information of your motherboard for the driver
2. You can read the Technical Documentation that come with the computer you brought
3. You can open up your computer chassis and physically look on your motherboard for the version and model number (this is only recommended if you are computer illiterate, and only recommended if you have built your own System you are working on, remember to power off the system before opening up)

I opened my PC up and physically look on the motherboard this is a picture of my model number for my PC

Step 2 - Knowing Required Information

You will need to know your Operating system and motherboard information (Step 1) to assess the required information you need. Here are my specs

• Operating System - Windows XP Professional 
• Motherboard - AN9 32X Version1

Step 3 - Downloading Driver

You need to enter your motherboard,what driver you want, and what operating system your require into a search engine, then find a reliable download source and for what you need, then download the file

Step 4 - Installing Driver

Now find the file that you have downloaded and start up the installation wizard, most commonly for drivers they do not need any user input, as its a file of the computer system, and doesn't have a user interface. Follow the wizard then it will ask you to reset your computer, you must do so for the changes to take effect


Step 5 - Resetting and Using Correctly

Once you have restated your computer you sound card driver would have successfully installed onto your system. If for some reason it doesn't install correctly the program will let you know that the driver didnt install by a pop up windows appearing as you log onto windows, if this should happen check and find a different driver to install on to your PC