Do I need to update my drivers?

W

wandergirl

New Member
Hey. First time on the forum! I have an Inspiron B120 simple dimple laptop. Lately it has been having consistent problems at boot-up. It takes a long time for the programs to load and then they may freeze up, causing me to turn everything off and start over again. I am worried about the time it takes from turn on to when in destop icons finally load onto screen.

I got online and got snookered into downloading Driver Detective. This programs says that half of my drivers need to be updated. Looking into this, it seems that the entire system would have to be reloaded because the drivers which need replacing are chipsets. However, I am not sure that this is even the problem. I am debating paying dell support the $50.00 to diagnose the problem.

Does anybody have any suggestions? No, I don't think it is malware. I already have Malwarebites, Spy Sweeper and McAfee Security Suite.
 
Have you ran Ccleaner to clean up all the old temp files and other ones you don't need? Most likely you have outdated drivers but do not use the driver update programs to tell you which drivers are outdated. Either go to dell website directly to download updated drivers or go to the hardware makers site to download the driver(Intel, realtek, etc) How long have you been running on the current installation of the operating system? Over time, windows does get slower, if you don't do regular maintenance. If you have been running on that installation for over a year or so then its probably just time to do a fresh install. How much system ram do you have? What processor are you running?
 
Thanks for the replies! Yes I have ccleaner. I have also run the McAfee deep cleaner too. My current system has not been reloaded in over a year and a half. The ram question is concerning to me. During the last reload which dell helped me with, I bought 2 gigs of ram. My info says I only have 1 gig. I don't know if maybe one of the cards went bad or is maybe not fitted correctly. The processor is the celeron M. In the meantime I will check the blog.
 
According to Crucial.com, that laptop will support up to 2gb(2x1gb sticks) of ram. You might want to reseat your memory first. You said you bought 2 gb of memory. Did you buy 2 sticks of 1gb memory?

Another aspect is that the celeron processor is not that great. It's a slow processor as far as i'm concerned. I wouldn't recommend it to a 5 year old kid wanting a computer. Your slowness maybe due to the memory issue, once you get that figured out and its still slow, it just may be time for a fresh install.
 
Yes I bought two stick of 1 gig. I know how to get to the sticks but I don't know what to do on the computer - dell did that for me last time. Also, if I am going to do a reload, I have not done that by myself either. If I reload, I might as well do the driver updating? I am just concerned about screwing it all up, getting all the product keys back in etc.
 
Do you have a computer savvy friend that can help you? Just make sure you have all the software cd's and product keys before reformatting. Dell should have shipped you reinstallation cd's for XP and all drivers needed. Or you could go to Dell's website, click on support up top and click on drivers and downloads, enter your service tag number and it will direct you to specific drivers for your model. Download and then save them to a usb flash drive so you can install the updated drivers after you reformat your system.
 
Last edited:
Well we will be heading for a friend's place in about a week or so. Maybe she and I together could tackle it. She is pretty good with computers. I will have to ask her. I can do well if I have step by step instructions - something which is hard to come by it seems. I don't have a flash drive. Will burning to a CD work ok? I do have the utilities CD thankfully. Dell had to send them to me for the last reload.

Also, I have tried to run a check disk troubleshoot, at boot, but it says I have to but in the utilities CD. I am afraid to put that CD in my computer lest it wipe it out. When do I put that in to do a check disk?
 
You can run the checkdisk within windows. Just right click on c drive in "my computer" and click on properties, click on tools tab, click on check now. There are other ways to do it but thats the easiest way.
 
Right now I am not getting error messages at boot up. I just wanted to run the check. During the check, I get an error message that it needs the disk in order to complete the check. Apparently since I have reloaded once, the utility which would normally run the check got wiped out and now I have to insert the disk. That is my guess.
 
Good news. It turns out that the problem was that the memory must have become unseated. Even though I keep my computer in its case during traveling, the RV does bounce and it must have jarred the memory card just enough to be unreadable. I got out my directions on how to add memory and reseated them like you suggested. Wow! My computer sped up like it had been reborn. I am so glad because Dell was going to charge me $70.00 to reload and update drivers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top