Abit about Drivers

      Ok, I will try to make this simple so for those with advanced knowledge of this topic it might seem a bit boring. A driver is a program that controls a piece of hardware. These come in many types of drivers and they generally contain memory or logical locations inside the computer where a program can "talk to" or use a given piece of hardware. If you are careful and adventurous you can go look in the C:\Windows\system or \system32 folders and see all kinds of driver files. Since just about every part of hardware has a driver for it, there is no lack of them on your system. The main points to take away from this are, the drivers are needed by programs to talk to given parts of hardware on your computer, and that about every part on your computer has a driver for use with it.
      Ok, so I have drivers, what does that have to do with my computer problem? Well since all programs need to use these drivers to talk to hardware, regardless of it being a soundcard, or video card, or CD Rom drive, it is vital that you have them. It is also vital Windows does not loose track of them as it can from time to time. Usually this happens by a program install changing the drivers for a given piece of hardware and doing so incorrectly. Sometimes this is done to "take over" a certain operation that was being done by a program before, sometimes it is just done because it is hard to predict all the possible installed hardware that can be done on computers. Sometimes it is just done because a given piece of hardware was not around when the program was written. Windows ME is supposed to stop these swaps of driver files but I am not sure how successful it does so. The point being if you have recently installed program B and program A has stopped working correctly it is most likely the result of a driver being swaped out or program B taking over the operation of the driver(s) for a given piece(s) of hardware.
      So, what does this have to do with me? Again as I said drivers do get changed around. They also get revised. If you have say a sound card made in 6-1999 and the driver was registred with Microsoft for Windows use. Then about 3 months later some smarted programer comes along and finds out that if they change the programing on the driver the sound card can be twice as effective as it was. So they revise the driver. A company like Yahoo may be writing the software for a program it has ( like Messenger's voice module ) and uses an assignment that would work fine with the newer driver but not the older version. This would be the reason for a driver update. Many times these updates are added to programs you get all the time. Sometimes they are added at the Windows Update site as part of a critical update package. The point being that if you haven't updated your operating system software, (Windows generally speaking) you may be seeing more and more such errors in the operation of your system. Some times you may find it a good idea to look for drivers for your machine yourself. Here is how to keep up to date.
      Some like sites like catchup but I guess I am old fashioned and really do not like anyone more than I need to have looking around inside my computer. And if you are using sites like Catchup you are letting someone look around at what you have in your computer to some extent. Windows Update also looks at what you have, but I guess there are some things you cannot avoid. The fact is, you can avoid it but it will cost you by ordering the updates on CD Rom from Microsoft or your computer maker. To get to windows update can be a challange for some which is the first place we will start. On most Windows 98, ME, and 2000 machines there are built in links provided in the favorites on Internet Explorer, or even from the Start butto on Windows. (Start, then in many cases Windows Update will be above the programs location, others will be on Start, Settings, then Windows Update. ) On older Windows 95 systems you may find it easiest to go to http://www.msn.com then if you look on the lower left side of the main page you will see a heading that says "from Microsoft" and under it a link to the Windows Update page there. This should sence if you are using Windows 95 or 98 and what browser version you are using. After you have arrived at the Windows Update page, there will be a link to Product updates if it has not checked your system already. ( depending on how you get here it may automatically start the process for you. ) If it does not start with the process of looking to see what you have installed you may need to select the product updates links on the page. This may take up a few minutes depending on your connection and the computer you have. In some cases it may even need to install a routine to do the checking for updates. Depending on your browser settings it may mention this to you. Once it is done it will list the updates into groups. These will include Critical Updates, Recommended Updates, and Suggested updates as well as some optional items such as other language fonts and so on. In many cases it will check the update order for you to download them in by placing the check in the update it feels you need worst. In many cases you can only download one update at a time. THIS PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION.