Driver disks that come with mobos - are they really needed?

Diss

Diss

Diss

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So i'm just reinstalling win7 and did a search for drivers for a Gigabyte EX58-UD5 but it all seems to be pre-install stuff? (I do have the driver CD but assumed it was way out of date hence looking on the internet)

Am i missing something or are all the drivers now included in win7?

Even if they are not - are they really needed, is it ok (performance wise) just to use whatever drivers win7 installs?

many thanks

Diss
 
if you go to Device manager it will tell you in a section called Unknown devices what isn't installed. but Windows 7 does have most of the drivers in its database now. using the old driver cd is fine if there are up to date ones you can download them online or windows update will update them for you
 
thanks - i think i'll let win7 do its own thing and just check as you suggested

one thing i was suprised not to find on the website was a "gigabyte driver update" utility as i'm pretty sure there was one on the original disk (or maybe i am thinking of my asus pc) - cos the original plan was just to download the utility and let it do all the checks
 
Diss said:
one thing i was suprised not to find on the website was a "gigabyte driver update" utility as i'm pretty sure there was one on the original disk (or maybe i am thinking of my asus pc) - cos the original plan was just to download the utility and let it do all the checks
Click to expand...

let me check that as i think my gigabyte board had that
 
i say its useful to have the CD, jsut so you can make sure you have teh wireless/ethanet drivers to go download the newer drivers
 
i think you should always install the manufacturer drivers for the best performance. For example if you windows install its standard driver for tour gfx the performance in games would be very poor, so i'd do the same for your other hardware.
 
s452 said:
i say its useful to have the CD, jsut so you can make sure you have teh wireless/ethanet drivers to go download the newer drivers
Click to expand...

+1

You can always update the driver later, but if windows does not supply an ethernet driver, the one from the CD is useful to first get online.
 
+1, the disk is still useful if the stock Microsoft network drivers does not work. Then once you can connect to the internet you can tuck away the disk and download the latest ones from the internet.
 
you can just go to the start menu type device manager and it will open up a window and telly you what devices are not installed then you just have to go to the gigabyte website and find your motherboard and download the drivers you need
 
I only use the driver disc of the ethernet doesn't work. Everingham else is more up to date online.
 
i only ever use the lan driver from the disk if available usually just to get me on the net, then update all the rest to the latest, (if i dont have access on another internet accessable device that i can download the drivers on) then it gets stuck back in the drawer, usually if its win 7 or vista(eww) it gets detected auto, any xp machines are hit and miss
 
all the drivers and utilities are on gigabytes website,type in x58 ud5

if the dvd drive is ide and your running in ahci mode it wont show up

use ports 4/5 for dvd drives and ports 0/1 for any ssd/hdd
 
Leprechaun312 said:
you can just go to the start menu type device manager and it will open up a window and telly you what devices are not installed then you just have to go to the gigabyte website and find your motherboard and download the drivers you need
Click to expand...

problem is they are not detected in BIOS
 
wazza300 said:
all the drivers and utilities are on gigabytes website,type in x58 ud5

if the dvd drive is ide and your running in ahci mode it wont show up

use ports 4/5 for dvd drives and ports 0/1 for any ssd/hdd
Click to expand...

in answer to your comments:

already checked the website

DVD is SATA (and am running AHCI)


the bit about the ports is interesting - made me remember that there are 2 different SATA contollers on this mobo so maybe moving the SATA connection could work

re your advise on which ports to use - is this just best practice or that DVD drives won't work on some ports?

thanks

Diss
 
the blue intel ones !! not sure if your board is the x58a? those have the marvell sata3 ports which are flakey at best

stick to blue and you wont go wrong

also what bios are you running? f12? if so that's the best bios imo
 
sorted - i put it back on the INTEL SATA controller as suggested and then realised that maybe i had only installed the Gigabit SATA controller drivers so reinstalled the intel drivers just in case and all ok

thanks very much for all the help - as usual "user error" was to blame :(
 
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