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Yeah... it's probably time to update my drivers.
Out-of-date drivers can be responsible for game crashes,
missing sounds, strange graphics
and many more annoying issues.
This video focuses on Windows operating systems
as updating your Apple operating system
also updates your drivers.
To check your graphic driver version,
on Windows XP or 7
hold the windows key and press R on your keyboard,
on Windows 8 press windows and Q instead,
then, regardless of your Windows version,
type "DXDIAG".
Click the Display tab in the DirectX diagnostic tool.
If you're asked about digital signatures, just click OK.
The card name and manufacturer
should be found in the device section
and the version of the drivers
under the Driver box next to "VERSION".
Once you have the names of your card and the driver versions,
just head to the manufacturer website
to check for available updates.
Obviously each website is a bit different
and their layouts can change over time
but the process shouldn't be too different from one to the other.
As an example, we will take two of the largest graphic card
manufacturers on the market: NVIDIA and AMD.
The general concept is fairly straightforward:
go in the driver section of the website,
fill the form asking you for your graphic card and OS information,
validate and download the latest driver available.
Once the file is downloaded on your computer,
double click it to execute it.
If the name of your graphic card is not listed
and you don't know what it is
then there is no hope left...
naaah just kidding, you're still good.
First open the start menu, right-click computer
and choose properties and then device manager.
Expand the DISPLAY ADAPTERS and double click the listed item.
Check the DETAILS and change the PROPERTY to HARDWARE IDs.
Right click the first and choose COPY.
Pasting this value in your internet search engine
should give you the name of your hardware.
You can follow the same procedure
to upgrade your network card drivers.
Expand network adapters, click the listed item
and go to the driver tab to check its name and version
then just head to the manufacturer's site
to check for a driver update, same story!
A few more tips:
If you have graphical issues,
you can also try a game interface reset.
Try and keep your Operating System up-to-date
by using the Windows update tool.
And to finish, if you have a laptop,
always check the website of its manufacturer first
as they often use custom drivers.
That's it! We hope it helps!