Dell forum: xps8300

One for the onboard video and another for the video card.

You do bring up a good point. Why would today's machines have use looking for drivers? It's been decades and isn't about time for this work to become a thing of the past? Has this concept of how we deal with Windows become too much for the consumers?
Bob

but nevermind, I will post again.

I take it this is a brand new Dell XPS 8300. If so, is it working OK?

If it is, why are you updating drivers already?

There are general rules about this;

1] If it works don't change it.

2] If there are no problems with drivers, don't update them.

Are you having problems?

Mark

but I got a list of 'things to do with your new computer' and step 5 was to update drivers and firmware. Are you saying, Mark, that the ones installed on here already should be good enough for now? Should I delete what I have downloaded but not installed? TWB404, thanks for the link will go there. I did think long and hard before buying a ready-built computer and didn't think I could build my own but have heard a lot of good about going that route - maybe for the next one. I so appreciate the help I get on the forums. Thanks.

If the unit is brand new it probably came with what I like to call preliminary drivers. You should at least do one update of the drivers. Manufacturer today live by the motto that they will fix the problems after the customer buys the puter. I have seen plenty in my day that came out of the box with odd little problems solved by the simple update of a driver. The main drivers to look for to update are LAN, W LAN, audio and video. M$ will cover most of the other drivers. If you want, list your hardware and we can tell you what else you should look to update.

I posted the wrong link above early for AMD drivers for your puter. I link the laptop video drivers and I should have posted the desktop drivers for a 6450. Sorry about that, I have a laptop that I use when I am online and have a tendency to think mobility when looking up things. The link below is for the desktop cards. This link will allow you to download the driver directly for any AMD video card you might have.

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx

Open your device manager. You can do that by opening your control panel and click on system and security. The third line down you will see system. You will find the device manager under it. When you open it you will see the hardware devices you have. You will see pointers that show the devices on your puter. If you click the pointers they will open a line that will name the devices that you have installed on your puter. I will list the ones that I know that Windows does not cover on most system.

Display Adapter = that should be your video card

Network Adapter = that should be your LAN and Wireless network cards.

Sound, Video and game controller = unless you have special hardware you should just see your audio devices

Just about everything else you see in the device manager will have drivers furnished by Windows unless you have extra hardware on your puter. For example, did a web cam come with it or did you buy one and add it.

To list some that drivers are furnished by Windows.

Hard drive, DVD, Monitor and keyboard.

As a tech for more then 30 plus years I have found that messing with things that are not broke can lead to breaking it. I also found that preventive maintenance can save you a lot of headaches. When it comes to brand new puters out of the box it can be broke and you not know it. I have sat down in front of puters 6 months to a year old with odd problems. When I say odd I mean you just would not have thought it to be the driver. My favorite was an audio buzz that you would have bet your bottom dollar that it had a bad ground somewhere in the preamp circuits. Turn out to be nothing more then a driver update to fix that. A little prevent maintenance by updating drivers can save a person time later.

New puters come from the manufactures with preliminary drivers and everyone should take the time to update them.

at least from me!

Glad you got everything sorted, and thanks for letting us know.

Mark

Hi Newg,

I am Aniesh from Social Media And Community at Dell. Below given is the direct download link for the Driver that is applicable for the "AMD Caicos Radeon HD6450 " which is present on your System.
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=DYH3V&FileId=2731099596&productCode=xps-8300&urlProductCode=False

Download the driver on your Computer first.
Before you install the driver from the above link please uninstall the existing Video Driver from Device Manger & also from Programs and Features.
Restart Computer & then install the Driver from the Desktop or your preferred downloaded location.
Let me know if this works.

Regards
Dell- Aniesh
Dell | Social Media Outreach