I usually use the Service tag to load drivers for the Dell laptop at Dell's homepage, Dell has updated this new drivers yet?
Dell usually does not keep the latest drivers released by the manufacturers. In some cases it does though to its credit. Best is to check the version no on Dell site and the latest one from manufacturer/google. In one case, I used Intel HD 3000 drivers from Dell (v23...) for XPS laptop. Intel is now on 2509. The Intel driver v 2509 failed to install but the Dell one did without a hitch. Does not happen for all cases, eg latest Nvidia is 285.62 but Dell's site lists 268.30. I am working with 280.26 on my XPS which is the 2nd latest.
Thanks, I'm using the latest NVIDIA driver downloaded from NVIDIA 's homepage. But how do I know the Intel driver is compatible with my computer? I do not understand much about this issue.
Just make a backup image of your system and then try any drivers! That is what I do and it is far superior to roll-back and uninstalling botched up driver installs/incompatible drivers.
You will need a lot of luck for that feature to work (trial and error). Much better solutions are acronis, macrium, etc. Try windows backup and restore-that may be better than system restore.
Ok, what do you think about Norton Ghost? but the recent version of Hiren Boot without it. What do you choose between True Image and Ghost?
Both programs are great. all depends on your preference really I use ghost (symantec Solutions v2.5.1 patched to version 12) mainly running from WinPe boot image under a custom batch file to create my backups...
Are these 10.8 worthwhile for mechanical hard disks. I have RST driver 10.6.0.1002 on my PC with only mechanical hard disks and no SSDs.
There is 11.5.0.1109 Alpha available, but don't use them as they're too unstable and aren't as easy to remove. They're so bad that I won't even link them (they're on Station-Drivers). They're dated a couple of months older than 10.8.0.1003, and at least for me, 10.8.0.1003 also performs better.
10.8.0.1003 exe and zip are now listed/downloadable on Intel (perhaps from Tues/Wed), not just the F6 drivers listed earlier.
Sorry I should have listed that when I made the comment about 11.5.0.1109, can't stress enough NOT to use them I downloaded both the RST versions, tried 11.5.1109 first and went into worry mode when certain drives stopped being reported properly (in AHCI mode), had system hesitation, inability to uninstall... significantly less stable than the last 11.x alpha's, a little harder to uninstall... then tried the 10.8's and all good I realise its the 10.8's listed above, just reiterating it if people see it on the station-drivers or elsewhere. Note they are listed as alpha, and not simply as non-WHQL. Alpha means early test, pre-beta, non-WHQL just means it hasn't been signed by WHQL. They may (or may not!) be perfectly fine. But thats where forums come into it, if one person tries it and it has issues, it forewarns others. I didn't have any data loss (although didn't use the computer long with them, too many issues)!, but remember AHCI drivers etc there is the potential if doing any writing to the disk, which happens to be all the time!
In early 2011, I had a lot of issues with 10.1 drivers, while 10.0.0.146) worked fine. The problem was in windows hanging up on restarts (desktop welcome going on and on in circles, literally). This was on Caviar Black 2002FAEX (10.1 worked fine on 2001FASS SATA II). Got a new 2002FAEX in June 2011 (had to RMA the old one) and 10.1 worked fine, and so are 10.6 (RMAs could be tricky/declined in the next few months because of the shortages). I consider it good strategy to image my system before new Intel/Nvidia and commit them to the final image only after a week or so. If they do not work for me, I can always restore the image. Doing this with 10.8 even if I doubt whether they will do something significantly better for mechanical hard disks over 10.6 or 10.0 or 10.1.
1109 is the 1111 version Michelle just cited. soley in 32 and 64k writes 11.5 is far faster in 4k-128k reads. They have a fully functioning uninstaller if you use the iata_setup if using raid, they aren't any harder to remove either. None of the previous versions remove the actual driver when irst is uninstalled.
Well, for me the system was slower, was unstable, and the computer completely froze when manually putting the drive back to the 10.8.0.1003's. Also, both my 2TB Seagates were's correctly identified in device manager, and when clicking on the device and the 'Volumes' tab, then populate, the system completely locked up. They are alpha drivers, its expected. If it were a non-WHQL version, say (hypothetically) 10.8.0.1102, 10.8.1.2105, or even 10.9.0.1001, if the version numbering is correct in terms of the differences between the versions (and not like Firefox have done with versions 4 through 8), then I'd put the issue with the driver down to a possibly system specific scenario. Since its an alpha (what, they're skipping 11.0 through 11.4?!!!), and thats its a couple of months old and seems to be skipping a few version numberings (of possible sooner releases), I would put it down to the driver being very buggy which is expected! Since its a driver that controls data flow with the drives, a buggy driver is a very bad thing! It could cause corruption. RAID mode is probably even less safe than AHCI mode. In any case, I stand by my statement that they're not worth trying, too much risk, but if you are having luck with them and are okay with the potentiality of data loss, then feel free to use them ! Even if you do get 1 percent better reads with the 11.5's, is it really worth the risk of system instability and data loss? the risk is very real!