100 TroubleshootingDriversWhat Is a Driver?A driver is a program that controls a device such as a printer, mouse, orkeyboard. All devices require a driver program.A driver acts like a translator between the device and any other programs thatuse the device. Each device has its own set of specialized commands that onlyits driver recognizes.Dell ships your computer to you with required drivers already installed—nofurther installation or configuration is needed.NOTICE: Your Drivers and Utilities media may contain drivers for operating systemsthat are not on your computer. Ensure that you are installing software appropriatefor your operating system.Many drivers, such as the keyboard driver, come with your Microsoft® Windows®operating system. You may need to install drivers if you:• Upgrade your operating system.• Reinstall your operating system.• Connect or install a new device.Identifying DriversIf you experience a problem with any device, identify whether the driver is thesource of your problem and, if necessary, update the driver.1 Click Start→Control Panel→System.2 In the System Properties window, click the Hardware tab, and clickDevice Manager.Scroll down the list of devices and check for an exclamation point (a circle witha [!]) next to the device name. If an exclamation point is next to the devicename, you may need to reinstall the driver or install a new driver (see"Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities" on page 100).Reinstalling Drivers and UtilitiesNOTICE: The Dell Support website at support.dell.com and your Drivers andUtilities media provide approved drivers for Dell computers. If you install driversobtained from other sources, your computer might not work correctly.
