All about Software drivers

Finding software drivers for the components in your used laptops can be a challenge.  There are a variety of different versions of the same laptops sometimes using different components to give the same basic laptop in production.  For example the same Dell Latitude C600 may use a lucent modem and next month may have changed their production to a 3 com modem.  Figuring out which one you have in your laptop can be boiled down to a trial and error software driver loading game.

What are software Drivers?

The software drivers that you use are determined by the different components in your laptop.  These drivers allow your laptop hardware to communicate with the components thru your operating system.  Here is a Software driver page that explains what they are and a limited where to find them list.

Where to find the Software Drivers that you need?

Another good question and the answer is from the manufacturer of the used laptop that you have.  So if you have a Dell you would go to www.dell.com.  Here is a website that gives some links to the major manufacturers of the used laptops on the market today.  They offer links to manuals online and software driver downloads www.lots-of-laptops.com .

But when you can't find the driver that you need what are you to do.  Well sometimes if you upgrade your operating system like from Microsoft windows 98 to windows 2000 pro the drivers can be included in the operating system straight from Microsoft.  That is the easy solution if it works.  Otherwise you will need to surf and see if you can locate an original drivers disk for the used laptop you have.  Which you can sometimes find on www.ebay.com.  However if the laptop is really older or be of a generic brand you may just be out of luck.....