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Finding the latest Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller Driver

Anonymous
2018-09-27T22:51:48+00:00

Someone asked this question and wanted to know if there was someplace on the MS website to manually get the latest drivers.

Your tech DID NOT answer the question only suggested procedures to try and get the machine to recognize the driver and it's status.

Well I would like the original question answered IS THERE SOMEPLACE ON YOUR WEBSITE TO MANUALLY GET THE LATEST MS DRIVERS?!

The MS website I find to be one of the most difficult to navigate. Especially if you are running something other than the very latest version of whatever product. You assume that your customers just can't wait to spend another pile of cash to upgrade if only they knew how.

When I hit the windows product box I would appreciate it asking me what version I'm running or better yet detect it and direct me to info about MY OS instead of trying to get me to upgrade or somehow make me feel I'm just hopelessly out of date an should GET WITH THE PROGRAM!

Well, there's my rant. Please give me an answer to the question above.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. LemP 74,925 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2018-09-29T01:17:22+00:00

    I apologize; I overstated a bit.

    Microsoft does supply generic drivers for hardware that's generally found in all Windows computers.  These drivers are "built-in to Windows. Hard disk drives and optical disk drives, for example, use Microsoft drivers.  The generic VGA video driver, which typically is used in Safe Mode or when no device-specific driver can be found, is another example of a Microsoft driver. 

    Similarly, Microsoft supplies a generic keyboard driver and a generic mouse driver.  If, for example, you have a mouse that has extra features, e.g., more buttons than the standard left, right, center, and scroll wheel, you would have to install the device-specific driver from the mouse manufacturer in order to use the extra features -- but if you didn't install that driver, Windows would use the generic Microsoft driver and the mouse would function as a basic mouse.

    To the extent that Microsoft updates such drivers, it would do so in the context of a Windows Update, and there is no easy way to search for such an update.  If you've kept your system current, you have the latest drivers for these generic devices that Microsoft has.

    A "PCI standard host CPU bridge" almost certainly falls within the same category as hard drives, keyboards, and other such common hardware.  An "HD Audio Controller" might have a non-Microsoft device-specific driver if you can identify the hardware manufacturer.  In Device Manager, double-click to open the device's properties, select the "Details" tab, and select "Hardware Ids" from the drop-down list.  Then look up the "PCI VEN DEV" number either by direct Google search or by using one of the PCI VEN DEV databases

    https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-find-unknown-device-drivers-by-their-vendor-device-id/

    http://pciids.sourceforge.net/

    https://www.pcilookup.com/

    Having said all of that, here's my advice:  ignore the scan from AVG Driver Updater.  The golden rules for driver updates are:

    1. Don't update a driver unless you know that the newer version fixes a specific problem that you have or adds a new feature that you must (or want to) have.
    2. If you do update a driver get it from the following places only (in order of preference):
      1. Your computer's manufacturer (especially for laptops)
      2. The hardware device's manufacturer
      3. Microsoft Update
    3. Never get a driver from one of the numerous "driver update" sites to be found on the Internet.  These drivers are likely to be (a) not appropriate for your system, (b) not the most recent version, (c) infested with malware, or (d) some combination of a, b, and c.
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  1. LemP 74,925 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2018-09-28T17:14:19+00:00

    Responses here in the "Microsoft Community" come from volunteers who are not Microsoft employees and have no association with Microsoft.  This is the case even if a responder is identified as a "Volunteer Moderator" or an "MVP" (which stands for Microsoft Valuable Professional).

    1.  Microsoft doesn't create drivers itself other than for Microsoft hardware (mainly mouse and keyboard).  Thus in general, there are no "Microsoft drivers" to be had.

    2.  Hardware manufacturers may provide drivers for the devices they make to Microsoft.  To the extent that drivers are provided to Microsoft, they may not be the latest or current versions.

    3.  Microsoft uses the drivers provided to it to offer updates via Windows Update, generally as "optional updates."  The usual advice from most of the most knowledgeable members of Microsoft Community is to not accept driver updates via Windows Update other than as a last resort.

    4.  If you want to manually download drivers from Microsoft, you can do so by going to the Microsoft Update Catalog (https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Home.aspx).  Using the Update Catalog is not straightforward.  Neither finding the appropriate driver (if it is there) nor using it is easy.

    For those devices that have drivers in the Update Catalog, typically you will find many entries from which you will have to pick the "correct" one.  The search mechanism is rudimentary. 

    To use just one example, a search for a driver for an "HP LaserJet 1300" turns up 291 hits.  If you add "windows 7" to the search request, that gets narrowed to 216 -- but a quick glance at the result shows that the very first hit is for "Windows 10 and Later Servicing Drivers for testing, Windows 8,Windows 8.1 and later drivers, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2 and later drivers" -- which notably does NOT include Windows 7.

    To continue the example, suppose you want to find the latest driver for an HP LaserJet 1300 for a 64-bit Windows 7 system.  Where in that list of 291 items do you suppose it is?  Hint:  if you sort the list by "Last Updated" date, the one you want isn't on the first page.

    Once you've found what you think is the driver you want, you'll discover that the file that Microsoft makes available is a *.cab file, which is Microsoft's proprietary compressed form.  You'll need to learn how to extract the contents of that file and then learn how to use them (unlike driver files downloaded from device manufacturers, there is no "setup.exe" file to run).

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  1. Anonymous
    2018-09-29T13:49:11+00:00

    Excellent! I will take your advice and ignore the scan. You have been most helpful!

    MANY THANKS!!!!

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2018-09-27T23:21:35+00:00

    I don't know, Device manager lists (standard system device) under ma

    manufacturer. The tower says "Cooling Master" and it has Intel processors of course

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-09-27T23:06:54+00:00

    Who makes the PCI controller?

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