Which drivers required for motherboard?

JustAnotherSaver

I'm going to format my hard drive as it's been acting up lately.

I have the CD that came with the MOBO but i built this PC just over 3 years ago so i'm sure things will have been updated since then.

The mobo is: ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3



Now i wont need things like BIOS. & i wont need VGA as i have a separate graphics card.

What do you actually need though? I don't want to install stuff that isn't actually required.

Chipset, do you need that for e.g.?

almillar

Depends what version of Windows you're installing. If Windows is from after your mobo was made, it'll likely include drivers. Likely, not guaranteed.
For any upgrade, I'd be going to the manufacturer's website and downloading ALL the updated drivers, and I'd update the BIOS too, but maybe you shouldn't if you're not confident and not having problems.
What you MUST do, and I think that's really your question, is have the chipset drivers,and network driver - this will mean that if Windows doesn't get you online, you can install these drivers (chipset first, might cover network), get online and sort yourself out.

JustAnotherSaver

almillar wrote: »

Depends what version of Windows you're installing.

Says in the screenshot - Windows 7 64bit.

I also got that screenshot from the manufacturers website.

I think i'll play safe & download everything.

cookie365

Chipset, audio, LAN, USB

The SATA is probably only needed if you want RAID.

The utilities will be a collection of tat you don't need, with some potentially useful stuff like software overclocking drivers.

JustAnotherSaver

* How do you update the BIOS?
* If your PC is running fine, would you even bother?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

some bios updates are needed to iron out some bugs to do with memory timings front side bus corrections with certain processors and pcie bus drivers and the like, some BSODS can come from original bios versions purely down some drivers conflicting with the original bios.


to flash the bios, first you need to put the downloaded bios (unzipped) onto a CD/DVD then reboot the laptop/pc and press del or F2 or whatever your splash screen tells you to press to enter bios, then proceed to asus EZ flash then from there backup your current bios, then replace it with the one on your disk once its done the system will reboot with the new bios installed on the mobo.
even bios updates can lower the system processor temps because a bug has been ironed out to stop certain protocalls executing at the wrong time.


chipset updates are vital for correct operation of the intel/amd chip.
last thing you want is to update the operating system with windows update only for the update to cause BSOD because theres a known issue with the chipset and that update from Microsoft and the manufacturer has released a fix for it which you haven't downloaded.

JustAnotherSaver

Sounds fairly easy to update BIOS then.

Question is, you say back up the current BIOS - how is this done?

forgotmyname

Do you have a genuine windows CD/DVD or a restore set of discs or is it a secure partition on the hard drive?

JustAnotherSaver

I have the genuine Windows 7 64 bit DVD (& 32bit, but i don't use that).

How does that help back up the BIOS though?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

I usually cheat and download the previous version and the current version form asus download, put onto to disc and note the build numbers on the file.


then go into ez flash 2 select and select the current build number to flash the bios, if anything goes wrong I can do the same again but flash it with previous build file.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQKQj_aASCQ

JustAnotherSaver

I updated BIOS last night. Seemed pretty straight forward aside from it wouldn't boot to Windows afterwards (i have 2 partitions, both with OSs on). I had to disconnect all but 1 HDD so it could boot & then reconnect the others for it to work (boot to Windows again).

Turned out i had the entry BIOS version. Updated to the latest. All seemingly well so far. Hopefully it stays that way.