How To Reinstall Drivers Using The Device Manager Utility In Windows XP

Microsoft Windows lets you connect various hardware devices to you computer for different purposes. You can connect printers, scanners, webcam, speakers, and the usual peripherals like mouse and keyboard. Some of these devices are plug-and-play, which means your computer will automatically detect it when connected. All hardware components require drivers to be installed so as to ensure their proper functioning. A corrupted or outdated driver can make your device work strangely. Updating the driver can often fix such an issue with your hardware device. The Device Manager utility in Windows XP will help fix such driver issues related to the computer hardware components. The following Windows XP support guidelines will help you to reinstall the device drivers easily.

Reinstalling drivers using Windows Device Manager Utility

• Before you make any system changes or update the device driver, login as a user with administrative privileges.
• Click on Windows XP Start button and select “Run”. Type "devmgmt.msc" into the Open text box and press the “Enter” key.
• This will open the “Device Manager” window on your screen.
• From the top menu bar, click on “View” menu and then select "Show Hidden Devices". All the hidden devices will be displayed as grayed out icons in the device list.
• The Device Manger window will display the list of devices connected to your computer. Most probably you will need to expand the device listing by clicking on “+” symbol to view the list of devices. Suppose you want to reinstall the driver for your sound card. Then you need to click the “+” symbol next to the "Sound, video and game controllers" header, to access the sound card option.
• Locate the device for which you want to reinstall the driver. Click once on the device and then click the “Action” menu from the menu bar at the top. From the popup menu, select the option “Uninstall”. Click the “OK” button in the window that says "Confirm Device Removal".
• Once again, click the “Action” menu in the Device Manager window, and select the Scan for hardware changes option. Windows XP will now scan for available drivers and reinstalls them into your computer.
Sometimes, you might be required to install the drivers from the manufacturer CD. In such a case, you will be prompted to insert the CD into your computer’s drive. Get Windows XP support in case you run into some sort of trouble while reinstalling drivers for your hardware components.