Why is Driver Easy reporting that the driver needs to be updated???

Inter (R) Watchdog Timer Driver (Inter (R) WDT) should be updated since I have no driver installed at System Timer! I think I need a better computer working !! How can someone help out please!!???? Thanks anyway!



Why is Driver Easy reporting that the driver needs to be updated, and providing a newer version, while Windows reports that the best driver available

Windows reports the latest tested driver, not the latest one. MS prefers not to update drivers, unless really needed.

I advise you not to use third-party device driver updater, they could install buggy device drivers which can cause problems (BSOD) only update drivers if there are new features and fixes problems. You can found the latest version of drivers from device manufacturer website.

In this video, i will help identify the device and find the correct drivers for it.

I would use a third party utility only as a last resort, if there is an obscure device I have already spent some time without success locating the driver. My first choice is always to manually download latest official driver from manufacturer. I prefer the device manufacturer to get the latest driver, since the motherboard or computer manufacturer may not have the latest driver available. The second choice is the computer or motherboard manufacturer, then Windows Update and last third party tools such as Snappy Driver Installer. To identify the hardware devices use Aida64, Speccy or similar utilities.

Lots of software version numbers are inconsistent, especially drivers. Third party driver download sites can get it wrong. The two safest sources are Windows Update and the manufacturer's page for your exact model.

I have made my computers unbootable in the past by using these third parties.

If you dare use third party driver tools in a laptop or tablet with touch screen, you will lose the touch and rotation functionality. No other driver can fix the problem, only the official chipset (platform) driver from the laptop/tablet manufacturer. In some cases you may not be able to fix it at all and have to format and reinstall Windows! Beware! Strictly official drivers only on such devices.

Marioo said:

Inter (R) Watchdog Timer Driver (Inter (R) WDT) should be updated since I have no driver installed at System Timer!

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Please post the Device manager screenshots that demonstrate that this is the case.


I agree that you should regard your computer maker as the first source to consult. Since it's an Intel component, you can use Intel D&SA if the computer maker does not provide a driver for this.
How to Use Intel Driver & Support Assistant



Best of luck,
Denis

I was using Intel D&SA but it installed a driver that nixxed my touchpad. It was hard to recover using Macrium Reflect because there was no way to select a backup using the keyboard. I'm very familiar with all the keys used to navigate.

This happens to other laptops as well. Installing the wrong touchpad software (usually Synaptics) makes the touchpad unresponsive. Use a USB mouse and uninstall the respective software, restart your computer and the touchpad should work again, you don't have to reinstall Windows.

Marioo said:

Why is Driver Easy reporting that the driver needs to be updated, and providing a newer version, while Windows reports that the best driver available

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You want the real reason?

They are trying to make it look like you're missing out on something that is much ado about nothing, and thus attempting to influence your thinking that they in fact provide a valuable service that you may then be inclined to pay for.

It's hogwash.

Listen to everyone else here - forget about Driver Easy, and rely on the trusted methods to get drivers onto your system. Windows Update (and the Windows Update catalog), searching for information using the HW IDs as listed in Device manager for any given piece of hardware, and of course, your system's manufacturer.

The only other tool I use in addition to all of those is Snappy Driver Installer Origin - but that is more for checking for updates to the obscure drivers I have for older hardware more than anything else.

Every other so-called Driver mgmt software out there are run as businesses, and their business model is to get more people to pay for their (often-unneeded) services.

Many driver updater tools often install incompatible drivers that work in similar devices but not perfectly on your specific devices. This may not take full advantage of your device capabilities or it may even produce BSOD. Of course they usually install only the core of the driver making the device work without fully exposing all its features to Windows and without the respective configuration tool (such as Intel Graphics Properties or nVidia Control Panel) to let you adjust any settings and tweak performance. That's why I prefer to manually download and install the official drivers, to make sure I get the latest and the full package. I always do the custom installation to make sure all available components are included, not just the driver.

johnlgalt said:

You want the real reason?

They are trying to make it look like you're missing out on something that is much ado about nothing, and thus attempting to influence your thinking that they in fact provide a valuable service that you may then be inclined to pay for.

It's hogwash.

Listen to everyone else here - forget about Driver Easy, and rely on the trusted methods to get drivers onto your system. Windows Update (and the Windows Update catalog), searching for information using the HW IDs as listed in Device manager for any given piece of hardware, and of course, your system's manufacturer.

The only other tool I use in addition to all of those is Snappy Driver Installer Origin - but that is more for checking for updates to the obscure drivers I have for older hardware more than anything else.

Every other so-called Driver mgmt software out there are run as businesses, and their business model is to get more people to pay for their (often-unneeded) services.

Click to expand...

Exactly. Don't use a driver updater. Windows finds most drivers. If you have a problem - look for the latest manufacturer driver on their website - driver downloads for your machine. Some drivers are tweaked for specific manufacturer hardware by the manufacturer - to work best on your machine.

If it is a well known manufacturer, such as HP, Dell, Asus most likely you can find all the drivers at their site, albeit not all of them latest (for old models they don't care to support anymore). I would use Snappy Driver Installer for not well known brands that are hard to find their drivers. For example one computer store in Greece assemble its own brand based on Clevo barebones. They take the case and give you a choice of CPU, amount of RAM, and the disk capacity. Of course they only provide drivers for their current models only. For old models you have to use Aida64 or Speccy to identify the hardware and download drivers from the respective manufacturers. An easy way to install all drivers is Snappy and then update only the graphics drivers if needed. Of course I consider this the "easy and lazy" method, not the best compatibility and performance wise.

I will say this - in using SDIO for a very, very long time now, I've only had it ever screw one thing up, and that was my BT on my current motherboard. It's a hobbled part of a Killer Networking setup, including a 1650AX wireless networking card that also includes a B module, and SDIO always finds items that have no drivers installed (also present in Device manager as 'other' devices) that it attempts to install correct, verified drivers for - and fails every time.

Other than that, I've had pure success with it. But it does well with keeping my much, much older hardware up to date too., and that is always welcome, because Windows doesn't like looking for drivers too hard if it considers the tech obsolete... lol.

Bluetooth devices that you cannot find drivers for are either disconnected or some obscure Bluetooth services. I once used Snappy Driver Installer to install these missing drivers and then my Bluetooth speaker would not connect. Once I removed all Bluetooth related devices from Device Manager and let Windows install automatically all but these Bluetooth services, my speakers worked flawlessly. So just ignore them.

Exactly. In my case, after the first time I force-installed and it broke, I decided to leave well enough alone lol.

There were also some weird additional Logitech things that wanted to install at one time with my MX Master 3 and having Logitech Options installed, which would fail every time (and thus not actually cause any system instability), but once I started using Options+ those stopped appearing in SDIO as 'missing' drivers, as well. Whether it was because of the migration to Options+ or whether something else happened around that time, those missing Logi drivers stopped showing as missing.

WRT the BT drivers, my guess is that, with it being Killer, which was being acquired by Intel at the time, IIRC, it was simply a mixup regarding HWIDs and driver locations / parsing, which is understandable. Even now, when you know you have Killer stuff you (usually) know how to find it in Intel's website. But the embedded BT driver in the Killer software is almost always at least a full version behind the currently available version from Intel for the same chipset.

It's these kinds of things that make people consider whether to use a third party driver update tool. Heck, a couple of decades ago I was the same way - I thoguht about it, used one of the so-called free ones, which then changed to a subscription model, and I dumped them. Sure, they might actually be legitimate enough to find a single, or even a few drivers, that your system could use that might be better, optimally speaking, than what your vendor / OEM might have released (MSI still hasn't released a newer RealTek driver for my mobo than 9057, for example lol). The shadiness is where they claim to keep you always covered - your drivers don't magically regress, and even with obscure drivers, once you have one that is working, barring a security issue / incompatibility issue, most drivers never need to be updated again. So, they are basically selling snake oil - and making money hand over fist doing it.

That's why I keep my drivers installers in the C:\Drivers folder in my PC, so I don't have to search again for them. If I find an updated version, I add it to the folder, but I keep at least one older version just in case the new version is buggy. Of course I rename all files in a more meaningful way, since HP's SPxxxxx names for example don't help understand which driver is which.

Personally I never use a third party driver updater. Just a personal rule of thumb for me and my pcs.

I use 3Dp for my Driver's if needed

You need to be very careful with those Driver update applications as they tend to update drivers that are older than what's installed. Example, Intel drivers.