What is the correct place to go for drivers?

It looks like there are a few places to go on the web for drivers, especially when it comes to the video card. My question is where to go to get the most stable and latest ones? Should I get all my hardware drivers from Lenovo or should I get the ones that Microsoft sends down with their Vista updates? I am not looking for experimental drivers but ones that are up to date, stable and Lenovo recommended. For example when I got my critical Vista updates from Microsoft, I also got the notification of optional driver updates for my nvidia card and sound card. I skipped installing them because I thought that they might overwrite the correct ones and cause me problems. Thanks.

 

I find that the device manufacturer (the device, not the PC) has the most recent drivers. The drivers that the PC manufacturer and Microsoft have are often not as recent. Which level works best with your PC and OS level? That is the million dollar question. Personally, I get my drivers from the device manufacturer.

 

It is usually best to get your drivers for your laptop from the manufacturer's website, while using graphics drivers from www.laptopvideo2go.com.

 

i dont recommend ever using the vista drivers from update.

-For chipset and wifi go directly to intel
- Laptopvideo2go for video as bog said
- lenovo for the rest
(links)

 

Are the video drivers from www.laptopvideo2go.com just as stable as Lenovo's? I had problems with Intel's video drivers..

 

When I used the drivers from laptopvideo2go.com on my previous laptop they never had any stability issues.

 

Please keep in mind that www.laptopvideo2go.com only has NVIDIA drivers.

 

I agree. It's the best way to have the more recent drivers.

 

Presently using the nVidia CP & nView application on the nVidia Quadro NVS 140M AGP card.
Would like to install the above drivers (laptopvideo2go.com) to replace the nVidia ones. From where & How can I install the drivers and fine-tuning application (if any)? (main page of laptopvideo2go.com is confusing)

Is it necessary to 1st uninstall the nVidia drivers from Device Manager?

 

Where did you get the nVidia CP & nView application on you nVidia card. Where do you go? I have the same card.

 

Both (nVidia CP=Control Panel) came factory-installed with the Lenovo TP R61. If you have the same agp card, you should have the same aps on your machine as well. Check the Control Panel ( Windows CP), they should be there.

 

I have that. There is no option for updates?

 

first, download these 3 files
drivercleaner
modded .inf
driver

1. unzip the driver into a folder, then copy and replace the .inf file over the orginal.
2. then go to add/remove programs and remove the stock video driver
3. do not reboot. run drivercleaner and choose nvidia and run the cleaner. then reboot. (you will boot under vga mode)
4. install the driver. if you did not copy the inf correctly, the driver will not install, you will get an error.
   
   reboot, then your done.

 

Thanks,

but I have Wwindows XP Pro, SP3 (not Vista)

 

no problem try these: (169.09)
driver
.inf file

if you bluescreen, do not worry. just reboot in vga mode and try another driver.

 

How to re-boot in VGA mode? (sorry for so many qns)

 

you can use safe mode or vga mode, hit F8 before vista loads at startup.

 

Does the exe/inf also include the application (correponding to nView/nVidia CPL)?

 

yeah, the control panel looks exactly the same.