Stuck on drivers after reinstalling the system? A few essential driver installation tips, recommended to save!
Stuck on Drivers After Reinstalling Your System? A Few Essential Driver Installation Tips – Bookmark This!
After reinstalling your system, you might find your computer “goes deaf,” “goes mute,” “goes blind,” or “goes dumb.” In most cases, this is due to missing or incorrect hardware drivers.
Although Windows 10 and Windows 11 will automatically search for and install some drivers after a fresh installation, the drivers they can install are very limited. They basically only cover older hardware and cannot recognize or install newer hardware.
Sometimes, you may even find that after a fresh system installation, there is no network card driver, leaving your computer unable to connect to the internet. This makes it impossible to search for and install drivers online, which can be quite frustrating.
To address these issues, I’ve compiled some solutions for you.
No Network Card Driver After Reinstalling the System?
You boot up your new system with excitement, only to see a red “X” on the network icon in the bottom-right corner.
Without internet access, you can’t even download the appropriate drivers.
In this case, you can use your phone’s USB tethering feature.
On your phone (using a Huawei phone as an example; other phones are similar):
- Connect your phone and computer using a USB data cable.
- In the pop-up dialog on your phone, select “Transfer files.”
- Open your phone’s Settings.
- Go to Mobile Network -> Personal Hotspot -> More Sharing Settings -> USB Tethering.
Your system will now be connected to the internet using your phone’s network.
If your phone is connected to Wi-Fi, the shared connection will also be Wi-Fi;
If your phone is using mobile data, the shared connection will use mobile data.
Please be mindful of data charges.
Once your system is online, you can download various drivers.
Where Should I Download Drivers?
There are roughly four ways to download drivers:
- Download from the hardware manufacturer’s official website by model number.
- Use third-party software (e.g., Driver Genius).
- Use brand-specific PC manager software (e.g., Lenovo Vantage, Huawei PC Manager).
- Use a pre-packaged driver library compiled by others.
Method 1: Download from the Hardware Manufacturer’s Official Website
Look up your computer model, search for the corresponding hardware model, and visit the manufacturer’s official website to download the driver for that model. (This is cumbersome and not recommended.)
Method 2: Use Driver Genius
Use a “cracked” version of Driver Genius to download drivers. The software automatically identifies your computer’s hardware and downloads the corresponding drivers. The cracked version has no speed limits and is quite practical.
The download link for the cracked version is at the end of this article.
Method 3: Use Brand-Specific PC Manager Software
This is the most recommended method. It offers the highest level of security and is the easiest to use. For example, Huawei computers have Huawei PC Manager, and Lenovo computers have Lenovo Vantage. Using the driver download feature in these tools, you can directly download or update various hardware drivers for your computer. (Highly recommended.)
Method 4: Use a Pre-Packaged Driver Library
Use the “Universal Driver” software from IT Sky to install drivers. The software automatically identifies hardware and installs the corresponding drivers.
Drawback: The Universal Driver package is very large, around 12GB, and contains drivers for common hardware from recent years.
Universal Driver may also install software like 360 Browser on your computer. You’ll need tools like “malware immunity” to prevent this.
Backing Up Drivers
Backing up your drivers before reinstalling the system is the best way to ensure driver safety.
You can use software like Dism++ to back up and export drivers. After reinstalling the system, you can use Dism++ to import the backed-up drivers into the new system. The operation is straightforward and won’t be detailed here.
Important Notes:
Drivers for different versions of Windows are generally not interchangeable, but this is not an absolute rule.
Generally speaking, drivers for Windows 10 and Windows 7 are not compatible. However, some drivers for Windows 10 and Windows 11 can be shared.
If you downgrade your system (e.g., installing Windows 10 on a computer that originally came with Windows 11), you may find that some hardware only has Windows 11 drivers available on the manufacturer’s website, with no corresponding Windows 10 version.
If you take the risk and install a Windows 11 driver on Windows 10, the installer may display a “system version not compatible” error.
How to Solve This Problem?
In reality, many drivers are compatible between Windows 10 and Windows 11. So, you can manually install the driver without relying on the installer.
After running the entire installer and seeing the incompatibility prompt, simply close it. At this point, the driver files have already been extracted to your C drive. You need to locate the folder where the driver files were extracted. Then, right-click on “This PC” and select “Manage.”
Click on “Device Manager,” find the hardware corresponding to the driver you’re trying to install, right-click on it, and select “Update driver.”
Click “Browse my computer for drivers.”
Then, navigate to the folder where the driver installer extracted the files, select it, and confirm.
Your computer will then install the driver from that folder. In most cases, this will succeed.
Download link for the cracked version of Driver Genius:
https://wwkd.lanzn.com/izMWv2dcbd2j