Question about drivers, the computer sort.

I've loaded a CAD package onto my laptop, but it doesn't work due to a .dll unstable error and I've been led to believe that I have out of date drivers. When I try to update them I get led to Driver Manager which will apparently solve all my problems. Obviously there is a fee to pay so I was hoping some on here would be able to confirm that this is a legit package that will improve my computers performance and let me design my biscuit tin alarm!

My eldest likes to play Nick Junior games off their website and whilst they work fine on the misses laptop mine freezes after a few seconds. I wouldn't mind but I only purchased this pile of tat at Christmas as my old laptop has dementia.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Strongers

I've loaded a CAD package onto my laptop, but it doesn't work due to a .dll unstable error and I've been led to believe that I have out of date drivers. When I try to update them I get led to Driver Manager which will apparently solve all my problems. Obviously there is a fee to pay so I was hoping some on here would be able to confirm that this is a legit package that will improve my computers performance and let me design my biscuit tin alarm!

My eldest likes to play Nick Junior games off their website and whilst they work fine on the misses laptop mine freezes after a few seconds. I wouldn't mind but I only purchased this pile of tat at Christmas as my old laptop has dementia.

Any help will be much appreciated.

---

I didn't like the sound of it, and did a quick search which came up with this...

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other...er/td-p/573320

Something isn't right there. There is as far as I know no driver manager. There is a device manager, but it is not the sort of thing one would normally play with.

Do you have any virus checking software installed and if so what? It has been a while since I did my homework, but in the past when you found yourself up the esteemed creek on a PC Malwarebytes had an excellent reputation.

You may wish to download and install that and see whether it throws up anything.

A little while ago I had a problem with a printer driver.

When I was searching for a replacement I clicked on something that promised me drivers for free.

This turned out to be Driver Manager.

It started to scan my computer without being told to (and Norton 360 let it).

At the end of the scan it told me that loads of my drivers need updating and I could get them all sorted for a one off charge.

Needless to say I deinstalled it and "bought" the required printer driver for free elsewhere.

I think there must be some connection somewhere to Norton as I can't see Norton letting it scan unless it had been Okayed by them.

The bottom line is that you should be able to find the required driver for free somewhere and driver manager looks like a bit of a scam.

Depends if it really scanned your computer. If it is on a website then it just shouldn't be able to, no browser will let a remote application scan your computer let alone having the virus checker step in.

What is more likely is that they had an animated graphic (movie) to try and fool you into believing it. They then give you a standard spiele and try and get you to part with money. There are some quite impressive ones out there.





http://www.my-ray.com/images/photo/a...ogress_bar.gif
Scanning files, please wait

It's pretty much how Rob describes it and I also have Norton on my machine. I'm going to stick Malwarebytes on here now and see if anything is flagged up.

Everything seems ok. Interesting that the scan took 2 minutes 29 seconds and on my old machine it used to take over 15 minutes.

Had a quick look over lunch and there does seem to be no product by the name of Norton Driver Manager. As you have now scanned your machine it really does sound like it was a scareware ad, they can be really tricky.

I did kind of ignore the other part of your question. What was the CAD software you were trying to install? I can take a quick look and see if I can see an obvious reason for the error. The one that instantly jumps to mind is that it might well just be a necessity to install the .NET framework, it is a common issue. I sadly know little about CAD, so have no great advice on what I would use.

The package is Proteus Lite, but I've decided not to bother.

Cheers for looking though!

I know you and Dave are into your computers. I don't suppose either of you know anything about c programming do you?

Interestingly just found their forums http://support.labcenter.co.uk/forums/viewforum.php?f=9, it may actually be a driver failure with the graphics card, shows what I know. For those you are best going to the manufacturer which is likely to be NVidia or AMD. If you decide to keep on trying I am happy to chat through in more detail.

With C it depends what you mean by know anything. I can read most C programming (at least the modern flavours), it would be a stretch to say I could do a cold code in it, although I would be up for trying C# (pronounced C-Sharp). Happy to attempt to answer any questions you have. I am a programmer and play with a silly amount of programming languages.

If you want to take any of this offline feel free to PM me.

What Conrad said. It is quite common for graphics-based packages to try to use the latest features provided by manufacturers, which can require updated driivers for your graphics card even if quite new. These are invariably available from the manufacturers' websites free of charge and easily installed. Note that it usually means a specific download, not relying on Windows Update or whatever.

And the Driver Manager thing is a typical piece of hoax software, bringing up false results in an attempt to extract money. Absolutely right to scan to make sure it hasn't left any other traces.

Edit - shocked that people still use Norton, but that could be a personal thing!