Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with driver

jumpy mouse disease

krautland — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:47:01 -0800

my logitech mouse is jumping around frantically on os x. it's behaving completely normally one second and then it's off somewhere entirely different the other. lots of details inside. I purchased a logitech RX720 mouse a while back without realizing it was meant for windows only. being the hackjob that it is logitech's own control center refused to accept it accordingly and the site didn't provide any drivers. not to worry, macs still let you use such mice, they just don't have customizable a right button. alas, I wanted that right button, so I installed steer mouse, which I was assured was much better. fast forward a week of perfect behavior and my mouse is back to jumping around.

here's what I've tried thus far:

- I have changed batteries.
- I have uninstalled steer mouse and just used 10.4.11 to run the mouse.
- I have changed the surface below the mouse (it's an optical mouse. I tried a black mousepad, a yellow folder, a white piece of paper).
- I've tried to look for obvious smudges though I avoided looking into the laser hole for obvious reasons. or am I being overly cautious?

I'm ready to throw this dreck into the can and accept that this mouse (which sadly I can no longer return) needs to be replaced. other mice previously worked well with my mac book pro. I don't know what the issue is.

you are this little logitech mouse last hope. share ideas of suggest a painless death for it because I am ready to go postal on it.

Audio driver problems!

FuckingAwesome — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:21:32 -0800

Audio driver needed for Sony Vaio VGN-SX61MN/B model laptop with Windows XP SP3! I recently downgraded to XP SP3 from Vista and cannot find a suitable audio driver. The ones on the Vaio website seem not to install properly. Very frustrating! Please help.

How to mitigate the damage of a dreaded interview question?

liquado — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:35:34 -0800

Question-for-a-friend filter: How do you truthfully answer a job interview question about a previous job that you were asked to resign from, because you were an idiot? Long-story-short: After six months as CSR, friend gets promoted to great job as account manager, which includes on-the-road sales visits to customers. After only four months in position, friend gets stupid, drives drunk and loses license. Company asks him to resign and offers severance package, as he can no longer drive to sales calls. Friend acknowledges stupidity, takes the golden handshake, goes back to working construction. He left the position on good terms with his supervisor.

Now, friend is applying for new sales position that will likely not require driver's license. He's almost certain to get an interview, but is not sure what the best approach is to answer the likely question, "Why did you choose to leave your last sales position?" He doesn't want to lie or be dishonest, but we're both at a loss as to an alternative/vague answer that limits the damage to his chances of getting the new position.

Thanks for any pearls of wisdom.

Seeking a permanent solution for my Wacom tablet woes.

iamkimiam — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:09:30 -0800

Sometime around the beginning of this year, my Intuos2 Model 0608-U 6"x8" Wacom tablet driver stopped loading upon login and restart. I reinstall it every time I login/restart. All of the tips, tricks, workarounds suggested by both Wacom and Apple do not work. I am running Mac OS 10.5.7. Is there anything left to try? The tablet works after I reinstall. I have tried uninstalling, disk repair, permissions, reinstalling (various versions of the tablet driver) in all possible combinations. Is anybody else having this problem? What has worked for you?

I'm looking for a permanent solution that does not cost $$. I will reinstall indefinitely if I have to, but it is getting tiresome. Thanks!

Cross-Platform Crashing on a Macbook Pro

N2O1138 — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:04:43 -0800

I have Leopard and Windows 7 (7057) installed on my Late 2007 (possibly older, I got it refurbished) Macbook Pro 15". My problem is, every time I boot into either OS, I get a kernel panic or BSOD respectively. The fact that it happens in 2 different operating systems makes me almost positive that it's a hardware problem. Unfortunately, I don't know very much about computer hardware, so I don't really know what to troubleshoot first, and I don't want to void the warranty by opening the case (I plan to take it to the Apple Store if nobody here can solve the problem). Specifically, either operating system will crash about a minute into booting up. I don't think the problem can be too serious because everything graphically looks fine and all my files are intact. This leads me to think that maybe it's a RAM problem, and that it runs out of memory and crashes during bootup. Safe Mode in Windows works fine (I'm using it now), and still reports the correct 2gb of RAM. I haven't done safe boot to OS X yet.

The Blue Screen says
"Uncorrectable Hardware Error" and below it gives the code
*** STOP: 0x00000124 (0x00000000,0x85BAE024,0xF2000000,0x00060151)

If it were just what I'm experiencing on Windows, I might think it was something to do with drivers, but it's on both operating systems.

ATI Mobility Radeon 4530 driver for XP?

MattScully — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:33:18 -0800

Down (up) grading a new HP DV7T-2000 to XP. The video card is an ATI Mobility Radeon 4530. I have had no luck in finding an XP driver. Does anyone have any experience with this card and have any ideas about a possible driver or workaround?

Video causes my HP dv6000 (dv6810us) to restart after watching fro 30-45 minutes, motherboard or video card dying?

unclezeb — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:26:19 -0800

HP laptop video card issues filter: Video problem with my HP dv6000 (dv6810us) - artifacts appear then increase while watching Hulu, after 30-45 minutes the computer freezes then restarts. Pausing the video then letting the computer sleep for a couple minutes resolves the issue for another 20 minutes of video watching, then it repeats ... bad integrated video? Bad VRAM? Evil monkey? I got my HP dv6810us on ebay about 5 weeks ago, no problems, in great condition ... until yesterday. While watching a video on Hulu (using Firefox with IE tab extension, but same problem with using Internet explorer independently) the video slowly beings to show artifacts, eventually becoming fuzzy and with bizarre patterns on the screen. If I keep the video playing the computer freezes then restarts and reports a hardware error in the error log.

I have tried using k-lite mega codec, Vista Codec Package.

I have tried using IE rather than Firefox with the IE Tab extension.

I have tried replacing the video drivers with old HP versions, generic nvidia 7150 drivers, the laptop2go.com drivers (current), and rolling back to those originally installed.

I have tried watching while observing the GPU temperature ... it gets quite hot (55 degrees C).

Is it possible to expose the thermal compound / gell / grease /paste to replace it with a more efficient type/brand (i.e., Artic Silver, etc)?

If so, would I need a grease/compound or paste?

Any other suggestions beyond "replace the motherboard because the integrated video card is dying"?

Finally, any ideas on where to call or look on-line to determine if my computer is still covered by the warranty? (~5 months old, I have the original receipt though I'm not the original purchaser)

Laptop running Windows Vista with all updates, 3gb ram, not overclocked. Google desktop running in background, AVG anti-virus (cleansed of Norton), essentially all OEM specs and parts.

Thanks again mefites!

In the name of all that is holy, please let there be print-outs!

miss lynnster — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:37:15 -0800

I installed a new hard drive in my G5, reinstalled all my software, and now I can't print to my HP color laserjet 3550. I've called HP, I've done everything I know how to do. HELLLLPPPPP!!!!! I'm using OS X 10.4.11. According to HP, they eliminated the need to download a printer driver and made it "automatic" in Tiger... but it's not connecting/printing no matter what I do. This printer worked fine with this computer for 3 years, and I don't remember how I got it working back then but I *know* it wasn't this difficult.

I'm getting really desperate... I need printouts asap!!! Helllp! I'm getting really whiny as my frustration mounts.

Memorex Dual USB driver

tommasz — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:37:27 -0800

I inherited a Memorex Dual USB card reader without a Windows XP driver. It's theoretically available at Memorex's web site but the links throw errors and when I tried to contact support, it generated a MySQL error (surprise, surprise). All of the various drivers sites I could find simply link back to Memorex's faulty site. Does anyone have this driver? It's probably in a form like "Dualreader.exe" rather than a zip archive.

Where can I find drivers for my ancient digital camera?

chinese_fashion — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:09:33 -0800

Where can I find software to connect my computer to my camera? I have a Dell running Windows XP and an old Canon Powershot G2 from 2001. I bought my camera in 2001, and have subsequently lost the cd that lets me install driver software. I've been to the Canon site and tried to download drivers that will connect to the camera and download, to no avail. On my Mac at home, I just connect with iPhoto. On this work PC, I have no idea ... any suggestions?

Thanks, your help is greatly appreciated.

How do I get my Samsung Juke phone to work with my computer?

champthom — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:51:51 -0800

How do I get my Samsung Juke phone to work with my computer? Two days ago, I bought a new phone, a Samsung u470 Juke. It has a 2GB mp3 player that I've been trying to get to work so I can put mp3s on it but I keep having this problem.

I installed the device drivers all right, but when I connect the phone via USB, I keep getting this message that the "MTP Device Failed" when Vista tries to install an MTP Device driver and when I look at the details, it says "This device cannot start. (Code 10)."

I tried restarting, uninstalling then reinstalling the device drivers, uninstalling the MTP device driver, but I still have no luck. I've looked elsewhere online for a solution but it usually ends up with the person just returning their device to the store for a new one. I contacted Samsung but they just e-mailed me back "How do I add mp3s to my Samsung u470 Juke phone?" from their FAQ, which does not answer my question.

So, how can I fix this problem and start putting mp3s on my cell phone?

Graphics driver issues for XP on an iMac

mdonley — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:29:03 -0800

We can't boot into Windows XP, except in VGA mode, without the screen going black after the Windows XP "loading bar screen"; we can still hear everything, though. This is on an Intel iMac running Boot Camp, and the Mac side (Leopard) works fine, which leads me to believe this isn't a problem with hardware. Here's the chronology of what's happened so far. I'll try to provide as much detail as possible, which means I might include some red herrings; we're relative novices with Windows, so bear with us.

1. Upon restarting into Windows from the Mac side last night, an error message was displayed before any of the Windows warm-up/loading screens came up: "Unable to find Windows/system32/config/system" and asked us to insert the Windows XP disk to reinstall this file. (We're not totally recalling the phrasing here.)

2. Upon inserting the disk, we ran "chkdsk /r". This took hours and it was late, so we headed to bed.

3. This morning, the process looked finished, so we restarted.

4. The problem, as described in the lead-in above, occurred.

5. We went to VGA mode, and upon trying to go through the Appearance>Display control panel, were given an error message which told us that "the current graphics display driver cannot be used because it was written for a previous version of Windows" (which makes no sense, since we've never had another version of Windows on this computer...) and that we need to either "contact our hardware manufacturer to get an upgraded driver" (presumably this is Apple?) or "select one of the Microsoft provided drivers."

So the question seems to be: how do we procure this new driver? We can't get on the internet from the Windows side, and if it's telling us the driver that came with XP is somehow not compatible anymore, I'm not sure what we need to do. Where do we look?

One other thing that may be worthy of note, based on what I've read in other forums, is that this computer is used for some pretty heavy MMORPG playing, so perhaps the video card or graphics hardware may be reacting to being really hot and giving us display problems? We don't have any cooling system set up other than what came with the iMac.

If it makes a difference, I'm typing this question on a Macbook without Windows/Boot Camp.

Business went under... how do I get driver support?

SpacemanStix — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:40:02 -0800

I have a wireless internet adapter that I transferred to a new desktop computer, and I don't have the CD with the driver on it anymore. Also, it looks like the original company is no longer in business, so I'm unable to download it from their site. Is there a way to make this work? This is the adapter that I purchased. Is there a way to get the original driver, or find one that is compatible? I've searched some sites that host old drivers, but to no avail.

Why won't my computer talk to my monitor?

jeffmshaw — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:33:45 -0800

My monitor stopped talking to my PC. Strangely, the monitor shows the Windows startup screen before going dark. It does this every time I boot up. I built my PC in Japan, and it's served me well for a year. For the entirety of that time, it's been attached to a new Dell monitor.

One night last week, I was playing music with iTunes when the screen went dark. The music continued to play. I rebooted the computer, but after the Windows start screen came up, it went dark again -- never saw my desktop.

So I took the box to work and connected it to other monitors. Oddly, the other monitors work fine with the machine. I haven't tested my monitor with other boxes yet. (I do have the CD that came with the monitor still).

Does this sound like a driver issue? A video card issue? What's my next step? Admin please hope me!

yes, I am actually that lazy.

nihlton — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:58:10 -0800

Can i take my driver's license test in a rental? Since it probably makes a difference, I am in washington state, seattle specifically.

so nearing the age of 26 its probably about time i got my driver's license. however, I don't have a car, or know someone with a car in which i would be insured.

Can i rent a car with only a learner's permit?

Can I pay to have a friend's car insured for a month such that I would be covered while I take the test?

what are my options here?

This seems like a rather nasty catch 22 situation.

Help needed for a beginner installing LINUX drivers

dash_slot- — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:30:23 -0800

Tomorrow, I am going to try and make a HP840C printer work on a Linux machine (Ubuntu 7.*) I have no idea how to do this... ...as I have never installed software on this OS (the OS itself, I installed, and I am still finding my way around it).

I have downloaded a driver to a USB stick from HP (http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=HP-DeskJet_840C)

Can anyone provide step-by-step instructions on how to do it?
Please state the blindingly obvious (ie. everything I need to do after powering up!)

I have installed drivers on Windows machines and it ain't always easy. I am imagining this is gonna be a learning experience...

Alternative Mouse Driver?

russmail — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:27:49 -0800

Is it possible to add a driver to my XP box which will allow me to use my mouse wheel as a third button but does not require admin priviledges to install? I prefer to use a mouse with a driver which allows the wheel to be used as a third button. In the past I’ve used the MS Intellipoint driver, but I don’t have administrative priviledges and my new employer’s IT dept is cranky about installing anything on my machine.

I have gone through all the correct routes to do this, but I’m getting a resounding “we’ve got bigger fish to fry” response, so I'm wondering if there's a workaround?

But... I don't _want_ it to work right!!

lucasks — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:40:07 -0800

Linux Hackers... help me make my linux box perform very very poorly on command. OK, so for various reasons ( a research project) I want to be able to force the memory system to behave very very badly. I want to be able to force a cache-miss, or a TLB miss, or even force a page-fault disk read. So... I found a set of linux hooks in the kernel that would let me do this (ie flush_tlb()) but obviously they need to be run in kernel mode. So... I thought about writing a device driver to make the calls but I'm pretty sure even the driver wouldn't have permission to write to the CR registers (which is how the cache/TLB/ etc. flushes are done under the covers in x86).

I've never written a driver before and I don't want to go to the trouble just to find out it doesn't work. But a driver seems best since I want to write a variety of programs which could force this behavior whenever they want. So, hive mind any ideas? How can I make the memory hierarchy and virtual memory system break down on command?

==
PS I considered doing things like looking up the size and associativity of the caches and then forcing a cache miss but things like the victim cache and pre-fetcher make this approach difficult; to say nothing for how I would accomplish the same think at the page level.

A good 'ol-fashioned driver hunt

tumult — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:02:12 -0800

Here's a long shot: I'm looking for drivers for a super obscure piece of hardware from early in the decade. Specifically, a PCI souncard made by SeaSound called the SeaSound Solo EX. More specifically, the Mac OS 9 version of the drivers. The company went bust some years ago. You can see their old webpage here but the link to download the drivers is very much dead. I know there's a project that created new drivers for Windows to use the Solo; I have the card in an old PowerMac G4 and intend to run legacy software on it.

Googling the filename (solodrivers131.hqx) didn't turn up anything. I realize there's probably no way in hell I'm ever going to find this file, but I can't give up without a fight.

Make me a better pizza dude

Brandon1600 — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:46:40 -0800

I am interested in taking a pizza delivery job. Any tricks of the trade in performing this job as efficiently as possible? I hear this job is pretty laid back but I have a few concerns. One being that I have a horrible sense of direction and I might be working in a part of town I am not familiar with. I knew a cab driver that had a a little GPS road device that she swore was the best investment ever. Any navigational or road advice? Also, I am rather skinny and not a fighter. I imagine having to deliver to some rough neighbor hoods and having someone jack the pizza. Anybody ever had to deal with this? I look forward to serving those of you in the Austin area.

Help Find Obscure 4x4 Off-road Video Filter

gnash — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:23:04 -0800

Help me find this crazy (or what I remembered as crazy) 4x4 off-road video that looked like at least one or two people would die... But didn't.

I remember a couple of things of this video, but unfortunately not the location. I am pretty sure it was an old Bronco (the removal roof type), and I believe a woman was driving (it was not hers as I recall).

She was taking it down a 30 - 40 foot fairly steep and very bumpy hill. She lost control very quickly, but the vehicle never rolled. It actually bounced down the entire way tittering on the very brink of certain disaster which never happened.

I remember watching it and being absolutely positive they were going to die. I saw it once a long time ago, and haven't seen it since. Does anyone know the video I am talking about?

Broadcom 57xx Ethernet driver failure on Dell PC

monkeyforest — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:46:57 -0800

Cannot install/update Broadcom 57xx Ethernet driver on Optiplex 740 - now I have no access to the internet or the rest of my network! I acquired my Optiplex 740 in April 2007 - Spec as follows:

OptiPlex 740 MT - AMD X2 5000
2.0GB 667MHz NON-ECC DDRII Memory(4*512MB)
160GB (7,200rpm) SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
ATI Radeon X1300 Pro PCIe 256MB, DVI (Full Height)
13 in 1 Media Card Reader
Windows XP Professional SP2

This week, I downloaded the updated driver for the Broadcom 57XX Gigabit Integrated Controller from the Dell website (R161008, released 17/10/2007). When I ran the download, the files extracted to the dell/drivers directory, and the installation program started. At the end of the installation, a dialog box popped up stating that "The installation could not be completed. Please attempt to run the installation again later" (or something very similar - I'm not in front of the PC whilst writing this, so cannot replicate the error).

From that point on, my network card stopped working and I have no access to the internet or the other PC's on my network. I have tried:

* Rolling the driver back (no driver could be found)

* Re-installing the original driver from the Drivers/Programs CD that came with my Optiplex (produced same error as the updated driver - installation could not be completed)

* Installing the drivers using the Add Hardware applet in Control Panel (it can recognise the driver as correct for the hardware, but I get an 'Access Denied' error when trying to install)

* Deleting the network card from Device manager and rebooting (it sees the card upon reboot, but says there is a problem when trying to install the driver).

I've tried everything I could think of, and Google turned up no answers. Please help - it's driving me mad! System restore has been turned off the PC, so rolling back to a restore point is out of the question.

I cannot currently be in front of the offending PC at the times the support desk is open, and need to get this PC back on my network.

Help me get an uninsured hit and runner

Wong Fei-hung — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:14:30 -0800

How do I make an uninsured hit and run driver pay? I want him off the street. I do not want to do this guy any favors. How do I notify the community of this menace. Saturday I was stopped at a stop sign and a driver making a sharp (think race car) left hand turn onto my street hit me head on and then ran. I only have liability coverage on my car as it is 11 years old and not worth the blue book value of the car at alittle under 1900 dollars.-

I got his license plate number, and he was caught/cited later. I also have his name, (suspended) drivers license number, year/make of his vehicle, the address he gave the police (and about 5 other addresses he has lived at in the past 14 years) and his birth date.

I also have his brothers name, and address (the address he gave the police). (I am planning on showing up at his hearing even if he does not.)This person is self employed as a painter and has been described to me as a functional alcoholic. I could not find his business listed in the phone book.

How can I figuratively, legally, make him pay for the 2,000 dollars in damage to my car? What are my options?

Printing to a Windows printer from a Macbook on the netowrk?

DandyRandy — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:35:33 -0800

I'm trying to set up my Macbook running OS X 10.4.10 to use a printer that's connected to my Windows XP Home machine over my home network and my inner geek is failing miserably. How can I get this working? The printer is a Canon Pixma IP6700 that works marvelously on the Windows machine. The Macbook can see the printer just fine, but I cannot figure out how to tell the Macbook that this printer is a Canon. The only options I seem to have are several old Apple printers, some HP printers and a few Epson types, in addition to a driver labeled 'generic'. The Mac driver I downloaded from Canon says that it only works with a printer connected via USB or Bluetooth. Printing as it is results in either nothing or a few blank pages being fed with no printing. How/where do I load drivers for a network printer? Or am I approaching this all wrong?

Help me find this movie about an ambulance driver on meth!!!

krisptoria — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 20:16:01 -0800

Movie Filter: An ambulance driver, his friend, some meth and/or other drugs. An crusty old guy who is also into drugs and at a nursing home(?). Please help me remember this one! It is not:
Drugstore Cowboy
Bringing Out the Dead
Spun
The Salton Sea

...or anything that comes up in a search of "ambulance driver meth".

I saw it on HBO maybe 5-7 years ago.

Definitely indie with some Requiem for a Dream qualities to it.

Anyone?