How to Build Your Own PC - Save A Buck And Learn A Lot  9  Chapter 10: Configuring Windows XP       9  Driver Installation Example: Monitor Driver

Default Monitor Driver 1 Installing the New Driver

A disk came with the Viewsonic monitor, and we’ll put that in the CD drive. Autorun starts a program to install a new driver, but it fails with the message that it couldn’t find a better driver. The generic plug and play driver will still be used. This could be because the CD only has a driver for Windows 98 and not XP yet. Or sometimes software just sucks! We tested the CD with Windows 98 and found it also didn’t work properly. In this case, we learned the software just sucks. The lesson is that sometimes you’ll do everything correctly and something just won’t work. The failure isn’t your fault. It’s a flaw in the program. But, you must find a workaround.

We’ll go to the website for viewsonic.com and look under “Download Drivers.” When looking for updated drivers for a device, your first visit can be to the hardware manufacturer’s website. Viewsonic.com sends us to microsoft.com to see if the A70f+ monitor is “Signed” or “Unsigned” for Windows XP. “Signed” means the monitor or other device is designed for Windows XP. “Signed” means “Approved.” “Unsigned” means the monitor isn’t designed for Windows XP. It might work, but there are no promises.

The ViewSonic A70f+ is signed for Windows XP. Going back to the viewsonic.com website, it says for all Windows XP signed monitors, we should download the file vs-winXP.exe as the driver. We download the 1.72 MB file and save it to our hard drive.

Default Monitor Driver 1 Installing the New Driver