PSA: That free driver update scanner tool messed up 3 of my client machines

I ran one of those free scanner apps on a batch of 5 refurbished laptops I was prepping and it installed the wrong graphics driver on 3 of them, causing constant blue screens. Now I just check the manufacturer site manually for each model, anyone else run into issues with those automated tools?

3 comments

3 Comments

lucasw8221d ago

Did you try rolling back the driver in safe mode? That saved me last year when one of those tools nuked the display on a Dell Optiplex I was working on. I booted into safe mode (mash F8 at startup), went to device manager, right-clicked the display adapter and hit "roll back driver" and it fixed the bluescreening completely. Those scanner tools are super convenient but man they can mess things up bad. I stopped using them after that.

carter.gavin21d ago

Wait, you actually GOT it working again after that? Dude, the one time I tried safe mode for a driver issue it just froze and never even booted. Respect for pulling that off, I would've just rage-reinstalled Windows at that point lol.

wesley38521d ago

Oh man, not to nitpick but I gotta say something about safe mode. It's actually F8 or sometimes Shift+F8 depending on your Windows version, but on Windows 10 and 11 it barely works that way anymore. You're better off forcing a restart a few times to hit the recovery menu or using a USB boot drive. But yeah, rolling back the driver is solid advice if you can even get into safe mode. Those driver scanner tools are just asking for trouble, I've seen them grab audio drivers meant for completely different chipsets too. Idk why people still trust them when a quick manual check takes like two minutes.