Video card drivers are crucial components that allow your computer to play video. Since everyone today needs to have their video functionality up to par, it’s even more important to keep those video card drivers up to date.

Missing or corrupted video card drivers will seriously hamper your ability to play videos on your machine. You will need to try several different methods in order to identify the cause of your video card problems. Let’s go over how you can fix video card problems quickly.

The download/uninstall/reinstall method

First of all, one of the most effective ways to fix video card device driver problems is what is called the download, uninstall, and reinstall method. This method basically involves finding the right driver for your graphics card, installing it, then uninstalling your video card and reinstalling it with the new drivers built in. This is how you can do this:

1. Find out the make and model of your graphics card. You can do it simply by opening “Device Manager” in Windows. Then you’ll need to expand the entry labeled “Display adapters.” Opening this menu will allow you to view information related to your graphics card.

2. Connect to the Internet and navigate to your graphics card manufacturer’s website. So if you have an ATI graphics card, you’ll need to visit ati.amd.com. Find the right site, navigate to it, and find the drivers you need. You will need to know how to extract INF files in order to successfully integrate the new drivers.

3. Open Device Manager again. After right-clicking on the icon for your graphics card, click “Uninstall.” The operating system will then uninstall the outdated graphics card from your machine. You will need to restart the computer after this. Resume.

4. Once your computer has restarted, the operating system will locate your graphics card and install the updated drivers on it. Follow the setup wizard to complete this.

5. Install the new display drivers by simply double-clicking the display driver installer. Now, your drivers should be working correctly.

The method mentioned above can work very well, as long as you know how to install the drivers manually. If you’re not a technical genius, you probably shouldn’t try to install drivers manually, as you may end up damaging your system if you make a mistake.

You should also absolutely make sure that you find the right drivers for your graphics card. Downloading the wrong driver can cause a host of unexpected problems.

What if your hardware is outdated?

It is also possible that you simply have an old graphics card. Sometimes you can only upgrade a graphics card so many times before it can’t support the next generation of graphics. Therefore, you need to make sure that your video card is not old.

An Easy Fix: Driver Update Software

However, the most effective way to get your sound card working again is to use driver update software. Driver update software is an automated process that works by scanning your system for outdated drivers and replacing them with new, working drivers.

Driver update software is also a preventative measure as you can use it at any time to check if your drivers are out of date. In fact, you can stay ahead of the game by running a driver update scan from time to time. It is a great idea to use driver updater software when you need to fix your video card drivers.