Drivers & Software Questions

[bimmerdriver]

I'm back on an HP laptop after having spent the last few years using a Dell Precision M4600 (which I miss already).

I was hoping that HP would have improved their Driver and Software download site to provide more and better information to help users identify applicable drivers, but sadly it doesn't appear that much as changed. The website still leaves it to the user to determine which drivers and software apply to a particular computer.

There are a number of cases where if you look at the revision history for a driver, for example, the Intel I217LM/V and I218LM Gigabit Ethernet Driver, there are versions of the driver available that are newer than the "recommended driver".

Here is what's on the website:

Version:1.00 S (13 Feb 2015)
Version:12.12.80.19 A (8 Dec 2014)

Enhancements

- Provides improved support for Connected Standby.
- Provided improved messaging when the system resumes from standby mode.
- Provides improved ultra-low power (ULP) performance while the system is connected to or disconnected from an external audio cable.

Version:12.12.50.7205 A (26 Aug 2014)

Enhancements

It's not obvious why the revision history would show newer versions of drivers if they are not applicable, but if they are applicable, why does the website not recommend the newest version, instead of the version from 26 August 2014?

Both Intel and Nvidia have newer drivers available for the network adapters and display adapters, respectively. Does anyone get drivers for these devices from Intel and/or Nvidia?

HP has two applications, HP Support Assistant Software and HP SoftPaq Download Manager. Do either of these applications provide any useful capability for keeping drivers up to date?

Thanks.

[bimmerdriver]

I was told by HP support that it was okay to use intel and nvidia drivers for my laptop, so I got another hard drive and did a clean install to try out the other drivers and the software. In particular, the hp support assistant could be a lot better at identifying driver and software updates, but it's not bad.

[kkronowit · Accepted solution]

To answer your question, yes you may absolutely download newer drivers direct from the manufacturer (Nvidia or Intel etc) website if you wish. The drivers that are on the HP website are the most recent ones that have been tested to work specifically with HP hardware, which is why sometimes you might see a difference in the versions. 

I would definitely recommend running either HP Service Assistant or Softpaq download manager to help keep your drivers up to date. This will take a lot of the guess work out of whats needed and will save you time from having to keep checking the website for updates to drivers. You can even set the downloads to occur automatically if you wish! I hope that this helps to clear some things up and point you in the right direction. Please don't ever hesitate to give us a call if you need help with your Zbook at 866-625-1175. 

[HP34682]

Just to add a little more thoughts from experience.  HP softpaq assistant is a good tool, but you can use the manual method if you are having issues.

The drivers on www.hp.com are the latest that have been fully validated, softpaqqed, and then released to customers.

Nvidia, Intel, and other vendors will release newer generic drivers, but we cannot guarantee that they have been tested with the Zbook 15 G2 (that is my notebook actually).

The way I update my own unit is to go directly to the HP support site for my platform and operating system:

Assuming you have Windows 7 64 bit:

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=6978815&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=4059

* Then update graphics to the latest version, based on the date for the driver.

One other comment, sometimes there are two different drivers shown with different dates for the same component. 

* This is a issue with the system that manages the supersedes "chain"  between versions.  You can always choose the version with the most recent date.

Thanks,

Richard

[soccer_dan]

Another point of view from a field Technical Consultant that understand what you are seeing. Depending on the situation and the customer needs, HP is providing different tools that could do the same thing. It is a matter of preference and understanding of how the tools operate

If you are at a large or corporate customer with large number of devices, you would use an enterprise tool like MS SCCM, LanDesk, or others to do the deployment of Windows images. We have (like Dell and others) driver packs for different operating systems to help with those tasks

for single users that rely on themselves, there are a variety of ways to accomplish these installs or updates. As mentioned before, you could go to hp.com/go/support look for your model and OS and start downloading individual BIOS and/or drivers. What i usually recommend is to use a more automated tool, HP Softpaq Download Manager (www.hp.com/go/sdm) that, by design, will NEVER do the wrong thing... like installing a Windows 7 driver on a Windows 8.1 system, or install a desktop driver on a laptop platform, or even confuse generational platforms. Is part of the DNA of the tools and they reason HP packages drivers (Inte, NVidia, Realtek, etc.) and posts them on the web linked to the platforms that have been test on. SDM uses that information

SDM is a constanly evolving and improving BIOS and driver delivery tool but is not perfect, and greatly expects and developers hope users provide feedback on its quirks and enhancement needs. Thinks like customers need to help their jobs easier

with that said, SDM will, by default, scan your laptop and suggest what may need to be updated or installed to be up to date. If you use it, please provide feedback, via the tool's Help menu, or to us here. BTW, SDM has a large number of capabilties, many of which are listed on its web page. 

Support Assistance may be a good tool, but i am not familiar with it as my tool of choice is SDM

Hope this helps

[bimmerdriver]

I installed the HP support assistant. It seems to work well. I'm quite impressed with it. It installed SDM. I was surprised that the version of SDM that was installed doesn't seem to be readily available for download. It's a lower SP number than the version being recommended on the HP website for my laptop, but the files inside are newer.

[bimmerdriver]

I thought I would update this thread, since it's been a while. I'm less impressed with the support assistant than I was originally. I guess the first impression didn't reflect the way it worked over a period of time.

I find it doesn't keep up to date with the drivers on the hp drivers & software website. I can go through the list of applicable drivers on the website and the support assistant may only identify a fraction of them.

It's very slow to check for updates.

It does a poor job of retaining history. Most of the items in the log are greyed out or no longer available, so it's not possible to even see what driver version they were about.

I had to do a complete OS reinstallation last fall. The support assistant seems to have no clue that it was reinstalled on a fresh installation part way through the chronological history.

HP has a lot of work to do if they expect people to rely upon this application to maintain the drivers and software.