Which of these drivers/application are essential and not?

[crunchbangyou]

Can anyone confirm that the system can function to its full potential without the following drivers/applications?. This would mean a lot to me because I believe in running a laptop as clean as possible without unneccessary driver/applications. I want only the ones that is essential for the system, top be present in the system. In my previous PC support section, there used to be a categorization like essential, optional, etc... In hp site, I don't see none like that. So, this reply would mean a lot helpful to me, in running a clean system.

Please reply with a Y or N against each driver/application. Y means Required & N means optional.

My Notebook: HP 245 G5 (AMD A6 CPU/4GB RAM/500GB WDD HDD) running licensed Windows 10 Pro 64Bit.

1) HP Wireless Button Driver - I don't see any physical wireless button in this laptop

2) HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI

3) HGST Hard Drive Firmware Update - HDD is my notebook is WDD 500GB not HGST 1TB

4) CyberLink Power Media Player Software

5) Cyberlink PowerDirector Software

6) Intel Wireless Display Software - Notebook is AMD powered.

7) ENERGY STAR Qualified Power Plan

😎 HP Image Enhancement for System Logon

9) HP Orbit

10) HP Recovery Manager Update

11) HP Support Assistant

12) HP System Event Utility

13) HP AC Power Control Utility

14) HP Sure Connect

[iomare · Accepted solution]

Hi,

They are all optional. Some can be helpfull such as HP diagnostics which can check for hardware failures. However you can always install later or run off USB.

For clean system the best idea would be to download the media creation tool from Microsoft and run to create a bootable USB drive with Windows 10 on it. Delete all partitions on hard drive and perform a clean install. Next uninstall all unwanted app which come with Windows. Let Windows completely update and it will find all (or almost all) drivers for your system. After having let Windows completely update (you can follow in settings) go to device manager and see if any devices are missing drivers. Download and install only those drivers.

Hope it helps,

David

[crunchbangyou]

Thanks so much for your reply. I kind of had a feeling that most of these might be optional drivers/applications. Thanks for confirming. And as you suggested, went ahead and fresh installed Win10Pro creating a 100GB C partition and a 365GB D partition. I just let the system settle after installation and install updates by itself. There were some updates which happened and more yet to come. I am still in build 1607. Further updates might take me further. I have not cared to install any driver yet. As suggested, I let Windows itself install drivers, which it did except for one. On opening device manager, I see one unknown device. The question is: Will Windows eventually figure the driver for this? Should I let it as it is? Or Should I go ahead and install the relevant driver? If yes, what is the relevant driver for this? 

Please refer the screenshot:

[iomare]

Hi,

Pictures take quite a while to become visible on this forum. If you go into device manager, right-click on the unknown device and click on properties. Now under the tab details open the curtain tab and click on hardware id. You can post the hardware id here and we will find the driver for it.

If you want to update to the latest version of Windows 10 you can go to Microsoft site and click on update now

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Hope it helps, 

David

[crunchbangyou]

I hope this is the Hardware ID:

ACPI\ASD0001\2&DABA3FF&0
ACPI\VEN_ASD&DEV_0001
ACPI\ASD0001
*ASD0001

[iomare]

Please take a look at this thread solved by expert @Paul_Tikkanen and perform the same action. The zip file is at bottom of 2nd answer.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/Driver-Missing-for-Microsoft-AC...

David

[crunchbangyou]

Thank you so much. Followed the instructions and got rid of unknown device error. Cheers.

[iomare]

Your very welcome.

Let me know if you need any further help.

All the best,

David

[crunchbangyou]

Thank You So Much For Your Support. Much Appreciated.

I have few more queries to complete setting up my notebook and let it settle 🙂

I have installed essential driver/applications required for the optimal functioning of the notebook using your inputs.

However I am still undecided on few drivers/applications/fixes. I will cover them below and would appreciaate your inputs:

List of drivers/applications/fixes, I have not installed yet. Are they necessary? Or can I skip them?

1) HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI - I am skipping this. Let me know if I shouldn't.

2) HP Orbit -  I am skipping this. Let me know if I shouldn't.

3) HP AC Power Control Utility - I am planning to install but is it that big a deal or can be skipped?

4) HP Sure Connect  - I am not sure about this. What does it actually do? Is it that big a deal?

5) ENERGY STAR Qualified Power Plan - I am not sure about this. What does it actually do? Is it that big a deal?

6) HP System Event Utility -  I am not sure about this. What does it actually do? Is it that big a deal?

7) HP Image Enhancement for System Logon - I am guessing this is a fix for delayed boot or blank screen. is this a default install or required only if I am facing issues?

[crunchbangyou]

Thanks once again for your valuable inputs. I am done installing drivers and system is also updated to the latest possible version.

Just a quick question, When I installed Windows10, there were three partitions which got created: 1) MBR - 100MB 2) Recovery 450MB 3) SYSTEM Partition: Rest of the HDD. The partition was also in the same order. After successful installation, I created another partition out of system partition. So, System Partition (C) was 100GB and the D Partition was 365GB. 

But I happened to see now, that my C Partiton has reduced to 99.2 from 100GB. When ahead and looked at the partitions.

I see another partition listed as recovery (800MB) between C: & 😧

How did this happen? Did any of the drivers/Apps/Fixes, I installed from HP driver section create this extra partition? And what is it for? Is it necessary?