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Consequences of Installing the Wrong Drivers
The process of obtaining and installing the drivers you need can be arduous and confusing for those without a solid understanding of their nature and function. It is extremely important that when choosing your driver download source, you are sure that it is a legitimate provider to avoid the problems that can arise from incorrect files. Basically, this means that if you're looking for software for a certain component, the best, and really only source that should be considered is the manufacturer of that component. Of course, even should you get the right file, troubles can occur during its installation that can result in all sorts of headaches. Here, many of those potential symptoms of this kind of trouble will be explored and described.
First, let's consider the possibility that while the source of the driver is correct, the user chooses the wrong device model during the process of navigating the manufacturer's website. Since the source is legitimate, it is unlikely to the point of being almost impossible that any malicious code might be contained within the improperly identified file. This means that data loss, virus infection, computer infiltration and similar symptoms of tampering should not appear. In fact, if the component model you have chosen is physically different enough from the one you actually need there may not be any change in your computer's behavior. Since that hardware isn't installed, the device driver providing the interface to the operating system won't be able to do its job. The hardware that you are attempting to render functional will continue to be unresponsive, though should still be detected and displayed within the "Device Manager," albeit as an unknown device.
On the other hand but in the same vein of activity, the possibility exists that even should you install the incorrect driver file from the manufacturer a behavioral change in your computer system may make itself apparent. While uncommon, it does happen and is more likely to happen in the circumstance that the driver file being installed is for a slightly different, but very similar hardware model. The differences may be so minute between one model and the other that the driver will work to an extent, though certain capabilities of the device may be inaccessible. In this type of scenario it's also possible that the device may do strange things that it shouldn't; a good example of this occurs in video cards, where architecture from model to model generally changes incrementally. Whereas before the driver installation the card was completely unusable, after installing a driver for a different model you will have a display but artifacts and glitches present themselves. This is especially likely to occur when running applications that take full advantage of all the hardware's features, such as 3D modeling programs and video games.
As briefly mentioned previously, sometimes installing the wrong drivers can have even more dire consequences. Should you make the choice to obtain your driver files from a third party, you are taking the risk that the software you are installing may have an intended detrimental effect on your computer. People and organizations are not always who they claim to be on the Internet, and it must be considered that those offering help may have ulterior motives which could end up costing you valuable time and money. A good preventative measure to take before undertaking any driver installation, especially one from a less reputable source is to create a system restore point. Driver rollbacks won't help you if you get a computer virus and important files are deleted or corrupted. More specific information on this subject can be found in other articles available here.