When should I update a driver. What

You can keep your eye on a website for newer drivers, but you really only need to reinstall drivers if you have a problem that the new driver is designed to fix, or if there’s a new driver for a new operating system. This should be clear in the driver’s description.

Our drivers are posted as self-extracting files (they’re compressed, and need to be expanded). If you click on “Drivers” from our Homepage, you’ll be offered a drop-down list with product names or types. Locate the name of the driver for the exact product that you have. Clicking on that name will open your browser’s “download manager” dialog box, pointing you either to your floppy drive, C drive, or a special download folder on your hard drive (possibly the desktop).

Wherever you downloaded to, you’ll now need to expand that file by double clicking on it. This will bring up a dialog box asking where you want to expand the file to. We suggest that you expand to a new disc on your floppy drive if possible, otherwise create a temporary folder on your hard drive with a name that you’ll remember.

On PCs: You can update the driver from the Device Manager by opening the list under Sound, video & game controllers. Highlight the device, then click Properties. Click the Drivers tab, then click “Update Drivers”. Choose the recommended method to search for the best drivers, then check the box of the drive you wish to search. If you’ve created a temp folder on your hard drive, then specify the location by typing the proper path, i.e. the drive letter and the folder name (such as c:\tempdriver).

If your device does not show up in the Device Manager, you’ll most likely find it under Multimedia Properties. This will be true of Winman series other than the 4×4 and also Portman series interfaces. You’ll want to remove the driver, then proceed as if you were installing for the first time. To remove the driver, go to Control Panel | Multimedia | Advanced (in Win95) or Devices (in Win 98) and open the MIDI Devices and Instruments list. Highlight the driver (or the first entry if it has multiple ports), click Properties, then click the “Remove” button in the middle of the box. Restart the computer.

On Macs: If your driver update consists of system extension files and/or an OMS driver file, then simply replace the older file with the new one. A surefire way is to send the existing file to the trash, then drag the new file to the appropriate folder. If there is a readme file included in the download, then do read it first. If the update is an installer program, then double click on the install icon or read the readme file.

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