Some driver Web sites recommend that you update your drivers regularly. Newer drivers often expand functionality, so updating your drivers has a benefit. Conventional wisdom says the following:

1. If a device quits working or crashes your PC even though you have changed nothing, reinstall the existing driver.

2. If you are installing an older device on a new system, or if you have made changes to your system and a device is acting up, look for an updated driver.

3.. If your device has never worked well or at all with the default driver (especially if the device and PC are of different vintage), experiment with old and new drivers to find the best one.

Some devices are more likely to receive regular driver updates than others. Your optical drive's drivers, for example, won't receive a refresh very often. But your motherboard manufacturer will regularly release new drivers for the motherboard chipset, as well as the motherboard's audio chip and Ethernet controller. These are important updates that will fix bugs and, in some cases, improve the motherboard's performance. Expect your motherboard's manufacturer to release several updates in the first few months after releasing the board. It will continue to offer (less frequent) updates for an additional year or two.

Graphics cards receive more driver refreshes than any other PC component. Interestingly, video games drive the frequent updating; graphics processor manufacturers modify their drivers often to keep pace with the graphics-rendering features that new games support.

If you're an avid gamer, installing the newest drivers for your card as soon as they're released is a good idea, as those new drivers will probably improve the graphics card's performance in your favorite games. However, if you use your computer to surf the Internet, check email, or perform other tasks that aren't graphics intensive, you don't need to install each new graphics driver as it comes out. Instead, check the graphics processor manufacturer's Web site a few times a year.