Thinkpads Forum

Is this the same Oct 2007 v6.14.11.5666 that Lenovo's System Update currently offers?

Not sure what to do here .... is MS Update tyically ahead of Lenovo in tracking and offering driver updates?

eecon wrote:Is this the same Oct 2007 v6.14.11.5666 that Lenovo's System Update currently offers?

Not sure what to do here .... is MS Update tyically ahead of Lenovo in tracking and offering driver updates?

As a general rule, don't let Microsoft Update do your hardware driver updates.

There are cases where the driver updates MS offers are generic and not specific to the hardware as it is installed in a Thinkpad. Lenovo will ultimately modify or at least pass on the update themselves, which should be more likely to work in your system.

I sometimes accept these updates on my desktop, which I built myself from parts, but then I don't have a hardware manufacturer to fall back on with that system, in the way you can lean on Lenovo with your Thinkpad.

Occasionally even Lenovo will screw up with these hardware updates, most recently in my own experience with a blue-screen causing trackpoint driver. No matter who you get your hardware updates from, it is always a good idea to have a recent image backup of your hard drive, just in case.

MS often will offer hardware updates that make no sense whatsoever, including such things as updates for your LCD panel that predate the manufacturing date of your notebook. I've never let these things download, and haven't been curious enough to risk a working system for what seems, on its face, to make no sense.

my rule is always choose MS drivers over manufacturers drivers anyday. If MS doesn't have something for my hardware then i'll get it from the OEM. This is my new rule because of Vista. Windows XP didn't have drivers for anything now so you'd have to check OEMs for everything anyways. When it came to Vista, OEMs generally lacked good drivers (till lately) and only MS drivers were at least stable if they were available. Creative and nVidia come to mind but i don't use any of those parts so i didn't have that problem.

There are people that would benefit from the advanced functionality some of the other drivers provide. For me tho, i rather stability. With Vista on this system, most of the devices are installed by default and windows update offers drivers for my hardware i'll install those. The best drivers from OEMs end up on Windows Update anyways after WHQL testing so anything specific for your hardware that shows up on Windows Update is actually from your OEM but after Microsoft tests it and certifies it for sure. So the OEMs are 100% and Microsoft is 100%, what more could you ask for?