Question

Why are computer drivers required?

Answer 1

A driver is a piece of software that allows hardware devices to communicate with the Operating System. There are some generic drivers for hard drives and monitors, but many pieces of hardware have very specific drivers such as video cards.

Answer 2

Drivers are required because computer components and peripherals are manufactured by many different companies and there is little standardization in how these components communicate with the OS. This is not a bad thing because it allows different manufacturers to compete and keeps prices low.

Think of it like this: Each computer component needs to communicate with the OS, but each component speaks its own language. A printer 'speaks' differently than a mouse, which speaks differently than a hard drive, etc. So they need interpreters (drivers) that translate their 'language' into something the the OS understands. Sometimes similar components, like hard drives from different manufactures speak the same or very similar languages and so a generic driver can be used. These generic drivers are usually a part of the OS. But other components, like video cards speak very different languages, sometimes even between models from the same company. Therefore, the component manufacturer must provider a driver for their component to work properly. This is why you will usually get a software disk with various computer components like printers.

It is also worth mentioning that sometimes a generic driver can get a component to work in a limited fashion. For example, you may be able to get a video card to work with a generic driver, but you might not be able to access all of the card's features, like card settings, or all of the card's capabilities, like its maximum graphical capabilities. This is important because there are some cases when you need to install a component and need to have it work in order to get things done, but you might not have the correct driver. A generic driver can be used until a specific driver can be obtained. For example, if you install a video card but don't have a driver for it, you will not have a display and therefore, cannot do much until you install a driver, but how do you do that with no display? A generic driver is used to communicate with the video card on a basic level so that you at least have display functionality at which point you can download a specific driver from the manufacturer of install it from a disk.

Answer 3

Good one.

Answer 4

Right; modern desktops are Frankensteins; sound chip and motherboard designed in Taiwan, CPU and video card designed somewhere else, the printer and monitor and CD drive designed in S. Korea; components that come from anywhere :-P one big reason why computers will never ever be bug-free.