So, I'm pretty computer illiterate..
I've recently come across "drivers"
For example, a guy described problems with his new laptop's old "lenovo drivers". This caused him to have trouble playing with games for more than 10 mins. He then proceeded to download the "latest ATI drivers" (his graphix card was ATI Radeon 5730), and then things worked fine.
The laptop he's using is the Lenovo IDeapad Y560 series with i5 processor. The point is.. what are Drivers anyway? What do they do?
None.
We can't explain the universe, just describe it; and we don't know whether our theories are true, we just know they're not wrong. >Harald Lesch
It's a software that tells your operating system how to use your hardware correctly. It's the interface between your OS and hardware.
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
;
; Motorola Composite Class Generic Parent Driver (motccgp.inf)
;
; Copyright (c) 2006-2011 Motorola
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Version]
Signature = "$CHICAGO$"
Class = USB
ClassGUID = {36FC9E60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000}
Provider = %Motorola%
CatalogFile = motccgp.cat
DriverVer = 08/21/2008,2.4.0.0
[SourceDisksNames]
1 = %MotDisk%,,,""
[SourceDisksFiles]
motccgp.sys = 1
motccgpfl.sys = 1
motswch.sys = 1
wdfcoinstaller01005.dll = 1
[DestinationDirs]
CopyFileSection = 12
DefaultDestDir = 12
[CopyFileSection]
motccgp.sys
motccgpfl.sys
motswch.sys
Here's a copy of a few lines of my motorola driver for my phone. It's literally a text file that tells the system what to do/where stuff is. They're usually .inf files (this one is 9 kB) and not too large. Other stuff (sys files, exe files, dll files) are libraries and executables which are dependencies for the device to work properly. All of that together is the driver.
"Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Chairman - do we have to call the Gentleman a gentleman if he's not one?"