iScreensaver

Update Video Drivers

Legacy document: iScreensaver 6 provides full support for macOS 10.13 and higher.
Please read about the latest version.

Updating your Video drivers for iScreensaver

Quick Links: macOS | Windows XP | Windows Vista | Windows 7 | Windows (Advanced)


Background

iScreensaver makes use of hardware-accelerated video cards for fast, high quality motion animations. For these features to work properly, the computer's Video drivers must both be current and meet specifications.

For macOS, this is generally not an issue, as the drivers are updated automatically. However, on Windows PCs (running XP, Vista or Windows 7) there are two issues: First, the generic drivers that ship with Microsoft OS updates are buggy and slow. Second, there is no automatic way to update the drivers.

Does your computer meet the minimum requirements?

Before starting, make sure your computer meets iScreensaver's minimum requirements: System Requirements.


Updating Video Drivers for macOS

Macintosh users have it easy. Simply update the system software, and all Video drivers are udpated automatically:

  1. From the Apple menu, choose "Software Update" (on newer macs, choose "About this Mac" and then click "Software Update").
  2. Apply all updates.
  3. Reboot the computer if needed.
Note: users with older versions of macOS (such as 10.5) and limited capability video cards (Intel GMA950, X3100) may need to upgrade to a more recent version of macOS (e.g. 10.6, 10.7) in order to get more capable video drivers

Updating Video Drivers for Microsoft Windows - the Easy way

Simply click the "Update Driver..." button on the video driver tab of the Display Adapter control panel.

If that doesn't work, please try this: Windows (Advanced)


Quick Links: macOS | Windows XP | Windows Vista | Windows 7 | Windows (Advanced)

Step-by-step instructions




Updating Video Drivers for Microsoft Windows - Advanced Method

If the automatic updates is not working, on your PC running Windows, please try this alternate / advanced method. To start, you must determine your video card manufacturer, make, and model:

Determine Hardware
Download Drivers
  1. Laptop users: If you are using a laptop, we recommend first checking the the laptop manufacturer's website first, as they may have customized drivers for your laptop. If that doesn't work, then try the list below.
  2. All users: Select one of these links to go to the proper site to update your driver:
  3. Reboot the computer if needed.


Question: "why is this so complicated...?"

Sadly, outdated and buggy Video drivers on Windows PCs are an altogether common industry-wide problem. There is no easy way to generically update these machines, but we hand out as much information and knowledge as we can to solve the issue.

Best of luck... but it's really not as difficult as it seems.



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