# Driverguide.com - Can't Be Trusted !



## NotAGeek (May 9, 2005)

A few years ago I signed up at "Driverguide.com" for some drivers I needed for a computer build. When I first signed up, try as I might, all they would send me was a temporary user name and password (a number). It had been some time since I'd used their site and found that it had changed hands and I had to sign up again. When going through the various registration screens it was trying to force me to sign up for unwanted products or services. I couldn't proceed to the next registration screen without first accepting at least one of these things. Finallly I was presented with a screen which had the usual "required fields" that had to be filled in or I couldn't become a registered member of "Driverguide.com". The "required fields" were quite a number of things including My Email Address, My Actual Name, My Residential Address, My Personal Telephone Number, My Birth Date and would you believe My Social Security Number! If I didn't provide all these things I was blocked from becoming a member. The Social Security Number requirement really ticked me off. Of course I didn't give them this information so now I'm not a registered member. Unfortunately now I'll probably be receiving scads of unwanted junk Email. "Driverguide.com" says that it is free - IS IT REALLY, and at what cost to the user! This company has become a portal for advertisers and probably worse yet an insidious data mining company. Sharing such personal information with this company could be dangerous. STAY AWAY FROM THESE DECEITFUL CROOKS! Sad to say, there are so many naieve and trusting people out there who in their desperation to find a usefull driver would provide this kind of information. That's why "Driverguide.com" is still on the net, wouldn't you know.

There are a number of decent hardware driver sites on the net - usually accessed for an annual fee. At least their honest - they provide a service, you pay a fee.

I recently needed a W2k driver for an older Mustek scanner. Mustek's site didn't have it. I could't find it anywhere on the net - so I thought - till I came to this site: www.treiberupdate.de/treiber-download/ It's a German site that claims to have over 104,000 drivers - completely free. By the way, Treiberupdate > translation > Driverupdate. If you don't mind wading through a little bit of German you might find what you need here. English (Angle-ish) is a descendent of the German language, use you're imagination and notice the similarities when accessing this site. It' worth it.

Footnote: King George of England (a German - the one whom we fought during the Revolutinary War) once said: "I speak English to my friends, French to my wife and German to my horse".


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## Colossus610 (Jun 15, 2005)

for the most part I dont think I've ever registered on their site, I think my superivisor told me about the fact that they always have some sort of default generic login something along the lines of drivers:all or drivers2:all or something like that (drivers:all==user: password.)

I know sometimes it can be a little confusing as to HOW EXACTLY to get the drivers but with a little patience and wary browsing, you can sidestep all the ads and annoying bs.


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## cheese (Jun 22, 2003)

You dont have to do signup for anything, theres always a "no" option. I find their site great for companies that dont support the product anymore, like my scanner.


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## NotAGeek (May 9, 2005)

RE: cheese - How long has it been since you accessed their site? As I said this is no longer the same company I signed up with 2 years ago. You cannot choose your own user name. Your user name MUST be your own Email address. The password is one of your own choosing. After I went through the so called registration process, they then sent me an Email with an activation ID Number that I clicked on to activate my membership. It then said I was a registered user with their site. So I went to their site, entered my Email address and password. I then chose a driver to download and clicked on it and this is the screen that I got > http://members.driverguide.com/ums/...wP2FjdGlvbj1kb3dubG9hZCZkcml2ZXJpZD01MzkwOQ==
> What an ungodly long URL! <
They refuse to allow anyone to download a driver from their site unless you go through the COMPLLETE so called sign up process which requires one's personal information that I mentioned here in my first posted thread. Believe me folks, if your reading this, these people are CROOKS! So much said, I rest my case. Oh, and one last thing, click on the above URL right away. Why do I say this? Becasuse when you post a new thread here at the Tech Support Guy; the title of your thread can be accessed by typing the title into Google. The URL I gave and my comments here are directly linked to their site. So I'd be surprised if the URL will be accessable too much longer. They'll simply change it.


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## Ginosko (May 11, 2004)

mmm, 
I just signed up and they didnt ask for my social and DOB isnt required either i didnt need to give my telephone number either....


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## NotAGeek (May 9, 2005)

RE: Ginsoko > I went to the Driverguide activation link in my Email again today. Went through the same number of screens again claiming I had not yet provided enough information to them. Refused all the different offers along the way to see if I could get in anyway. And this time, for some unknown reason, I finally managed to get to the drivers download page (and it was after I had tried this 8 times before). I chose a driver at random, and before I could do so, I had to type in three alphabet letters into a "Download Verification" block - I mean really, are they afraid I'm not the person who I claim to be. I'm just trying to download a simple driver here, not some restricted document from the CIA. Or could it possibly have something to do with the Patriot Act that's been protecting us so well from all those dangerous Grandmas carrying nail clippers on airplanes. I wonder? For some unknown reason downloading from their site is such a convoluted procedure. Why? The download defaulted to the Firefox download manager instead of my primary download manager (MajorGeeks does the same thing somehow). This time it worked. Just now, I went to their site and was able to login again and download another driver. I just wish I'd copied the URL and taken a screenshot of that page that required all that personal info. It could very well be that it was one of the advertiser screens that was foisted on me. I'll never know. Sorry to say, I just can't figure out how it was fixed, or was it? Just received my first junk Email today from them.

Like I said in my earlier posting here, if you want a driver that's hard to find and simple to download, check out this German site > http://www.treiberupdate.de/treiber-download/ The first thing youll notice is you dont need to sign up and answer a lot of needless questions and enter crytptic letters before using their site. Now I wonder why? Could it be that those Germans arent much concerned about making an extra lousy Deutchmark, sorry Euro, Hmmm? They claim to have over 105,000 drivers, but I think it's a typographical error because there is actually over 140,000 drivers (treibers) - (unless Germans count differently than we do). That's right, hardware drivers for the old DOS right up to XP, including Linux/Unix, every flavor of NT, MAC and even the old Novell would you believe. Tons of hardware drivers there, check it out. What a Goldmine! Or should I say Goldmein.

If your confused by the German, here's how it works: After you connect to the URL above, you'll be presented with a screen showing the headings of various Operating Systems. Under each OS heading is the list of hardware/drivers for that OS. Heres an example: Your on their main page. Go down to the the OS heading Treiber (Driver) Windows 2000 (16922) . Now go below to words Grafik und Video (Graphic and Video) and click on it. Now youll see a screen which has a list of drivers for 1,590 Graphic and Video cards for Windows 2000. Your on page 1 starting with 3dfx Voodoo. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on number 32. I got this one figured out, but youll just have to go back and forth between the numbers to find what your looking for in alphabetical order. I know the other ways of doing this, but I dont want to confuse things right now. Youll notice on this page if you look to the right all the drivers for these cards are for the OSs W2000/XP. Pretty logical, right? Leave it to those Krafty Krauts (Im part German, so I can say this without reservation). Now I want the drivers for nVidia GeForce FX 5600 Ultra. Scroll down and click on the words GeForce FX 5600 Ultra. Now you have the download page for this video card. On this page click on the words GeForce FX 5600 Ultra Treiber nVidia Download and the driver download will begin (unfortunately this also defaults to the my Firefox download manager too).
Pretty simple, Huh. I think so! And it doesn't even require you to register.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
IT'S GOING TO BECOME INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT TO SELL THINGS (WINDOWS) IN THE FUTURE WHEN YOUR COMPETITOR (LINUX) CONTINUES TO GIVE IT AWAY FOR FREE.
AND IF IT'S FREE (LINUX) HOW CAN YOU BUY IT OUT TO ELIMINATE YOUR COMPETITOR. MY, THEY'RE IN SUCH A FRIGHTFUL DILEMMA.


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## Cerviperus (Nov 17, 2004)

Frankly I like Driverguide.com. I use FireFox's AdBlock extension, so I don't have to mess with any ads anymore, and while I've had a couple bogus drivers from there, 9 times out of 10 I am able to find the driver I need, even when the manufacturer doesn't have it. In fact, more often than not Driverguide.com is the first place I go after checking the manufacturer's website.


> I had to type in three alphabet letters into a "Download Verification" block - I mean really, are they afraid I'm not the person who I claim to be?


This is actually to keep automated software from accessing their driver database and downloading on a mass scale. This isn't a way of verifying your identity in any way.

Anyways, to each their own. I'm sorry to hear you don't like the site, but at least you've found an alternative you're happy with.


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## Ginosko (May 11, 2004)

To him his own i say  since you dislike driver guide im happy you have another site that lets you get the job done


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## NotAGeek (May 9, 2005)

Well, this is all very funny  or aggravating.I guess?! I was looking for an NEC USB host controller driver. Found one at Driverfiles.net (darn I forgot, this is a referral site, of course to: You guessed it > Driverguide.com). I thought, well it worked ONCE, Ill try it again. Clicked the Download under Trust Check List (to reassure me). I am then presented with the screen: Download Access restricted! What is this the National Archives protecting the Declaration of Independence. I know what some others said here concerning their need to restrict their site because of some robotic server waiting to attack their site and download their precious files. Wait a minute, what do I mean by their, they didnt write these drivers. Its all about money and advertising folks. Every time you access their site the advertisers that are listed there pay Driverguide.com. Its claimed that they have over 300,000 drivers in their database. Thats nice, Im just trying to get one. Theyre actually doing a favor $ for the hardware manufacturers by providing this service to the consumer public. All those ungrateful consumers would be tying up manufacturers servers trying to download a driver for a legacy device they no longer wish to support or maintain. Theyre in the business to make money and thats what businesses are supposed to do. I could go on about their parent company and their connection to SwiftCD, and so on, but why bother. So I dutifully entered my personal Email address (why do they need this?) and my password. After doing this the next screen said: An account is required to access this area of the site. Please log in below. No kidding, isnt that what I just did. I thought I had already established an account with them. All I can say is: DONT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH DRIVERGUIDE.COM. Its nothing more than an exercise in frustration. Oh, and by the way, I found the driver at another site and downloaded it without a hassle. Im sure youre all getting very tired of this, and so am I. End of story. 

RE: Ginsoko 
And I say this gently, I can't provide a solution to a problem that's at the other end. 
Do you understand, they're blocking me from accessing their site. So why should I help them?


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Ginosko, I have no idea what site you signed up with, but I just signed up with Driver Guide and I didn't give them my phone number of SSN. I give them a bogus email, my old Yahoo account, they liked it fine.


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## NotAGeek (May 9, 2005)

RE: JohnWill 

(20,119 posts - Lets see, now thats 647 posts per month!? Where do you find the time? I mean, you must type really fast. But then, most people can type faster than me anyway. *Just joking now* If Im not mistaken there seems to be some guy on the west coast whose posted here over 30,000 times. Now thats a record, or it means that not enough other people have bothered to sign up and post here. Come on, get with it people. They need some fresh blood here). Well, whatever, anyway. 

Hi, First, you have me confused with Ginsoko. I thought I had ended my story, but I guess not. Yes, you succeeded (by error) in luring me back here on this subject. Besides I wasnt about to let poor Ginsoko take the blame. This error could have dire consequences for Ginsoko, he could be blocked too (unlikely). Could I be paranoid? (unlikely) It is I, who has been blocked from using DriverGuide.com. After the fiasco that I went through with them; I posted my unfortunate experiences here at this site to warn others that this might happen to them. What can I say, could I be the only one this has ever happened to? Mystery of mysteries. And one, that Im getting quite tired of. Somehow I just can't believe that I'm the only one this has ever happened to out of the thousands of people who have attempted to sign up with DriverGuide.com. It could be that the others have just simply not taken the time to post their views elsewhere on the Net. At first, it was a frustrating mystery to me. But now I see the light - Read On >>> 

If you bring Google search up on your screen, type in the following: "Driverguide.com - Can't Be Trusted !" You will now see on your screen, at the very top, my thread I started here at Tech Support Guy forum. Im on the Net! Thanks guys. Please note that it is ahead and above the URL of DriverGuide.com. I'm sure that the present owners of Driverguide are NOT very pleased to see this. Hence the reason why they're presently blocking me from using their site. And do you know what - They have every right to do so! And frankly, I don't care if they do. Like I posted above, there are other sites to obtain hardware drivers from and they don't require one to jump through all the firery hoops that DriverGuide.com requires one to do. I'm just this little insignificant guy who happened to post his truthful comments here; and what can I say; It stirred up the pot. I want to personally thank the Tech Support Guy forum for generously allowing me to post here. Now, to all those guests who are reading this - why not consider signing up here, and posting you're views as well. I'm sure that you have a solution to a problem or comment that could be of great help to all of us.
Happy Surfing!

A thought on Occam's Razor. Its quite simple; youre really hearing the clip-clop of those friendly Amish guys who live in your area. Now thats a twist!


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## Doom_Machine (Jun 26, 2005)

i saw where you have to enter your social security number, wanted your phone number twice, work phone...alot of personal info there, dont think i'd trust any site that asked for soc..thats rediculous, the site was smart enough to see i gave a fake address despite real city and zip...good one, so i gave them an old neighbors..lol if theres a way around it, it wasnt obvious since it says specifically you need the free registration where they obviously want to target you with ads
i couldnt finish when it asked what med insurance i have, it kept looping page with that marked in red, perhaps they dont even have drivers anymore and are just phishing for info? 

interesting you would get banned notageek if you have to type in those specific words to come up on google, seems unlikely the owners would type "can't be trusted" and see your post and then associate that with your account since they cant see your IP address here or know who u really are on thier site less you posted that info, but you can work around any public site where you get banned

but in either case i would hope anyone who would sign up at any site uses fake information


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## NotAGeek (May 9, 2005)

RE: Thank you, Doom_Machine, for verifying my experience with DriverGuide.com. I knew that I wasn't having hallucinations, since I went through the signup process eight times with the same results. It was like being trapped in the Twilight Zone on Groundhog Day! 

Before I posted this message, I thought I'd try to login to their site again. I entered my Email address and then my password. When I clicked on the login button the asterisks representing my password disappeared. I did this several times. I didn't get the usual message "Invalid ID or password - Please try again". From this I can only assume that they're blocking me, which as I posted earlier they have every right to do. And that's just fine with me! 

If you'll notice, after I had first posted my experiences here with DriverGuide I suddenly found that I could access their site - One Time Only. Some kind of nincompoop, with too much time on his hands and being paid for it, has flagged my Email address and is playing some kind of game. Well, I don't have the time to play their games. I'll find what I need elsewhere. That's what's called freedom of choice and competition and that's good for all of us, including them. And I'd like to add another one (Macros**t) to that list too. I think that it's invasive and insulting what their business will do to a person before you can access their so called "Free" site. Free? At what cost? I've NEVER had an experience like this at any other site - EVER! Good riddance to bad rubbish. So like I said folks - don't trust them. If you don't access their website they won't make money from their advertisers. So much for Free.


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## Byteman (Jan 24, 2002)

For what it's worth> username=drivers 

password=all 

this still works at driverguide


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## NotAGeek (May 9, 2005)

RE: Byteman
My my, this goes on forever. To quote you: "For what it's worth...this still works"....For the time being, I might add. Tried your Username and Password and this is what I got > "Notice: Your Login/Password Will Expire" (What' this?)...."we've installed a new user login and signup system" (Oh really!)....This system will add a great many features allowing us to customize your experience (I hope its better than the last one I had).including such things as keeping track of the devices you have (Why do I need them to keep track of MY devices, thats My business!). We take efforts to protect your privacy (That may be the case, how would I know?).and must, therefore ask you to go through the sign up process again (What a merry-go-round.). We apologize for the inconvenience, and trust that you will come to find the moment of ANNOYANCE worth it (I cant believe they admit it! - My capitalization.).To minimize your TROUBLE we will let you continue to use your old login/password for the next few weeks. After that you will be REQUIRED to create an account to gain access. (Im so glad!) They did give me the option to continue on to their site for the time being. But I chose not to, why should I bother. That little trick to get into DriverGuide wont work for long. Nice try though!


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## NotAGeek (May 9, 2005)

I'm still recovering from open heart surgery. And I must admit, posting here has been the most fun I've had in a long time! I also have to say DriverGuide has unwhittingly provided me with a great deal of aggravating entertainment! Like I said folks, it's like being trapped in the Twilight Zone on Groundhog Day. I've laughed so hard it's made my insisions hurt!


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## Colossus610 (Jun 15, 2005)

Um, then in that case, may I propose that you maybe not come here? From a completely non-medical/professional or even a doctorate's point of view I would think that laughing until open heart surgery incisions start to hurt would be a *BAD* thing?!?!?!?!?!?!!?    

So as your non-official(or even sanctioned....) medical advisor, I recommend plenty of bed rest, drink lots of prune juice and stay away from sources of stitch ripping humor. As I am sure the owners/mgmt of TSG would not appreciate some guy laughing at fools like me and plopping their innards onto some keyboard or laptop. Then that will lead to yet another post involving more posts and HJT logs and ...and ....... stuff.  

I do like the quip about ""it's like being trapped in the Twilight Zone on Groundhog Day."", oh the mental images brought on by that statement, Bill Murray acting/talking like Rod Serling, or even Rod himself waking up and smashing Sonny and Cher to bits every day.

(the medical stuff is meant to be humor, not in any way serious or even intelligent by any measure  .)


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

Yah, I like driverguide, haven't found any problem with them yet. I have an old kbgear tablet and no XP drivers came with it, but I found one on driverguide.


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## mtzlplex (Aug 5, 2002)

Zero, zip, nada, nothing. I just spent 30 minutes trying to navigate that maze that they call a website (I have a 10 year old nephew that could design an easier site to navigate). At the end of my journey was a window telling me ooops, sorry, something has happened, try again to find the driver you need. You`ve got to be kidding me. That`s it for me, I`ll find another site, or another way to find the drivers I need. There, after that venting I do feel a little better.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

NotAGeek said:


> RE: Byteman
> My my, this goes on forever. To quote you: "For what it's worth...this still works"....For the time being, I might add. Tried your Username and Password and this is what I got > "Notice: Your Login/Password Will Expire" (What' this?)...."we've installed a new user login and signup system" (Oh really!)....This system will add a great many features allowing us to customize your experience (I hope its better than the last one I had).including such things as keeping track of the devices you have (Why do I need them to keep track of MY devices, thats My business!). We take efforts to protect your privacy (That may be the case, how would I know?).and must, therefore ask you to go through the sign up process again (What a merry-go-round.). We apologize for the inconvenience, and trust that you will come to find the moment of ANNOYANCE worth it (I cant believe they admit it! - My capitalization.).To minimize your TROUBLE we will let you continue to use your old login/password for the next few weeks. After that you will be REQUIRED to create an account to gain access. (Im so glad!) They did give me the option to continue on to their site for the time being. But I chose not to, why should I bother. That little trick to get into DriverGuide wont work for long. Nice try though!


I've been getting that message for months now..........


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## JustMe2 (May 31, 2001)

Me too, Candy. Same message every time for close to a year now.

iXneonXi,
Any chance that you have a pablo tablet?? I've been unable to find any drivers that work in XP for the 2 pablos that we have sitting and collecting dust!
JustMe2


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

Yah, thats exactly what I have. A kbgear pablo tablet. Couldn't find any drivers until som1 told me about driverguide, tried 3, one worked and I use the tablet all the time now. Sensitivity works too.

I haven't gotten email from driverguide since the time i started an account. odd.


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## JustMe2 (May 31, 2001)

iXneonXi said:


> Yah, thats exactly what I have. A kbgear pablo tablet. Couldn't find any drivers until som1 told me about driverguide, tried 3, one worked and I use the tablet all the time now. Sensitivity works too.
> 
> I haven't gotten email from driverguide since the time i started an account. odd.


You don't by any chance still have that driver file, do you???
I'm heading to driverguide to look. I'd really like to use my Pablo again, as would my daughter!
JustMe2


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

Actually, I still use it a bit..And, unfortunately it has become more difficult, but not
useless. 
IMO, start with the OEM, and see if they will provide the right driver.

(The reason I use driverguide, still, is because they have a good archive and I work
on some of the oldest stuff you've ever seen....)


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

Ekim, it also has nice 3rd party drivers, when the OEM no longer exists, (in the pablo tablet's case).

JustMe2, i'll look for it.


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## NotAGeek (May 9, 2005)

RE: JustMe2 and Others..

KBGear made the "Jam Studio Digitizer Tablet". The "Pablo Tablet" is a re-badged Jam Studio Tablet - One in the Same. There were two versions, Serial and USB. The Serial version is the older one. Here are the drivers and installation instructions >
http://the57.com/dl/pablo.htm

Heres another driver for the Jam / Pablo Tablet > 
http://tekgems.com/dl/index.php?dir=./input-devices
This last driver is provided as a public service from their forum site > 
http://tekgems.com/forum/forum4-150.htm << (Read this for Info on the Tablet)
I downloaded this last driver and scanned it with AVG, it seems to be alright.
It's larger, and an executable (Not an INF file), so you should be able to uninstall it if it doesn't work.

DriverGuide has the driver for this too. According to some people whove used it it doesnt always work though. I found another DriverGuide site where they were asking the public to send them a working driver for this device. So, I guess it means it doesnt always work....who knows.

The Pablo Tablet was being sold all over Ebay a couple years ago (just the barebone unit itself). The first ones were originally aimed at the childrens market, and the adults later perceived this as a toy not a useful tool. I think it also had something to do with their chintzy toy Jam cameras for kids. Anyway, sales of the Tablet plummeted - hence Ebay. I had considered buying one of these, but didnt. If youre lucky enough to find one of these today theyre usually badly beaten up.by kids of course.


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

I don't think any of those contain the driver I use for it. Also I read specific instructions on how to make it work with XP, such as plugging it in via usb but disconnecting/reconnecting the pen from the tablet.
I'll try and get my driver posted too.


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## susantht (Aug 11, 2005)

I'm new here and looking around. Sorry if I'm not up to speed, but I thought I'd try to contribute. I found another free driver scan thing on the web that seems *much* more reasonable. You have to register to try their free scan but then it shows you everything you have installed on yr pc and also what drivers you need. You can then use their info to search on google and find the driver. I actually paid to join and d/l the drivers I needed from their site, which went well, but for someone with more expertise that might not even be necessary. Oh, the site's called radarsync.


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

I wouldn'tv paid, you can do all that for free with a web browser, device manager, linux, everest home edition or whatever you want. So if its a subscription cancel, and check ur computer for spyware+viruses just incase (prolly not an issue, but since i havent heard of the site you may wanna check)


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## susantht (Aug 11, 2005)

thanks. too late to cancel, but i did check and nothing's invaded my computer. i'll keep with this for the year license and then come back here and try to get more adventurous next time i need help...


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## blah123 (Sep 13, 2005)

NotAGeek said:


> A few years ago I signed up at "Driverguide.com" for some drivers I needed for a computer build. When I first signed up, try as I might, all they would send me was a temporary user name and password (a number). It had been some time since I'd used their site and found that it had changed hands and I had to sign up again. When going through the various registration screens it was trying to force me to sign up for unwanted products or services. I couldn't proceed to the next registration screen without first accepting at least one of these things. Finallly I was presented with a screen which had the usual "required fields" that had to be filled in or I


Why register when the universal pass is all over the net?

login: drivers
pass: all


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## n7Epsilon (Aug 27, 2004)

driver2
all

works fine for me for more than a year now ! and yes, their site is a maze, but if you look with the FCC ID (like i did for my Conexant CX11252-11 HSP56K modem) you will find the driver...


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