How to Update Motherboard Drivers

The motherboard itself does not require a dedicated driver to function, but several components attached to it do. These components include:

• Chipset Driver: Acts as a bridge between OS and all components in the motherboard.
• Audio Drivers: Handles data passed through the audio jacks.
• Ethernet or LAN Drivers: Allows the system to connect to a network.
• Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Drivers: Enables the OS to connect to the Wi-Fi network and Bluetooth devices.
• VGA/APU Drivers: Acts as a bridge between the motherboard and the display device.
• SATA AHCI or Storage Controller Drivers: Allows communication between OS and SATA drives that read AHCI protocol.
• RAID Controller Drivers: Enables users to run a RAID configuration.
• USB and Other Peripherals Drivers: Allows the device connected through the USB to communicate to the OS.

The latest drivers of these components are first available on OEM’s website. Later, the driver update gets pushed to users via Windows Update.

To update motherboard drivers from the manufacturer, you have to download and install the updates manually. While from the Windows update, the download and installation are all automatic.

But in most cases, updating drivers manually from the manufacturer’s website is the better choice.

Update From Manufacturer’s Website

You can visit the manufacturer’s website to download the latest driver for all the components in the motherboard.

Drivers for different motherboard components differ depending on your motherboard model. So, you need to know your motherboard and its specifications to find out the correct driver. 

Once you know all these details, you can now easily download the required driver from their website.

1. Depending on your motherboard, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock, or ASUS, head over to their respective websites.
2. Type your motherboard model in the search Bar.
   
3. From the list, select your motherboard.
   
4. Click on Support.
   • For MSI, click on Drivers & download > Driver.
     
   • For Gigabyte, click on Downloads.
     
   • For ASRock, click on Download.
     
   • For ASUS, click on Driver & Utility > Driver & Tools.
     

5. Now, you should see an option to select the Operating System. 
6. The website will display a list of all drivers available for your motherboard components, including chipset, audio, LAN, SATA RAID, or APU/VGA drivers.
7. Download all of them. A compressed file will be downloaded.
   
8. Once the download completes, go to the download folder (usually: C:\Users\USER_NAME\Downloads).
9. Right-click on the downloaded folder and select Extract All.
   
10. Open the extracted folder.
11. Right-click on the executable (.exe) file or setup.exe file and select Run as administrator to start the driver installation process as admin.
12. Once the process completes, restart the PC.
13. Extract all the remaining driver files and install them.

If manual updating from the manufacturer’s website is a hassle for you, you can also update the drivers automatically using Windows Update.

Via Windows Update

Windows Update also handles driver updates for all the components connected to the system.

All manufacturers do not keep their drivers up-to-date with Microsoft. So, I recommend that you download the latest driver from their official website instead of a Windows update.

1. Press the Windows and I keys simultaneously.
2. Once the Settings window opens, select Windows Update from the left side.
3. Click on Advanced Options.
   
4. Click on Optional updates.
   
5. Expand Driver Updates and check all the options from the list.
6. Click on Download and Install and wait for the download to complete.
   
7. After the download completes, restart the PC to install the updates.

Verify Driver Updates

The next important step after updating your motherboard driver is to make sure your system is stable. Sometimes, the developers may push updates that could cause issues with the system.

If your system crashes, runs into a blue screen error or displays some error after updating the drivers, I suggest that you uninstall it and revert back to the previous version.

You can also try to restore your system to its previous state using the restore point.