If you are using the XP operating system and a piece of hardware is not functioning correctly (i.e. there is no sound on your computer) or has not been found during installation then the problem may be related to a one of the Windows XP IDT drivers you have installed.
A device driver is used to control any installed computer hardware. The problem is normally solved by downloading and installing the latest device drivers available from the official IDT website.
You will find that there are a lot of IDT drivers have already been installed on your system. These have usually come direct from a hardware manufacturer, who gave them to Microsoft for inclusion with the operating system. These have been digitally signed by Microsoft as having been tested for Windows XP compatibility and programming solidity.
The driver signing program was instituted after Microsoft had found a problem with buggy software drivers. It created a program in which the makers of hardware equipment to be used with the computers could pay Microsoft to test and certify the safety and stability of their drivers. This has resulted in an overall improvement of the stability of the operating system.
Every now and then, when you try to install the software for a new gadget you will see a warning box. This states that Microsoft has not tested the new driver. If this message appears you should contact the manufacturer (IDT in this case) or their website to find out if an IDT Windows XP certified driver is now available for your hardware.
If there is not a certified driver available, you may as well try to install the driver you have anyway. If it seems to make your system slow or less stable you can always uninstall it. It is possible to wind your entire operating system back to the condition it was in before you installed the questionable driver. This is called system restore or rollback.
This roll back feature will restore any drivers that were replaced during the installation of the suspect one. To find it, open the device manager and double click the component in question. Click the driver tab in the resulting properties dialog box and then click the rollback drive button. The overwritten drivers will be reinstated.
Whenever possible, however, you should always use the drivers that came with your equipment. This is especially true if you got them from the manufacturers website as they are likely to be newer versions than the IDT audio drivers that came with Windows XP.
If you would prefer not to see the unsigned driver message every time you install something you can disable it forever. Conversely you can set it so that your system will never accept unsigned drivers. These options are available in the Driver signing options within the System Properties dialog box.
Finally, there are software programs which automatically detect your computers harwdare and download the correct official IDT drivers for you. In a few clicks, your sound will be in full working order again. This software works with Windows 7, XP and Vista.
IDT Windows XP Audio Driver Downloads
By: GiselleS
