mouse issued Dell Optiplex 7010

[Bob]

Just off topic on hand sanitizer..  It's what makes the mouse and pads yucky off white.  Builds up on pads and top of mouse.  Washing hands before use every day will keep both clean vs. using hand sanitizer and going to work.   The very thing you use is what employee is using causing the build up.

I have box full of KB and mice.   When someone leaves I toss and replace so nobody re-using that nasty stuff.  Like Mark we don't use mouse pads anymore unless for comfort with pad for wrist. 

[Hans Manhave]

Where does one go to find out if there are updates?  Every driver I check reports, after some online inquiry, that it is the latest driver.  I have a hard time believing that.  Especially since I don't know where it went to find out.  Dell 7010.

Hans, I had the same result at first as well, then I used the service tag number and manually chose the drivers I wanted to update and downloaded them and manually installed them. The Dell insta check thing didn't work, nor did going to the driver and checking for updates.

Yep.  The service tag and manually downloading and installing each one was the easiest most reliable thing for me as well.  You may even want to download and install the "chipset" drivers as well, since that controls a host of things, like USB and other motherboard functions.  I was never a believer in updating drivers until lately when I started to have both speed and reliability issues.  It has seemed to fix them, however.

Thank you both, I have it downloading now.  A whole set of them.  Will apply to all the machines so I don't have to go find it for each.  They are all the same model/age/equipment so that should be good.

These units also have that special video connector.  That creates a tricky setup, depending on what needs to be connected (TV, DVI, VGA, HDMI).  I have a quantity of the dongles coming in which should relieve some of the video problems.  Maybe even an audio problem.  Dell didn't sell them anymore but Amazon was very helpful.  I couldn't find a BIOS setting to turn the mobo unit on or off.  Hopefully the updates will give me something more to tinker with.

You're welcome.  You should notice a difference immediately.

Yes, I don't think that you can disable the on-board video in BIOS.  I think it is auto-sensing.  They want you to use the on board VGA, and then the other DisplayPort.  I haven't figured out why there are 2 Display Ports on the back.  I tried running 2 DisplayPorts as monitor 1 and 2, but didn't have any luck as they both displayed the exact same thing.  I haven't figured out quite yet what good the second one is.

I am using two DisplayPorts on one unit right now.  I have the basic 7010 motherboard and then a 7470 Radeon also.  They only provided one display adapter per machine so I borrowed one from another.  There are two Toshiba 32" LCD tv's connected.  They were bought six months apart and the later one is significantly worse (model number differs by one digit or letter at the end, but same was no longer to be found eventhough it listed as same).  So I think if I hook them up as HDMI with the DisplayPort adapters that do that, it could be good as the second unit has ports differently.  Hope to know later today.

And then there are updates from Dell that are determined to be necessary by system scan, while Dell also has its own update module that updated all the machines and some of these updates aren't at all needed, even if marked 'urgent'.  And then there is the scan that determined that my optical drive was failing and I can just fill out the form that popped up after mentioned scan and request a new one under warranty.  Now that is a nice feature.