> When you enable Windows updates, it will install the Default Drivers for all the hardware no laptop which may or may not work. For example if there is USB 3.0 on laptop, the ports may not work with the installation of updates. So to prevent this, SW Update tool will prevent the Windows updates.
So they "fixed" the problem of their driver getting overwritten by disabling all OS level updates? Oof. Screams shoddy development if this is true.
Sounds to me like they put defective rev of a USB3 host controller on the board, and they need their own driver to work around it, but the host controller is going to identify itself generically enough that Samsung can't rely on PNP ID matching to pick their work-around driver. Hence they disable windows update to avoid getting a driver update that would stomp their workaround driver.
It's because we don't do recalls on computers...and we should.
Faulty hardware like this goes out _all the time_. Eons ago when I sold computers, HP had a line of high end laptops (~$3500) with 2 slots for RAM (back when that was a big deal in a laptop...) and we found out that the second RAM slot's pins were not connected to anything on the motherboard. On every single laptop we opened (30+). Literally they had just pins on a board with no traces and advertised it as a 2-slot laptop.
HP stonewalled us (Circuit City flagship store, so we had corporate involved) and kept trying to get us to sign an NDA before they would confirm the problem or offer a solution. We said fuck that and shipped several thousand of the things (the chain's entire order) back to them as defective.
They caved, like they should have, but complained about it the entire time.
Is this even true? Windows updates only drop critical updates and can't think of a case where updated Windows drivers were automatically installed over existing drivers without explicit request or prompting to do so (except perhaps for critical flaws where the driver itself compromises security). Just yesterday I had to manually find and select an optional driver update for Intel HD graphics which one would expect to be in category of "autoupdate" if this were true...
Disabling ALL of Windows Update for this questionable reason seems entirely out of line. If their own SW Update software is already present, why not instead track said drivers and simply alert the user that vendor specific drivers must be used, offering the ability to restore them?? Makes no sense...
Generally, Windows Update will update your drivers to the most recent version MS has available -- but they mandate WHQL drivers, so they're rarely the most recent. For example, while MS has nVidia drivers up on Windows Update, if you have a more recent version direct from nVidia, it will not overwrite that.
This situation is 100% on Samsung. They've put hardware out there that they can't target properly to overwrite the generic version.
Are you sure about this? As I mentioned, just a few days ago I had to manually download and install Intel HD drivers which were listed under "Recommended Updates"(note, the driver provided by Windows was indeed a later version of the one posted on Asus' own site...)
I did some searching and found this on Microsoft's own site:
Automatically get recommended drivers and updates for your hardware
Applies to Windows 7
In this page
Drivers and information
To have Windows automatically download recommended drivers and icons
To turn on and configure Windows Update
To install drivers and other optional updates from Windows Update
If Windows can't find a driver for your device
If Windows can’t find information about your device in Device Stage
You can have Windows automatically download recommended drivers and detailed information for your hardware and devices. This is a good way to make sure all your hardware and devices work properly.
Watch this video to learn how to automatically get recommended drivers and updates for your hardware (1:13)
Drivers and information
Windows can find and download two kinds of updates for devices connected to your computer:
Drivers
A driver is software that allows your computer to communicate with hardware devices. Without drivers, the devices you connect to your computer—for example, a mouse or external hard drive—won't work properly. Windows can automatically check if there are drivers available for new devices that you connect to your computer.
For hardware that you've connected to your computer in the past, updated drivers might become available at a later date; but those drivers aren't installed automatically. To install these optional updates, go to Windows Update in Control Panel, check for updates, and then view and install driver updates that are available for your computer."
EDIT: has anyone confirmed if the USB drivers are in fact proprietary Samsung drivers as opposed to the generic Windows drivers? I'm curious if the support tech was merely stating a contrived example or if that is an real world scenario.
So it seems pretty clear they don't install automatically and in fact not even when you install (manually or automatically) the regular crtical updates they post - which is in line with my experience over the years. The one exception might be a service pack where non-critical fixes sometimes make their way into the release (though even these have recommended and optional categories for patches which you must manually select). Ironically, despite some confusing overlap conflating the drivers installed from Windows Update when adding a new device with updating drivers to newer versions as part of the regular Windows Update patching, there are some fairly simple directions to disable drivers sourced from Windows Update for both cases:
While still unacceptable IMO, using this method would at least allow users to still receive critical security patches and other recommended/optional updates. It even mentions how MS works with third party vendors in some cases to insure only compatible drivers are ever installed (as previously mentioned) which is really the only acceptable procedure.
It seems pretty clear that Samsung chose the absolute worst option of ask those available, though it remains unclear as to why. Given a simple Google search yields plenty of high level info on the subject, I can't help but wonder if this has some other more concerning justification...
I wonder if it was meant to be a short term fix until some drivers passed certification or something? Or maybe their software update selectively runs windows update to find updates and notifies the user? I wonder how long it's been set up this way? None of these are good, but the details may mitigate quite how bad it is (in spirit, if not reality).
So they "fixed" the problem of their driver getting overwritten by disabling all OS level updates? Oof. Screams shoddy development if this is true.