XP computer help (setting up wireless)

[Ba-Riedo]

So my laptop was having some issues and I decided to use the reboot disks that I had from Dell to go back to the original settings. Now that that is all done I installed the original operating system and Dell Tools System Software CD but I can't get the internet to work... I can't manually turn on my wifi or pull up anything about the wireless manager. Am I missing something or can I connect to the internet another way? Do I need another driver to manage my wireless stuff? I am posting this from one of my roommates computers now and I would like to have my laptop working again.

I am basically computer 'tarded so any help would be appreciated, last year I had a friend reformat this computer for me to make it run faster and I don't know what he said he used the disks from Dell and they worked, now I can't get a hold of him or else I would be asking him these questions.

-Alex

 

[RichP]

Right click 'my computer' 'properties' 'device manager' look for any yellow or red marks next to devices, under networking look for your wireless adapter. If it is not there either the driver was not loaded from the support cd from dell or I suppose the device could be bad but not too likely. Reload the dell hardware support disc and look for the wireless network card in the list, if it's there click on it and install it. If not go to the next step.
Go to another computer, go to support at dell and punch in your pc serial number. Look at all the drivers that are listed for it, find the wireless driver and download them, you should have looked in device manager before you wiped it to find out the model network your wireless is but too late now. Install them one at a time till you find the correct one, the others will fail.
Now I'm assuming this is a built in wireless network card, if it is a PC/MCIA slip in card or a USB you will need to get the drivers disk for that and install it.
The big one that many people forget to install when paving over a machine is the chipset drivers for the intel chipset, once you install that you will see a whole pile of new hardware discovered, that one will be on the support disc. Normal steps on a pave over or reinstall are OS, chipset drivers THEN the rest of the drivers.

 

[Matthew Currie]

I went through this a while ago on a Dell that my stepson's girlfriend's brother ****ed up quite thoroughly. I did what Rich says, went to Dell.com with the service tag number, got the driver, and all was well. Note that dell drivers come in two forms, either "Dell download manager" files, or straight executables. Unless you have download manager on the computer that needs the files, just get the regular files. Make sure you select that option when prompted, because if you select download manager, it's difficult to unselect it.

Get the chipset drivers and install them first, then the video, then the wireless. There may also be a sound card driver. Just about everything else is optional.

The computer should have come with a second disk with the drivers specific to it. If there's a chance it still exists, look for that one, because it could save some hunting for the right drivers on the support site. On the other hand, sometimes they update them, so it's not too bad an idea just to get the latest.

 

[Ba-Riedo]

So if I get the regular files I can download them onto by buddies computer and then transfer them to mine?

-Alex

 

[RichP]

Before you do anything locate your drivers discs with your dell OS discs. Stick that in and let it run, it will open a big page with all the detected hardware, start installing it, start with the chipset software first, video software second, network interfaces after that and then the audio, modem, etc.
Now if you don't have that support/drivers disc you will need to plug your serial number in at the dell support page and manually download them from there, put em on a usb key, then run every one by itself, it will create a directory on your C drive called 'dell or 'software' or something like that. then just follow the instructions and probably 8 reboots

 

[kastein]

When I'm railroading through a whole bunch of driver installs I never bother rebooting between em, I just do them all and then reboot... exception being video drivers.

This is probably not a good idea, but I've never had an issue with it.

 

[themangeraaad]

When I'm railroading through a whole bunch of driver installs I never bother rebooting between em, I just do them all and then reboot... exception being video drivers.

This is probably not a good idea, but I've never had an issue with it.

x2, but it depends on which drivers they are. While I am going through I tend to make spur of the moment decisions on which ones I feel need rebooting.

And if you have access to a wired internet connection, you could always just plug in and go to the windows update site.(www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com).

There have been a few times that I worked on computers for friends when I didn't have the correct drivers. Windows update seemed to have them. Just go in and look at all the optional updates that will not be automatically selected. May be available that way.

If you don't have the option to plug into a wired connection, then going to dell.com with the PC S/N on a friends computer would probably be the best bet.

 

[Ba-Riedo]

Got this working, thanks guys!

-Alex

 

[Matthew Currie]

So if I get the regular files I can download them onto by buddies computer and then transfer them to mine?

-Alex

Yes. They're usually self-extracting zip files with an EXE suffix. You can just copy or move them to a memory stick or a CD or whatever transfer medium you prefer, and then run them on the other computer.

edit to add, I guess I'm a bit late there. Glad it is working. Did you find the driver disks, or download?