We've bought a second hand laptop, and are thus looking for some drivers so we can get onto the internet and pick up other drivers for the soundcard and such.

The problem is windows xp is giving NO information on what the network adapter is (just that it has no driver) and the manufacturer's website has shut off the drivers section because it got used.

Aside from copying Vista to it (which neither of us really wants to do) has anyone got any suggestions?

Failing all this I'm going to have to pay £10 for a cd with them all on (has anyone heard of doing this?)

Thanks in advance!

what is the laptop make and model?

You can get the device id from device manager but sometimes even that says unknown, also I have a had a bit of success installing and running everest free edition which can give you a pointer.

Cheers

Rich

It's a "High Grade" W812ui1.. Yeah the problem is that the device manager doesn't say what it is..

I shall try the everest

If it has a PCMCIA slot someone might be able to lend you an ethernet or wireless card which has a known driver which you can install to get it on the 'net.

Or just thought maybe a USB wireless dongle might be the easiest one to borrow.

Then you can get onto windows update and hopefully that will find the right driver automatically.

it will have a device ID that is unique.

goto device manager

right click the device (providing you know which one it is of course, if you have 10 unknown devices your going to have to do it for all)

click the details tab at the top

use the dropdown and select Hardware ids

google the data it returns (it could have 3-4 device id's depending on the hardware)

should help you out

If you dont need windows specific software then I would try Linux.
It comes with most software you will need including generic drivers that work on older hardware.
You can even try it from the CD/DVD without making changes to the computer.

Download Linux mint

Aida32 is very good at identifying hardware.

Might have to give the linux a go... it keeps finding a corrupt file immediately after installing windows...

On the plus side I've found a lot of details about the motherboard and the like

Mint linux is probably the most painless

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php ----- download the standard Gnome edition DVD version and burn the ISO to a DVD

what make and model is the laptop??

quote:

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Originally posted by Ninehigh
It's a "High Grade" W812ui1.

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If you find the MAC address of the network card then you can look up the manufacturer on various sites online. Did it myself recently.

There's a good chance it's printed on the back of the laptop.

But in absence of finding this easily I'd have thought a USB wireless dongle and drivers on CD or USB stick.

HTH,
James

Try SIW. It's a free download (although the free link is hidden) from here: http://www.gtopala.com/

It's very small so you can put it on a USB memory key and run it from there. It should help you ID the hardware.

Chris

quote:

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Originally posted by Ninehigh

quote:

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Originally posted by Ninehigh
It's a "High Grade" W812ui1.

---

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Well I persume this is a replacement case because we have:
W812UI1
Canada ices-003
Canada NMB-003
Some information on the US standards that the modem will comply with

And a S110 XF.

There's a mention of Arima and Delphi D40 if they're any help?

A little googling reveals something, Bliss 701M series?

[Edited on 25/8/11 by Ninehigh]

Gateway MX drivers might work then - The Arima model was also made for them...

http://support.gateway.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?tab=1&modelId=3161

It's quite a common cheap chipset driver the Mavell Yukon and annoyingly difficult to detect/identify. The Marvell Yukon site is also quite patchy but they do make an all-in-one driver that will work with all of their cards.

Try that first and see how you go?

All was looking good. Drivers got installed and I had network connection!

Then it needed a reboot and crapped it's pants again

Just as a thought, it's dual core. Does that mean I'll need 64 bit versions or does that not matter?

[Edited on 25/8/11 by Ninehigh]

Un-be-smegging-lievable!

As a last try before it went off to "the guy" I tried ubuntu.. So I stuck it on the memory stick and plugged it in. 2 beeps and 30 seconds later Ubuntu shows up in high-res, full colour with a jingle and a "wireless networks are available"

Under a minute later I'm connected to the net and laughing.

Now all missus needs is something to play video.. We used VLC as it just did it all.. Any recommendations?

VLC is available with Ubuntu. You just go to the software centre and search for VLC.

http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/features/ubuntu-software-centre

It should sort it out for you.

"Mint" has video player & codecs already built in, hence my recommendation

I was going to use mint, but I went with the smaller one as my image burning software appears to be pretending to burn the disc then complaining when a blank disc doesn't match the iso file (durr) so I had to use the usb stick.

On the other side having vlc on it would be great as we recognise it