Dell 8400 Reinstall Problems

The Troll

The following devices are all showing up as ? in the device manager after i installed windows:

Ethernet Controller
Multimedia Audio Controller
Video Controller
Video Controller(VGA Compatible)

What drivers am i missing?

Are they on the Dell Driver CD or do i need to download them off the support site?

Thanks,

Ian

Ruu_Old

should be a cd full of drivers you got from Dell.

The Troll

I have a cd full of drivers but which ones am i missing?

I tried installing everything on the cd.

commited

WHat are your specs?

irlrobins

if u got to dell website you can get the drivers.

I'm guessing you'll need to download drivers for your network card (prob a Broadcom one), sound card, graphics card. Maybe modem too.

maidhc

A bit late now, but all the drivers are in a directory called C:\drivers when you first get the computer from Dell. In future you should burn this directory to a CD to save you the hassle of messing with various intall CDs later.

Now the easiest thing is to download the latest versions of what you are looking for. Also, get the video drivers from the card manufacturers website, they tend to be better than what Dell offer.

The Troll

maidhc wrote:

A bit late now, but all the drivers are in a directory called C:\drivers when you first get the computer from Dell. In future you should burn this directory to a CD to save you the hassle of messing with various intall CDs later.

Now the easiest thing is to download the latest versions of what you are looking for. Also, get the video drivers from the card manufacturers website, they tend to be better than what Dell offer.

Can i just copy this directory from a cd onto the formatted hard drive?

A friend of mine has a n 8400 as well...

irlrobins

should be able to. Provided he has the same spec as u when it comes to video card etc, then all the drivers should be there.

WizZard

How exactly are you instaling "everything"?
Not all of them will have installation programs, like as not you'll have to point windows to the .inf file manually

The Troll

WizZard wrote:

How exactly are you instaling "everything"?
Not all of them will have installation programs, like as not you'll have to point windows to the .inf file manually

from the driver cd...

it has an interface with a list of drivers

Voodoo2

Your missing the drivers alright, if you go to support.dell.com and browse to your machine type they will give you all the uptodate drivers! although Installing SP2 should install one or two of those devices!

irlrobins

Voodoo2 wrote:

although Installing SP2 should install one or two of those devices!

unfortunately not. :-(

Voodoo2

irlrobins wrote:

unfortunately not. :-(

Works for my laptop :-)

But support on the dell website is the place to go, even has those important BIOS updates!

irlrobins

yea but ur laptop prob has video,audio and network all intergrated onto the board.

Voodoo2

Its work the odd time even on desktops, i notice that XPSP1 didnt have Radeon Drivers integrated but in SP2 they do so it depends on the hardware!

The Troll

Voodoo2 wrote:

Its work the odd time even on desktops, i notice that XPSP1 didnt have Radeon Drivers integrated but in SP2 they do so it depends on the hardware!

Well i've SP2 and the drivers stll aren't installed.

Voodoo2

Thats why you go to the Support site http://support.dell.com/ register takes 2 seconds then just browse to you machine and get the drivers you need!

the_syco

Ethernet Controller - NIC card
Multimedia Audio Controller - Sound Card

Video Controller
Video Controller(VGA Compatible)

Since there's two here, I'll take a guess: do you have an inbuilt graphics card, as well as one you put in yourself?

=-=

Also, why did you reinstall everything?

The Troll

the_syco wrote:

Ethernet Controller - NIC card
Multimedia Audio Controller - Sound Card

Video Controller
Video Controller(VGA Compatible)

Since there's two here, I'll take a guess: do you have an inbuilt graphics card, as well as one you put in yourself?

=-=

Also, why did you reinstall everything?

I reinstalled everything because I formatted the hard drive.

Where would i get NIC card drivers?

And yes i think the 8400 has integrated GFX as well. It was the standard option, but i upgraded to the Radeon Card.

irlrobins

Troll for christ sake's just go to Dell site and download the drivers... they're all there!!!

The Troll

irlrobins wrote:

Troll for christ sake's just go to Dell site and download the drivers... they're all there!!!

Ovbiously I've done this, but it still is showing up as ? in device manager.

irlrobins

ok for my 8400 (bought Jan 2005) I use have this network card:

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/type.aspx?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_8400&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=6197

you might need this to be installed first.

roamer

The Troll wrote:

Ovbiously I've done this, but it still is showing up as ? in device manager.

Well, all the drivers you need are on the dell site.
Are you logging in with your service tag?