The Gaming Den

I just was forced through continued and unceasing errors to reinstall Windows XP Home Edition on my desktop, and now I have no drivers for any of my computer components. How do I go about finding out which drivers I need and installing them?

How bad is it? What kind of computer is it?

C

Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager

That should give you a list of the hardware you've got installed. I think.

As long as Windows can guess what it is, you'll find it where Heath said. If Windows can't guess (tells you it's a generic or unknown device) or doesn't have any generic drivers to use for it (has a big ? for an icon), you'll need to check any documentation you have or open it up and look for identifying info on the boards themselves.

Generally, you need motherboard / chipset drivers, video drivers, sound drivers, and wired/wireless network drivers, and then drivers for any other crap that's installed there. As long as you know what they are you can get the most current drivers from the manufacturer's site. Get the motherboard / chipset drivers first, as they generally have lots of little things tied together in that package and can help your computer find other things it doesn't know it has in it.

I always just read the labels on the parts and download them from the manufacturer.

However, that requires dusting the interior of your machines and knowing what the parts are.

-Crissa

start -> run -> type "dxdiag"

all the data should be there

Heath Robinson wrote:Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager

That should give you a list of the hardware you've got installed. I think.

I have done that and it lists a bunch of stuff, as well as listing a big yellow question mark for "Other devices." Underneath this are a number of things with yellow question marks and exclamation points; 3D Video Controller, Ethernet Controller, Ethernet Controller, Mass Storage Controller, Multimedia Audio Controller, Other PCI Bridge Device, SM Bus Controller, Unknown Device, and Video Controller (VGA Compatible)


I think the biggest thing I need is a driver that would enable me to connect to the internet, as from there I can actually download all the other ones that I need. How would I go about doing this, and what information would you need to tell me which one to get?

EDIT: I'm on my laptop now, for clarification.

Righto. I'm assuming this wasn't a pre-built computer (if it is, go to the builder's site and get drivers from them to start) and you don't have the manuals or boxes for the parts anymore, so you need crack the box open and start reading off part information from the circuit boards. Get information for the motherboard and every other board that's plugged into it, preferably manufacturer first, and then hunt around on their sites with your laptop until you find the right model. Most sites will have some sort of tool or diagram to assist you with finding the right model number. Your audio, video, or ethernet may also be built onto your motherboard (they won't have separate cards and the ports will likely be oriented perpendicularly to any thing on a card), in which case you can get drivers for them from the same place. USB probably is built into the motherboard, but since it doesn't show in your list I can't tell if it's already installed or just unrecognized.

Anyway, your big ones should be motherboard / chipset first, usb second (if it's not included with your motherboard / chipset and you want to be able to use a thumb drive or whatever to port drivers) and then ethernet. After that you can get sound and video and modem or whatever else, but you may as well just get them all with your laptop while you have your computer open and you're hunting for model information.

I believe that, with help from my friends and a little of your advice, I have most everything working.

Now I have to reinstall every program I used.

Ah the joy of a fresh install. I can't wait until home desktops become virtual machines, piss this hardware dependency off.

What, you mean not everyone is running their home machines in parrallel VMs on top of a SUSE install Draco? What a horrible thought.

I want a proper hypervisor instead of a linux distro. ESX is where its at.