This post is more than 5 years old
1 Rookie
•
14 Posts
0
16087
August 23rd, 2014 18:00
Replaced Hard Drive, Need Help With Drivers & Utilities!
Hello,
Yesterday I replaced my old hard drive with a new WD, and I reinstalled Windows Vista. All went well until I popped in the Utilities and Drivers (ResourceCD) that came with the laptop. I suppose I thought the CD would do all of the work, reinstalling all of the necessary drivers and utilities.. Now I'm stuck with a laptop that can't connect to internet, and the display is too big. I'm sure there is more wrong with my laptop than meets the eye. On the Drivers & Utilities CD it has a list of of drivers, and some of them have checkmarks, others don't. I've tried following some online instruction on which ones/what order to download them, but I don't even have some of the recommended drivers on the Dell.com website (specific to my Inpiron 1545 model)! I know I could download them right off the website, but I don't even have wifi to do that.
Also, I was reading about performing a Dell Factory Image Restore and I tried it. When I get to the black screen with no options I'm supposed to click on "Repair computer" but the option is not available either... I thought maybe this would be an easy way to restore my laptop (drives and all) to the original settings. Maybe the option is not there because my computer is virtually empty, with nothing to restore to? All that I have on my laptop right now is Windows Vista 64-Bit and a couple drivers that I don't know much about.
Some help and advice would be awesome.
Anna
osprey4
4 Operator
•
34.2K Posts
0
August 28th, 2014 16:00
Click the link below, Operating System Installation Guides.
DELL-Ravi Ch
7 Technologist
•
7.1K Posts
0
August 23rd, 2014 21:00
Hi anna,
The new hard drive will not have the factory restore image. You can download the Ethernet and Wireless card drivers on an Internet working computer. Please enter your service tag # on the link below, click on ‘Get drivers and downloads’, select the OS, then download the Wireless card and Ethernet carddriver from Network section transfer it to your system and install it.
http://dell.to/18r60nI
Please let me know if this helps.
annaobloch
1 Rookie
•
14 Posts
0
August 25th, 2014 17:00
Hello,
I have already tried diwnloading the Ethernet and wireless drivers, both the ones off of my ResourceCD and the ones on the Dell website as you described.. some of them are the same, both off the site and from the CD. But when I go to my Program Manager it has the yellow exclamation mark beside both the Ethernet and Wireless drivers... it says they are either corrupt or not working properly. In any case I don't know what to do.. I'm not sure how to use my USB to transfer a driver download from one computer to another, more explanation would be good. Also, other than my internet drivers, what drivers do I need for my PC to work like it did before? Just the ones off the of Dell website?
Thank you,
Anna
osprey4
4 Operator
•
34.2K Posts
0
August 26th, 2014 13:00
Hi Anna,
Please click my link below for the Windows installation guide. In there, he explains how to download and install drivers and which ones you need. The FIRST driver to install is the chipset driver.
annaobloch
1 Rookie
•
14 Posts
0
August 26th, 2014 17:00
I downloaded the system software first, and then th chipset drivers- as recommended on the Dell website. Is that wrong? My apologies, I am very inexperienced with computers, as far as this reinstallaion is going.. Step by step instructions would be helpful, as all of this computer language is confusing. Sorry for my lack of knowledge!
Thanks,
Anna