Laren (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} laren) wrote in ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} computer_help,@ 2008-07-21 16:04:00 |
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Dell Inspiron 710m Reformat Gone Wrong
My grandparents gave me their Dell Inspiron 710m laptop under the condition that I reformatted it first.
I changed the boot order in BIOS so that I could boot from my Windows XP Pro CD (Windows XP Home was previously installed), and reformatted as I usually do, deleting all existing partitions and creating one new partition to install the OS on.
The XP installation went normally, until it was time to boot the OS, when it asked me to choose between Pro and Home even though only Pro was installed. When I tried selecting Home, I got an error indicating more or less that it wasn't there. Ok. Pro booted fine, but I was unable to connect to the internet, even setting the IP information manually. Entering "ipconfig /all" or even just "ipconfig" in the command prompt yielded "Windows IP Configuration" and the blank command prompt, nothing else.
I checked the device manager to make sure everything was ok, only to find that I'm missing drivers for virtually everything on the system ("Base System Device", "Ethernet Controller", "Mass Storage Controller", "Network Controller", and "USB Controller", just to name a few). As far as I know, my grandparents don't have any CDs that came with the system.
Dell doesn't provide all of their drivers on their website, and the laptop doesn't even know what devices are inside it that I need drivers for, so I don't know how to find, download, and install all of them individually. A Google search didn't yield any rips of driver CDs or packs including multiple drivers.
I have no clue how to proceed. This is my first time reformatting a laptop, and clearly it is very different from reformatting a PC. x_x
Help?
My grandparents gave me their Dell Inspiron 710m laptop under the condition that I reformatted it first.
I changed the boot order in BIOS so that I could boot from my Windows XP Pro CD (Windows XP Home was previously installed), and reformatted as I usually do, deleting all existing partitions and creating one new partition to install the OS on.
The XP installation went normally, until it was time to boot the OS, when it asked me to choose between Pro and Home even though only Pro was installed. When I tried selecting Home, I got an error indicating more or less that it wasn't there. Ok. Pro booted fine, but I was unable to connect to the internet, even setting the IP information manually. Entering "ipconfig /all" or even just "ipconfig" in the command prompt yielded "Windows IP Configuration" and the blank command prompt, nothing else.
I checked the device manager to make sure everything was ok, only to find that I'm missing drivers for virtually everything on the system ("Base System Device", "Ethernet Controller", "Mass Storage Controller", "Network Controller", and "USB Controller", just to name a few). As far as I know, my grandparents don't have any CDs that came with the system.
Dell doesn't provide all of their drivers on their website, and the laptop doesn't even know what devices are inside it that I need drivers for, so I don't know how to find, download, and install all of them individually. A Google search didn't yield any rips of driver CDs or packs including multiple drivers.
I have no clue how to proceed. This is my first time reformatting a laptop, and clearly it is very different from reformatting a PC. x_x
Help?
