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General discussion

When to install drivers?

May 14, 2010 12:07PM PDT

I am doing a clean install WIN7 upgrade. I have located the video and audio drivers for WIN7 and burned them to CD. I assume WIN7 will operate on its default, built-in drivers initially. When and how do I upgrade to the latest factory WIN7 drivers?

Discussion is locked

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installing drivers
May 14, 2010 12:27PM PDT

One thing i would also do is find an internet driver. I did a reformat one time and there were no drivers to operate the internet portion. see if there is one of those for yours before you reformat. Then when you do the reformat you can go to your device manager. When you right click on the device and go to properties you will find update drivers under one of the tabs. It will search the net there and take care of it. I just upgraded and that was the easiest way that i found. keep in mind if you have any hardware on the computer that is older like a webcam or something like that some of those are not compatible with windows 7 yet. thats the best advice i have. someone may have better ideas but that is how i do it.

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Sequence is important
May 14, 2010 7:39PM PDT

Once Windows is installed and boots for the first time, it will configure hardware that it knows as best it can. It will note in device manager the hardware it detects but cannot configure. This doesn't mean all hardware will be detected and this is why it's important that that the first drivers should be those for the motherboard chipset. This should be on a CD that came with the motherboard or is available on the web. Installing these drivers might cause Windows to find additional hardware. You're going to want to install video, network adapter and other hardware after the chipset drivers are installed. Depending on your MB, you may need the Intel Matrix manager as well but all of these should be on the MB CD if you have it. Avoid using Windows update to find drivers for your hardware. Get these from the manufacturer. Good luck.

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Intel Chipset Driver Update Utility
May 14, 2010 8:38PM PDT
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Dell Utility Disk
May 14, 2010 8:42PM PDT

I do have the Dell driver disk that should at least get my NIC working with the original Vista driver. Then, onto the Intel download site for upgrade.

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Nothing comes before the chipset drivers
May 14, 2010 10:25PM PDT

The chipset driver may open doors that aren't seen yet and those on line scanning sites may not see everything until the chipset is fully configured. I wouldn't trust them. Now that you mention it's a Dell, you should either have those drivers or should get them from the manufacturer.

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WIN7 Drivers for Dimension XPS420
May 17, 2010 12:14AM PDT

Intel drivers site refers me back to Dell as they claim Dell may have customized the drivers. Dell only shows the Vista drivers for the PC, as this is what the PC was designed for. I dl'd them and burned the .iso to cd. If I cannot locate WIN7 drivers after the clean install upgrade, is it ok to use the Vista drivers? It looks like chipset drivers haven't changed since Vista. I did find WIN7 drivers for my Nvidia Geforce 8600GTS and Creative X-fi titanium sound card.
Thanks.

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Vista Drivers...
May 17, 2010 1:40AM PDT

Often do the trick on machines running Windows 7. With that said, I recommend running the Upgrade Advisor before moving from Vista to Windows 7. It scans your system and makes recommendations on what do before upgrading (if anything) - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/upgrade-advisor

Here is a guide to help you with the install as well - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-vista-to-windows-7-custom

Hope this helps to put your mind at ease Happy

Cheers,
Cassandra