Windows 7: Acer netbook...which drivers question ?

Hi,

I have been repairing an Acer netbook my Son dropped and have now got it up and running to a seemingly adequate degree with internet access,which is about all that is required perhaps...but I would like to install all the drivers that were originally on it but how do I know which drivers to load ? There are so many,even for the same device,ie for Atheros bluetooth there are about 7 different drivers ? ..and 3G there are a multitude of drivers too !

Perhaps I should just be satisfied with the access to the web and the current performance that I have but it also teaches me quite a lot about the process.



Can somebody advise please ?

A lot of times even the same model of laptop will have different components in it. I have an Acer Aspire 5920, it was originally sold as an Acer Aspire 5920-6385 Notebook PC. The 6385 part defined what specific components were in my 5920. I just looked in device manager and noted what was there while it still had windows Vista on it. If something shows as unknown device you may have to give it your best guess. If you go to the properties for a device, the hardware ID's will be in the list under the details tab. Google those and you may get lucky. Anytime I've got it wrong and tried to install the wrong driver I got a device not found, or this device not supported message. It wouldn't install and I would move onto me next best guess.

Hi and thanks for this...I had a message come up about if I had bluetooth to turn it on...when I went to see about drivers there are about 7 drivers and as a non techie am bewildered...I take the point about trial and error and will give it a shot...though I have to be honest and wonder w will ever use it anyway...I can`t think that I have used it so far !

I've yet to use mine and leave it turned off. I did install the driver for it though. For me the touchpad driver was a pain. The Acer supplied driver for windows 7 wouldn't install, it would error out and fail. The Synaptic driver worked sort of, but the scroll button didn't work. After hunting around the Acer site I eventually found a version that worked. That also got the blue row of media keys working that I didn't know where actually attached to the touch pad. Sometimes it cab be a pain, even when you think you know what you're doing.

Some manufactures will have a hardware detection utility available for just this situation. I don't know if Acer offers one, I'm in the middle of something at the moment but I'll have a look when I get a chance. programs like Speccy might help. Speccy - Download