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Ethernet controller is a very common name for what you need to establish an Internet connection.
Ethernet controller is a very common name for what you need to establish an Internet connection.
Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]
Click Select a Product and enter your service tag for a list of drivers for your computer.
You may need to change to your region.
IF I had to guess I would say
Etherent Controller = NIC (wired connection)
Network Controller = Wireless card
PCI Simple Communucations Controller = dial up modem or maybe sound card or video card.
If you right click them in device manager and select properties. Under the details tab there is a Hardware ID option listed in the drop down menu. That can help you ID something.
Just expand each category for a full list of drivers.
If you're not sure which ones to download check your computer documentation and your purchase order, which should tell you what hardware you have on your machine.
If you download a wrong driver and try and install it you'll be prompted that you can't install it.
Click on the System Configuration link followed by System Information then let Dell scan your computer for an up-to-date list of hardware.
Will do, thanks for your help!
Not necessarily, Windows includes a large amount of drivers by default so in theory you only need the drivers it didn't have. Some of those may be newer versions than what windows installed so the choice is up to you. Just keep going until everything works. I usually start with the chip-set drivers, then Video, sound, network, wireless, Touchpad, bluetooth, card reader, CIR, etc.
EDIT: When all the yellow ! are gone from device manager you'll know you got them all. If you find that some of the custom keys on your keyboard don't work it may be because the windows installed driver doesn't support that function. Installing the Dell driver or utility will likely get them working. Thats the way it worked on my old Acer Aspire 5920. I pretty well had to download every driver and utility listed on the Acer site to get everything working.
According to Dell, they recommend you install drivers in this order: How to Download and Install Drivers in the Correct Order | Dell
Plug in your ethernet connection and see if it loads a driver automatically as happens 90% of the time with Win7. If so, connect to Windows Updates and run several cycles to get newer drivers via optional Updates.
If ethernet drive won't install, download and install it from the Dell Support Downloads webpage for your model and connect to Windows Updates to get drivers.
Only after several cycles of Windows Updates would I import any drivers still missing in Device Manager.
The SM Bus and USB controllers you mentioned are elements of the Chipset, but I would wait to see if Windows Updates suppplies them before importing the chipset as Win7 is the authority on its drivers.