Clarification please re drivers for Windows 7

[piattj]

Hi

First off, apologies if this is already posted someplace.

I'm relatively Windows-literate, but admit to being confused on how to deal with drivers. I will be doing a clean install of Windows 7 on my laptop (Dell D631, 4Gb RAM, 500Gb HDD, currently Win XP Pro) and want to be in good shape re drivers required. I'm confused as to where to go to have the right drivers available before I start the install... what comes with Windows 7, what do I need to go to manuf websites for, what do I go to microsoft.com for, what about the Catch-22 of... "don't have the right (eg) network driver, and can't get onto the web due to this, to GET the right network driver..." etc etc.

Apology #2 - this might be a real basic question. Thanks in advance for help. Nice forum!

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi

First off, apologies if this is already posted someplace.

I'm relatively Windows-literate, but admit to being confused on how to deal with drivers. I will be doing a clean install of Windows 7 on my laptop (Dell D631, 4Gb RAM, 500Gb HDD, currently Win XP Pro) and want to be in good shape re drivers required. I'm confused as to where to go to have the right drivers available before I start the install... what comes with Windows 7, what do I need to go to manuf websites for, what do I go to microsoft.com for, what about the Catch-22 of... "don't have the right (eg) network driver, and can't get onto the web due to this, to GET the right network driver..." etc etc.

Apology #2 - this might be a real basic question. Thanks in advance for help. Nice forum!

Good question

Win 7 should pick up most if not all of your drivers when you install. It did on my dell. If you're installing 32 bit it will be pretty straight foward, 64 bit dell is not keen on so their driver support is lacking

Ken

 

[mickey megabyte]

hello piattj and welcome to sevenforums,

dell.com would be a good place to start for you - just tap in your service tag in the right box, and you will be taken to the relevant diver download page. del don't seem to have drivers for 7 yet, but the vista ones will work. obviously you will need the 64 bit drivers and install the 64 bit OS to make the most of your ram.

download the drivers now and keep them in a safe partition or drive/disc, so you can use them after the install if needed. as zigzag says, you might not need them as the install picks up a good amount of hardware, but it's a good idea to have them just in case.

have fun with your new os!

 

[piattj]

Thanks for the amazingly quick replies... so the summary is - find out about current devices on laptop, go to Dell website to download what's available (use Vista 64 bit drivers as Dell don't seem to have posted Windows 7 drivers much yet), have these available on (eg) USB to use where the Windows 7 install doesn't take care of finding & installing the driver?

Thanks!

 

[zigzag3143]

Yep

And we will be here if you need us. You wont

Ken

 

[thefabe]

I personaly prefer using a usb memory stick to download the drivers to it's alot eaiser

 

[johnyfalco]

I just installed Win7 x64 on my Dell M1530 laptop and the OS found all drivers apart from the Nvidia 8600GT video card. The only other software I needed was the webcam software but the Vista 32 bit program that I downloaded from Dell worked.

 

[zigzag3143]

I just installed Win7 x64 on my Dell M1530 laptop and the OS found all drivers apart from the Nvidia 8600GT video card. The only other software I needed was the webcam software but the Vista 32 bit program that I downloaded from Dell worked.

Glad you are working

 

[TGSoldier]

I just installed Win7 x64 on my Dell M1530 laptop and the OS found all drivers apart from the Nvidia 8600GT video card. The only other software I needed was the webcam software but the Vista 32 bit program that I downloaded from Dell worked.

Grats. Hope you had no trouble installing the Video Drivers.

 

[piattj]

johnyfalco or anyone else ... please clarify - you said "the OS found all drivers apart from Nvidia..." - does this mean that Windows 7 (or the install process) provided all the (except Nvidia) required drivers? Were they included in the Win 7 distrib or were they gotten off the web during the install or...what? Can you give a little more detail about how the drivers were found... thanks (just putting my teeny mind at rest...)

 

[pparks1]

Windows 7 will likely come with almost every driver you need on the install disk. As long as you have another machine with Internet access, I would install Windows 7 and then check device manager after the install and see which things have an exclamation point. It's likely going to be nothing. If that is the case, you are pretty much good to go. If on the other hand, under VGA controller you see "Unknown", well then you need to hit the website and download your driver. You could get from either Dell or from Nvidia/ATI if you knew which video card you had installed.

As far as the person with the video card...windows had a generic driver and it worked to show the display. But likely wasn't at the resolution that the person wanted...hence the reason they went out and downloaded the driver from the mfg.

Hope that helps.

 

[thefabe]

When I installed Win 7 on my Asus system Win 7 found all the dirvers I needed for the motherboard and chipset to the network and even the Audigy sound card drivers as well as the video card . So I think it has a pretty good datqa base full of drivers you shouldn't have any problems. Except maybe your wifi or wireless if you have them. My guess is it will be an easy install for you, and this is a great forum for help. Good luck and enjoy.

 

[piattj]

Thanks to all for the advice. Feeling much more confident!