Drivers get updates often. Of course depends on the hardware (the older it gets the less updates one can expect) But if he does not even have any SP, then most likely the drivers are ancient. Just get the newest (whatever that will be, as long as they are newest) drivers from manufacturer site. There is NO need to try to re-use the old code! Dell ISO HAS the OEL SLP number already IN. That is the WHOLE point of the OEM disk (again, all that is explained in stickies, why don't you read?) All the other ones are MSDN retail releases. You can read the stickies & learn what you can do with them (basically convert to OEM) sebus
Thank you very much for the help. To answer your question, I did read. The only problem was understanding what I read. You are mostly very generous with your help, but on occasion you assume that everyone is as knowledgeable as you are about this stuff. I would like to be; that's why I ask questions. But I know that I will never understand all the technical aspects of what this stuff does, so I must continue to ask for help from folks such as you that are much smarter. I thought that was the purpose of this forum. Thanks to you, I Googled "OEM SLP" and now I know just what you are referring to. Once more, thank you for taking time to help. I appreciate it.
Install Driver Genius Pro, make a backup of installed drivers to a file and when you reinstall XP use this file to get back the drivers Need help in getting the mentioned app? just drop me a message
I am sorry, but that is the most c**p advice one can give! Do not ever make backup of old drivers, it is NOT ever needed, get the correct driver from PC/hardware peripheral manufacturer, as it will be way newer then anything you might save That app should never exist! sebus
On the Dell website, you can put the service tag in and it will give the exact drivers needed. I agreed that driver "backup" should not be used on fresh installs. I've used them to exact just the drivers and the INF files for slipstreaming but even then it is not 100% successful as it "misses" things (e.g. on my laptop, it wouldn't allow me to "disable" wireless untill I reinstalled the same driver over the top).
Obviously some people here are more knowledgable than others, and it is easy to speak to much geek to someone who is not really into the "scene" Probably why I have writen the "How to" for making these XP CD's so a retarded 6 year old could figure it out. Yet there still has been people in that thread DEMANDING people help him/her, literally telling me it's my job to explain it better. I got so pissed off with that attitude, that I removed it for a couple of month. That is also the reason I no longer respond to questions in it, the info that needs to be there is there. Google can answer all the questions you have about what the different versions are for. Google windows xp k n kn versions wiki It's now very rare I actually respond to any thread here, simply because, 99% of the time, I would spend time looking for something that is being asked for, then sometimes even upload files and then asker would not even leave a thank you. I don't know what the deal is, my parents tought me to say thank you, parents no longer do this, or is it because it's the internet? Manners on the internet is nowadays a nostarter. This board is great for people who would like to READ and LEARN. It's not for the 1-2 posters who comes here to get things handed to them. Ok rant over for now..
Good luck with that time wasting hunting thru obscure and unmaintained websites for that drivers without which some crucial component of the computers wont work. Driver genius gets me the latest driver updates and backups them without any fuss Download the trial version and scan for any missing or outdated drivers. I bet they would be atleast one which might need to be updated and dont knock that app before you have even tried it
looks like you're having a bad day today with all that swearing oh well use whichever app does the job for you
It should be YOU using whatever you want, but do not give bad advice to somebody who knows little about computers & their configs. It is not helpful at all. sebus
Actually, I have found the Driver Genius / Double Driver type program quite useful. By backing up the existing drivers, you know exactly what hardware is installed. I have often gone to manufacturer web sites to download current drivers only to find that they have used MANY different configurations on a single model. Even using a tag to identify the computer , Dell often lists multiple wireless adapters, video and sound cards. Sometimes new drivers are not available (discontinued model, OEM out of business, etc). Having an old driver is better than a yellow exclamation point and non-functional hardware...
Lateshift, I agree with everything you say which is why I not only did say a thank you for your post in the sticky that allowed me to get all 14 ISOs of Win XP, but praised you for your detailed instructions and links that even I could follow easily, when I asked my original question. I do try to use Google as much as I can, but eventually I reach the point where I just don't understand enough of the abreviations and shorthand to continue. It is then I ask for help, hopefully before I screw up what I'm doing. I have found that there are an awfully lot of great people in these forums that are willing to share their knowledge with folks like me and I try to do the same in other forums when I find people who are even less knowledgeable than I. Once again, thanks for the great work you did in Sticky: Windows XP Archive (Genuine ISO). However, I still would like to know how I can tell which of the 14 ISOs to use with which computer. I was just lucky that one of them was labeled as "Dell" or I would still be lost. I know it has something to do with all those numbers preceding the name, but after that, I'm lost. I have just done some more research. Please tell me if this correct. All those numbers are the hash check numbers for the different BIOSs. What I'd do would use the OEMBIOS tool (v1.1) to get the string from the computer in question and compare it to the strings of the ISO files. Am I close?
You are miles away. The hashes are for the actual ISO, so you know you have real mccoy & not some homebrew iso made by maddoc in his garage. I already explained to you (do you read & understand?) in port #2 All the other ones are MSDN retail releases Hence having the hash you can be sure (as you can check on M$ site) that the iso are as real as it gets If you do not understand the above sentences, maybe you need to change the hobby. sebus
That is why each hardware has unique hardware_id You can not go wrong using it for driver search sebus
How many newbies do actually re-install any OS from scratch? Could not think of any that I know sebus
i know of plenty, that's why there are whole forums devoted to people who have done such and can't get their pc's back up and running correctly...