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Inspiron 530 Driver Questions
Gentlemen,
I just picked up a Inspiron 530 minus a HDD for next to nothing at a thrift store and I am a bit puzzled about a few things pertaining to the available drivers.
It looks like the various driver selection/installation utilities Dell provides are aimed at upgrading an existing system. I'm starting from scratch so they aren't of much use to me, which is why I'm bringing these questions to the forum.
1) Bios: According to the downloads page for my specific Service Tag the latest bios version for this machine is v.1.0.1. But the bios version that is currently displayed in the bios is v 1.0.7! There is no bios version listed for any version of the Inspiron 530 higher than 1.0.2. So why does the current bios read 1.0.7?
2) Intel Matrix Storage Manager: There are four downloads for the Intel Matrix Storage Manager that are listed from oldest to latest as, v.7.5.0.1017 ,A00 (2 files, for some reason, listed under the same version number), v.7.8.0.1012 , A01 (20.14 MB) and v.8.6.0.1007, A02 (329.16 KB).
Am I supposed to install all four of these files in order or can I just install the last two? I say the last two because it looks like by the file sizes involved that the 20.14 MB file (ending in A01) might be the "main" driver and that the 329.16 KB file (ending in A02) is an update of that. The first two files listed (A00) are similarly related -- the first one very large in comparison to the second.
I hope that what I'm asking is worded clearly enough so that someone else can follow.
3) Intel Graphics Controller: My version of the 530 came with a discreet video card (nVidia GeForce 8600 GT). Do I still need to install the Intel Graphics Controller driver or just the nVidia driver?
4) This is a bit off-topic, but I have a HP wireless keyboard and mouse with a usb dongle and I'm wondering whether these things are generic enough to just plug 'n play on a Dell computer.
If it matters, the system has a 2.44 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor and 4GB of RAM and is running Vista Premium 32-bit.
So far, all I've done with it is put in a HDD and install the OS. The confusion of the first three questions has stopped me from going any further.
Thanks for your interest!
Grant
Mary G
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March 18th, 2017 07:00
Support for Vista is discontinued and you should not use it since it will not receive any security updates.
www.ghacks.net/.../
You wasted money buying an obsolete computer no matter how cheap it was. Don't use it on the Internet.
Here are the manual instructions for drivers-- www.dell.com/.../how-to-manually-reinstall-windows-vista
rdunnill
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March 18th, 2017 10:00
1.0.18 is the latest version.
I don't know if this is necessary.
Just the video driver.
Yes.
Meanwhile, support for Vista ends next month. I'd suggest upgrading to Windows 7; you can buy one on eBay.
It still has life left in it; heck, it's a quad-core! With an SSD boot drive, it could handily outperform some of the brand new bargain products some push here.
Gchagen
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March 20th, 2017 23:00
Thanks for the replies!
I have no intention of using this machine online. Mostly I got it to have a cheap PVR for OTA TV broadcasts, playing recordings made from a TV tuner card on my HDTV. The included 8600GT video card looked up to the task and even with replacing the HDD it has only cost me $15.00 to get this beast going.
I started noticing problems with updating Vista a little over a year ago and it's just gotten worse over time. Even with all the various workarounds proposed I don't even bother to try updating any of my Vista computers anymore. An update process that used to take twenty minutes suddenly jumped to two hours. When it got to the point where I could run Windows Update for thirty hours straight and get nothing, I just quit trying.
I have read that the only thing that the bios v.1.0.18 actually did was to change the look of the screen that shows up when you first boot Windows, and the download list provided by Dell Downloads for my service tag only listed bios v.1.0.1 as the latest -- which refused to install because the installer said that it was an older version than the 1.0.7 already present. Unless I start having problems with the CPU fan running out of control like many other people have reported, I guess I don't really need to mess with the bios anyway.
It seems that all my questions about the Intel Matrix Storage Manager are moot since it refuses to install because it says that the system doesn't meet the minimum requirements for installation! Presumably, this came installed on these computers when they shipped, so how can the system not meet minimum requirements? And even if it didn't ship, why would Dell list it on the driver download page for the computer if it doesn't meet minimum requirements for installation? Considering that the computer is working without the IMSM, apparently it isn't necessary.
Usually the IMSM has to do with things like providing AHCI and RAID support for the HDD on these older computers, but the bios on this one doesn't even list an option for AHCI. I don't really care that much as long as the computer functions well enough to do what I want it to do, and it seems to play video recordings fine as it is.
Intel Graphics Controller is moot also. It won't install for the same reason as the IMSM. Fortunately, the nVidia driver did work and the display is fine.
Again, thanks for the input!
Grant