Cannot get network adapter driver to work - Error code 10

I have read many similar posts, but none exactly like mine.  I've tried and failed at the advice given in other posts, sooo...

Replaced the HDD in my wife's Inspiron 1420, Vista, Intel dual core T7250s

Broadcom 802.11n adapter

Kept all the disks shipped with the lappy, Prepped the HD per the media rules, loaded windows and the mediadirect and the driver resource CD..  they all had autoexecs and seem to run fine.   Failed to connect to the net.. checked it out on device mgr, found the code 10 fail..  All other drivers seemed to have loaded..

tried to update the driver..  it said it already had the correct driver. - fail

DLed the Broadcom driver to a thumb and installed it - no difference.  Rebooted..  several times during all this.

Read here it might be install order - thought I might try it manually.  Looked for Intel T7250 drivers.. "not currently available" here. 

what am I missing?