which drivers - inspiron3421 with win8.1

Wireless Card Driver: From your post I assume you have installed the driver for the wireless adapter already. If not please provide the hardware IDs. See here:

this is the driver (and the only one) that I have installed just now:

Dell Wireless 1705 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0+HS Driver                                                              

Network_Driver_VJFT6_WN_10.0.0.227_A01.EXE                                            

(I had tried 1704 during one of the previous  fresh reinstalls, but it did not work - it did not start my internet network)

hope this is the information you were looking for.

(the hardware IDs are as in following screenshot)

 

so... do I download the following file for this network driver:

http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER01726242M/2/DW1705_WIN8.1_A00_Setup-9TR42_ZPE.exe

 

.

 

 

thank you.

biren

EDIT:

I am a little confused and tad bit worried, Philip.

I put my computer to download windows8.1 from the store.

because it was a big download, I went to sleep.

when I woke up, the screen that was waiting was about selecting the settings (not even the license terms page).

which means I did not get the opportunity to uninstall the few programs that are there - (screenshot below)

ccleaner was the only one I had installed, the rest I don't know - are they a part of the network driver 1705 I installed?

I don't know how the restart happened and update 8.1 got installed. not even how come I did not get the screen to sign the terms and conditions?

can you please tell me what to do NOW? from here?

the computer seems to be working fine.

biren

That's correct driver you have the Dell Wireless 1705 card as it matches the hardware IDs. The others are drivers, likely obtained from Windows Update.

Install the rest of the drivers I mentioned above in the order I listed, it should continue to run fine.

Note when you are installing the video drivers it may say a newer driver is already installed, in this case you don't need to install the Dell drivers.

one more question, Philip... I just want to be sure.

I should be installing the 2 updates first (KB2919442 and 2919355) - before installing the rest of the drivers, right?
or should I now install all drivers first and then the 2 updates?

Install the updates first and then the drivers.

thank you so much, philip.

very grateful.

biren

Probably your system got the updates from Windows Update, it appears they are installed correctly then it should be fine.

As mentioned I would rather install them directly after Windows 8.1 and you can see the multiple flaws with having to connect to the internet to get the Windows 8.1 from the Store, in that Windows Update can sometimes do things in the background and interfere. Many people have had issues with the KB2919442 ad KB2919355 updates because of it.

If I had my way Microsoft would provide a freely downloadable .iso with Windows 8.1 Update 1 for clean installation and a downloadable .exe which includes KB2871389, Windows 8.1, KB2919442 and KB2818355. You can see the additional hassle you've had to go through due to their awful distributions of installation media.

From your comment on my blog, it looks like you are having driver issues. It seems that probably some of your drivers have extracted but not installed... See here, don't bother looking at the installation order. The order I listed the drivers in will be fine, have a look at the video at the bottom, I need to update it but it gives the example where drivers extract but don't install which unfortunately is quite common.

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/downloading-drivers-checking-hardware-ids-and-downloading-and-installing-dell-system-drivers-in-the-correct-order/driver-installation/

philip,

i can't say every driver got installed... but i can say that after each install, i got the message of either 'restart' or 'installed ok'.

should i start over from freshly reinstalling windows 8, and following the process again?

regards

biren

philip… the dell ‘drivers and downloads’ page suggests 3 drivers for my inspiron 3421 – dell wireless 1703, 1704 and 1705.

how do i determine which of these i need? or do i install all 3?

also…
i am going to re-do the process suggested by you here.

when i install windows 8.0, there are about 4 devices that show the yellow bang. should i still go ahead with the windows 8.1 updation (after kb 2781389 install)? or should i install drivers and ensure that no device shows up with yellow bang?

thank you.

From the comment on my guide:

"

A.
the 4th driver was intel turbo boost –
it stopped because it asked to download .net 3.5, and I couldn’t do it since I couldn’t connect to the internet (without the network driver)

B.
I found I had saved 2 network drivers for dell 1705 –

Network_Driver_9TR42_WN_10.0.0.263_A00
and
DW1705_WIN8.1_A00_Setup-9TR42_ZPE

the first one failed to install
the second one installed, but somewhere – as it was loading – I read it was for x86.
is that okay? since my system is x64? though my Bluetooth and wifi seems to be working ok.

C.
the intel WiDi (?) driver (WiDi_Intel_W7W8_X04_A01_Setup-4N2D3_ZPE) –
installed ok. but when I clicked the desktop icon (to see what was it about), it said “this program has compatibility issues”
do I need to do anything? do I need this app?

D.
the last was quickset app (Application_1VRX6_WN_11.1.007_A00) –
this also installed ok. but I couldn’t find the icon in the notification tray. nor was I able to see it listed in ‘all programs’ (I remember seeing it as dell quickset when I was running win8.0 on my laptop)
just now, what I have done is… I went to the programs folder and copied the shortcut icon to taskbar and start.
why is it not showing in notification menu? can I do something about it?

E.
after the driver installation, I went to windows update, thinking there will be one or two updates, if any. there are 45 updates (and 5 ‘other’ updates)
is this normal/ok?
should I download and install this through windows update? or wsus?

F.
I am having this feeling that all has not gone well. is there a way I can check if everything is as it should be?

thank you for holding my finger all along this path.
I shudder at the thought, what if you were not there to help.

"

A. Follow the instructions here:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/wsus-offline-update/obtaining-the-latest-service-packsbuilds-of-internet-explorer/windows-defender-latest-definition-and-enabling-microsoft-net-framework-in-windows-8-1/

Then reinstall the driver.

B. If WiFi and Bluetooth are performing normally then the driver is installed, don't worry about it.

C. This is just an on display application, not a driver. The system will work fine without it and this one was designed for Windows 8 so may not be needed in Windows 8.1.

D. The driver comes in 2 forms. Try using the other type of installation package:

http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER01705907M/5/Quickset_Dell_W8.1_A00_Setup-1VRX6_ZPE.exe

E. Install the Windows Updates. You have a clean install, there will always be additional Windows Updates, Microsoft release several new updates every week.

After this is done your system should be performing perfectly. You may want to install Dell Backup and Recovery and make a factory partition of this clean install.

thanks Philip.

just one more confirmation needed.

do you suggest update installation directly from windows update rather than using wsus?

and...

is it okay even if I use wsus (recent build 95)?

regards

biren

thanks Philip.
everything seems to be okay. all updates installed (except the optional one, which has the huge one – kb3000850. and I read somewhere it creates lot of problems. so, am waiting to find out more before attempting).

but, there is a new problem.

I had turned off the secure boot and turned on the legacy boot, while installing 8.1.
now, I am unable to change it back.
if I do (that is, turn on uefi secure boot), the message returns saying this:

internal hard disk drive not found
to resolve this issue, try to reseat the drive
no bootable device – strike f1 to retry boot, f2 enter setup, f5 enter psa.

so, I had to return to legacy boot with secure boot off.

because of this, the start up is taking quite long.

any suggestions? guidance?

regards
biren