Inspiron 1501 drivers for XP

Question

I recently downgraded from Vista to XP on my Inspiron 1501. Everything is functioning well; however, when I go into the Device Manager, two items still have those yellow question marks: under 'Other Devices,' they are listed as Base System Device and Network Controller. I have even upgraded my BIOS (which I've never done before), and gone to the Dell driver d/l page for XP for my model, but I'm not sure what to d/l because I don't know what hardware they are for. I can get internet via the ethernet card or a USB cable, and as I said before, I don't see any problems with anything else. I inserted the Dell drivers CD (again, keep in mind the laptop came with Vista) and in the Device Manager, told XP to update the driver and look in the CD drive, but both times it came up with nothing. Any suggestions?

davejohn · Answer

The Base System Device driver is needed for the card reader to read cards from a digital camera.  The network driver is probably for the wireless network card, since your Ethernet and USB connections are working fine. Dave

psaulm119 · Answer

Dave, thanks. I just installed the driver for my wireless card. Since my current digicam's memory card isn't readable by the reader that Dell gave me, I won't worry about the other one for the moment, but at least I know what I need to do. I thought I had that wireless driver installed, but I double-checked after you posted and I saw that I didn't. Thanks a lot--I use wireless access at my job quite a bit and this will definitely be needed.

RoHe · Answer

Did you install Notebook System Software (NSS) right after installing XP? Here:
http://snipurl.com/1vuqq

And did you install the chipset driver right after installing NSS? Here:
http://snipurl.com/1vuqp

Correct installation order:
XP
NSS
Chipset
Video driver
Network driver
Audio driver
Modem driver
etc.

Ron

psaulm119 · Answer

OK after dell support chat I finally got the right one. You'd think that with all the drivers and other apps on one page for 1501/XP, they would put a link for that one as well. Oh well--again, thanks that should prove invaluable for my drivers. Appreciate that

psaulm119 · Answer

Rohe, I d/l that file for NSS, but when installing, either on my C or F partition (the XP partition is the F one, and the one that is lacking drivers), I get an error message that this file cannot be installed. This happened also when I extracted the file to the F partition. EDIT: I just looked in the compatibility page, and 1501 (my laptop) was not listed. I'll look for another version of that program. Message Edited by psaulm119 on 12-27-2007 09:05 AM

Message Edited by psaulm119 on 12-27-2007 09:07 AM

psaulm119 · Answer

Great. The appropriate version for the INspiron 1501 and XP (R134839) says that the language of the operating system doesn't match that of the driver, or some other such nonsense.

Message Edited by psaulm119 on 12-27-2007 09:24 AM

Windows General

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