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11624
August 28th, 2015 06:00
Struggles with windows 7 reinstall - CD/DVD Driver missing
Hello Alienware Club - this is my first entry here.
I have seen a few posts about this CD/DVD driver problem that I will yet try - however, I want very much to gain an understanding of what is happening and so - if anyone is willing to read on, I would appreciate some insight - and maybe some sympathy.
I am (was) running an Aurora-R4 when it seems my SSD quit on me. (SSD was main drive on which Windows was installed).
Purchased new SSD and after some struggles, found a nice Alienware Tech Support video which helped me get Win7 installed from the originally provided DVD media that came with my box.
Thrilled with my success, I went on to get the integrated network device working, all drivers installed for the invidia display card - and thought I was really on a roll.
Next went to the recommended Alienware/Dell support page and had the thing detect what drivers needed upgrading. I installed several of these. Listed among the recommended upgrades was to go to BIOS A11. I attempted this - but it wanted me to be a A5 first. I easily found A5 and installed...rebooted fine. Went back to the site and installed A11. Rebooted....quick flash of a blue screen, and wailing and grinding of teeth.
Trying to stay positive, I start over again with my knowledge of how to do things. I set the BIOS to have my system boot off of the CD/DVD drive and I put in the original win7 media. It begins the process.....asks me for my language...and brings me to the screen where I have the "Install Now' option. Upon clicking that - I get this pop-up telling me that there is a CD/DVD device driver missing and I need to load it. I try putting in all of the different media that came with my box (CD/DVD media)...and then click "Browse" - but the system does not seem able to see the disk at all (presumbably because it needs a driver to do so.......yet how did it boot off of that media to start with)???
Alienware - Rodrigo
9 Technologist
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4.4K Posts
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September 1st, 2015 13:00
Hi,
You're welcome. Click here for the download link of the Realtek Integrated Ethernet Controller Driver. All of the drivers/applications can be downloaded from the Dell support site. You may also be able to use the one on the Resource DVD. When you click on the extract button, take a look at the folder name and the location where it’s going to be unzipped so you can locate the folder. Even though you're getting an error message when unzipping the files, I'm pretty sure it did unzip the setup file which should be on the Drivers folder.
Alienware - Rodrigo
9 Technologist
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4.4K Posts
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August 28th, 2015 11:00
Hi,
Check in the Bios (to access the Bios, tap the F2 key during boot) under the Boot section and look for an option called Boot Mode, press enter and select the UEFI option. Also, make sure the secure boot option is disabled. Save the changes with the F10 key and restart the system. Let us know how it goes.
EboWalker
4 Posts
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August 30th, 2015 14:00
Both settings were already at those recommended values. (sorry for delay over the weekend). Any other possibilities?
Alienware - Rodrigo
9 Technologist
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4.4K Posts
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August 31st, 2015 16:00
Hi,
Are you using 2 Hard Drives with this computer? If not, go into the Bios, select the Advanced option on the top, select the Integrated Devices option, look for the SATA Mode/configuration option and set it to AHCI. After doing this, proceed to reinstall Windows 7 again by booting from the disk. Let us know how it goes.
EboWalker
4 Posts
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August 31st, 2015 18:00
Thank you for that last tip! - I do want to use 2 or more hard drives once I am back to installing applications, but using the setting you recommended did get me past the driver message and allowed me to install Windows! - My poor luck continues however - With Windows up, I have inserted my resource CD and am trying to install the NIC driver. Upon clicking "Extract", I get the pop-up titled "Network (NIC) Realtek RTL81XX Integrated LOM Driver." I click "Continue" and I get: "An error occurred while unzipping. One or more files were not successfully unzipped. The error code is 40."
The media doesn't look damaged. I copied the entire thing onto the C drive and tried running it from there with the same result. I'm so close.......
Next, I thought I was quite smart in finding the Aurara-R4 drivers download site on my phone. But you can't download the individual drivers....it forces you to download some driver manager which will help you go download the drivers quickly. Not much use if it is the network driver that you need....
EboWalker
4 Posts
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September 8th, 2015 07:00
Thanks for everyone's help!