Dell E520 ethernet connection

Rick, thanks, I did not install drivers. Will do that tonight. I tried to use the diagnostics and tapped F8 but nothing would come up. Used the drive diagnostic in bios and it came back saying the hard drive was ok. Attempted to do a repair with the OS cd and couldn't get past a bod. Plugged the old hard drive into a black box usb dock on my laptop and can access all the files on the old drive.  Do you know if you can check the Windows version in the program files on the old drive. Reason I ask is I have 8 dell computers, wife's kids hand me downs, and I'm not sure what OS disc went with which. I know the e520 was an XP OS, and I can rule out the two Vista disc's (not sure whose the second one was).

Thanks imgolfing4

 imgolfing4,

When you installed the operating system, did you install the desktop/notebook utility and the chipset drivers first? If not, the rest of the drivers will fail to install. How to Download and Install Drivers in the Correct Order

With the old hard drive, could you restart the computer and tap F8, try using system restore from there?

Rick

imgolfing4,

You should have a sticker on the computer stating the operating system, some are under the battery. If you're unsure, I could try to contact someone and have them look it up in a private message for you.

On Dell computers, with all operating systems except Windows 7, no product needed as the motherboard has the product key.

Rick

imgolfing4

Installing network drivers after a clean reinstall of Windows can certainly be frustrating. If the system is Windows XP, then you should be alright using any XP disks that may have. I would suggest one with service pack 2 or higher. Since it is a Dell system you should not be required to activate Windows.  As far as the Ethernet adapter,  it is very unlikely that there will be native drivers available for it in XP.  That is to say that you will need to download drivers from support.dell.com to get it to function correctly.

Please be sure to download the chipset drivers

Ethernet http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&releaseid=R130101&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_E520&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=11815&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=5&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=173437

Let me know if this helps.

TB

Terry, thanks for the help, seems the only thing I've managed to keep track of was the service tags. Got on Dell's website and downloaded the drivers connected to the service tag, and the instructions for the sequence of installation. As soon as I installed the ethernet driver, the internet came right up. Goofy thing is we lost two computers in the power outages Sunday. Got the main one going, will have to tackle the second one this weekend. Thanks for your assistance.

Rick, once installed I never got a prompt looking for the license key. We backed into the OS discs and figure we got the right one, what a coincidence. Took your advice and downloaded drivers from dell website along with instructions on order of installation. Up and running, now trying to fix old hard drive. I did manage to recover my documents so its not all lost. Thanks for the assistance.

 imgolfing4,

Glad you got it working! :emotion-21: Thanks for posting back. There was an issue with XP that if it came with Windows Media Center, then you needed to use the XP Media Center disk. I cannot remember if this was on a Dell Computer or another brand, so I asked Terry for some advice.

If you have any problems with the other computer, fell free to ask, that's what we're here for. I have all the Dell disks in their origional booklets and stored in a plastic container. I have them labeled by their model numbers, like Studio 1737, Studio 1555 and Studio 1558. That way I know which computer they belong to. On Dell computers, if you use a Dell OEM disk with the correct operating system, you shouldn't get prompted for a product key, except Windows 7.

On the other computer, before you do anything, try restarting the computer and tapping F8 on startup. See if you can use system restore from there or even repair my computer, it just may work.

Take care,

Rick