I have a replacement laptop from Dell (it is old and refurbished - a Vostro) - I have installed the OS software (XP) on the computer. I do not have a drivers and utilities CD, I also cannot get it to pick up the wireless internet connection and therefore have no internet access. The problem is I cannot go to the website and download the drivers that my computer is in need of to be functional. How do I go about installing the drivers via another computer with internet access? Or can I somehow get a disc from Dell?
You can simply download and save the drivers individually from the Drivers and Downloads page on support.dell.com to your working PC, move them to a flash drive, then move them over to the Vostro. Just avoid the Dell Download Manager option - it installs a download application on the PC and has caused a fair amount of grief. Just choose the standard browser download option for each driver.
Note that there is a recommended order to install drivers after a reformat - if the system software and chipset aren't installed first, sometimes the remaining drivers will not install properly. However, the order isn't really critical after those first 2 drivers - if you want you can just move over the system software, chipset, and network drivers, then connect the Vostro and finish the rest.
Alexandra_P
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2554 Posts
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Posted December 6th, 2009 18:00
You can simply download and save the drivers individually from the Drivers and Downloads page on support.dell.com to your working PC, move them to a flash drive, then move them over to the Vostro. Just avoid the Dell Download Manager option - it installs a download application on the PC and has caused a fair amount of grief. Just choose the standard browser download option for each driver.
Note that there is a recommended order to install drivers after a reformat - if the system software and chipset aren't installed first, sometimes the remaining drivers will not install properly. However, the order isn't really critical after those first 2 drivers - if you want you can just move over the system software, chipset, and network drivers, then connect the Vostro and finish the rest.
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/downloads/en/driver_install_order?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~lt=print