Can't find out what kind of hardware in this Laptop

[northernmutt]

I bought a used Acer 5720 laptop with a borked HDD. I replaced the HDD, installed Windows Vista Home Premium and now have a working laptop.....sort of.

I can go to the Acer website, but there are multiple drivers for this laptop. I want to install the correct ones, but I am unsure of what hardware is in this laptop.

Does anyone kow how to tell what hardware is in this laptop???

I am really frustrated by this ( I have a Dell also, and all you have to do in search by your model number and S/N and it directs you to the EXACT drivers you need) because Acer does not have the same thing as Dell.

I appreciate any help I can get!!

northernmutt

[ZZLEE]

Speccy - System Information - Free Download

list out all part in system

[northernmutt]

Tried it without any success. All the parts just come up with generic names. I am not sure, but I think they must detect drivers, not actual hardware.

I guess I wil just hope that Acer gets back to me (it's already been a week!)

Thanks though.....

northernmutt

[ilya]

Umm... why not just Google the model number? The drivers might not be stored under the Acer brand anymore, so they might not be at the Acer website. I know I had to do this with several IBM computers/laptops where the entire lineup was sold off to Lenovo. Acer has the done something similar where they moved lineups between their own branding, the drivers might be on another Acer website.

[CTA]

do you check the device manager?

[JD]

Download and install all drivers available? Only the ones that apply will actually install.

Alternatively, if you install Windows 7 instead, I'm fairly sure that the majority of hardware would be detected.

[northernmutt]

ilya - Tried that, but there are multiple configs of this laptop.

CTA - of course, but since there are no drivers, they are considered "unknown devices" in device manager

JD - I considered that option, but I am always concerned about driver incompatibility issues. I know that the drivers for the Lan will not affect anything else(mostly!), but I am not so sure that installing 3 different drivers for the Lan from 3 different companies wont cause some kind of problem. At this point, I am kind of desperate, so I will give this one a try.....let you know how it goes.

I am really dissapointed in Acer's customer service (or lack thereof). It has been almost 2 weeks and I have yet to receive a response from them. If this is any indication of the quality of service they offer, I am soooooooooooooooooo glad I only have had Dell up to this point.

I will likely avoid Acer in the future.

Thanks for all you help guys!

Northernmutt

[Supergrover]

Originally Posted by northernmutt

ilya - Tried that, but there are multiple configs of this laptop.

CTA - of course, but since there are no drivers, they are considered "unknown devices" in device manager

JD - I considered that option, but I am always concerned about driver incompatibility issues. I know that the drivers for the Lan will not affect anything else(mostly!), but I am not so sure that installing 3 different drivers for the Lan from 3 different companies wont cause some kind of problem. At this point, I am kind of desperate, so I will give this one a try.....let you know how it goes.

I am really dissapointed in Acer's customer service (or lack thereof). It has been almost 2 weeks and I have yet to receive a response from them. If this is any indication of the quality of service they offer, I am soooooooooooooooooo glad I only have had Dell up to this point.

I will likely avoid Acer in the future.

Thanks for all you help guys!

Northernmutt

This should be the vista LAN driver: ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/noteboo...x32.zip:thumb:

[technix]

Originally Posted by northernmutt

I bought a used Acer 5720 laptop with a borked HDD. I replaced the HDD, installed Windows Vista Home Premium and now have a working laptop.....sort of.

I can go to the Acer website, but there are multiple drivers for this laptop. I want to install the correct ones, but I am unsure of what hardware is in this laptop.

Does anyone kow how to tell what hardware is in this laptop???

I am really frustrated by this ( I have a Dell also, and all you have to do in search by your model number and S/N and it directs you to the EXACT drivers you need) because Acer does not have the same thing as Dell.

I appreciate any help I can get!!

northernmutt

Have you or anyone else ever used this?:

Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit

I used an older version to obtain hardware info.

Now, I mostly use Linux tools to carry out tasks like this. If you want to try that alternative, let me know. But, in the meantime, the url I provided is the only Windows 'way' that I know of. Funny that there's not very many Windoze tools to obtain detailed hardware information. Hmmm..

[ilya]

If you're really desperate, there's always 3rd party shareware like Drivermax.

I've used it on occasion to figure out specific chipsets on OEM motherboards, seems to work most of the time. Problem is you get spammed with emails telling you to buy their software and downloads are limited to 2 a day.