Dummy Needs Help Installing XP; Really Stumped...
 

Hi Dudes,

A pal brought to me her old Dell desktop which requires a simple reformat, XP 32. I've cleanly installed two different versions of XP now, Home and Pro editions, both legit copies. Each time, the install went as it normally would, but each time following installation, I can't get on the web or connect to a network (am attempting to connect via ethernet cable from router to this dektop). She assures me that nothing has changed with the PC's hardware, so why am I getting the big yellow question mark in device manager, regarding the ethernet controller? FWIW, there are also question marks beside video controller and a couple other unrelated items, as well.

What am I missing here? Really appreciate some help.

Thanks a lot.

Get yourself a proper driver for the ethernet card.

You need to get the drivers from the Dell website for that particular model. XP obviously isn't picking up the hardware from the default drivers on the install disk.

Thanks dudes, I'll look into it.

Update: thanks for the suggestions, fellas; of course, that was the problem. I was just too initially lazy to look into the matter, hoping the problem could be solved with the XP discs; not so much. Finding the proper drivers was a bit of a hit n' miss affair, but all issues are solved now.

Thanks again.

DS.

Glad to hear it worked out for you. Gotta be a pretty old system (think P3, and maybe if you're lucky P4) for XP to have all of the correct drivers.

Oh and if you are installing XP be prepared to do a full day's worth of updates. I know I have done a few machines recently at work and it really is like a full day of downloading and installing Microsoft updates, and that is with installing it with SP3 already. If the disk you used only has SP2 on it then it will take even longer.

Hee hee, no kidding about the updates; took me many more hours of downloading and installing updates, constantly interrupted by a ridiculous number of reboots, before the box was up to SP3, and current. Glad it's done.

Next time, slipstream the drivers/updates onto a new disk, making the disk takes a while, but it'll still save you hours on each reformat.

This is a free utility that makes things a little simpler: nLite - Deployment Tool for the bootable Unattended Windows installation

Definitely recommend this. Use nLite to integrate an Update Pack, like this: Download - XP SP3 Update Pack - xable.net so you don't have to manually download a boat load of updates. Really expedites the XP install process.