(no subject)

[ria_oaks]

Huh. So, good news is my computer is back up and running. I called the tech shop today and he said it wouldn't be til Monday, but around 4 he called me at work and said it was done. Woo hoo! The bad news, however? My wireless card seems to have... disappeared. Which... doesn't make any sense. o.o But I can't find any wireless settings on my computer, and can't connect to the wireless (can connect fine on my iPod, so the network's working fine). I've got my computer plugged in directly to the modem so I have Internet, but... yeah. annoying. *sigh* Any ideas? I think I'm gonna call or MSN Ryan and ask him if he can come over and poke at it. ^^;

Comments

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Check Device Manager.

Did you get the used 100 gb hard drive?

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

I can't find it in the Device Manager... WTF. Not happy. I mean, I suppose he was rushing and stuff since he was trying to get it done for me today (to quote, he could "hear the desperation in my voice" lol), but still... gah.

Yeah, I go the hard drive.

Other than the lack of wireless, it all seems to be working okay so far.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Is there a yellow question mark next to a device?

That's cool. I can hook you up with Photoshop 7 if you want.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Ooh, hang on a sec... there's 'network controller' and 'video controller' which both have yellow exclamation marks, and when I double click on them they say that the device drivers aren't installed. Hmmm... I have NO idea where the drivers would be - lost all the stuff that came with my Dell.

...I'll think about it. I have PS6, but it's admittedly not especially legal. At all, probably. Dad's producer gave it to us; so it IS for official business and stuff, but... it's still a burned CD. ^^;

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you need to install those two drivers. What is the name of your wireless card and video card? Are they integrated to the motherboard or not? You can usually download these off the manufacturer's website.. I can go look, but I need to know what the hardware is. >.>

When I reformatted my Dad's computer last week, the Dell CD didn't have a driver for the computer's ethernet controller, so it's pretty similar to what's happening with your laptop; thankfully, you can connect to the internet directly.

Yeah, my PS7 is illegal too. But yours is illegal too. No difference. *shrug* Lemme know. ;p

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Hell if I know. *groan* It's all through Dell, so maybe I can just check their website... barring that, I'll take it back to the tech shop on Monday and ask him what I can do (he still has my old harddrive; maybe he can get it from there somewhere??).

*cough* Shaddup, mine feel's less illegal. XD Anyway, if I'm gonna do it, I might as well do it right and get CS2 or whatever it's called. Otoh, last time I downloaded PS I got a Trojan. o.o So since I assume yours is safe, maybe I'll go with it.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

If you lost all of your Dell stuffs, then whose copy of Windows are you running? :o

Do you have any access to a statement or bill regarding your laptop purchase? Those usually list out the computer's specs. I wonder if you can access it online at Dell through a purchase history option, or something.

CS3 is the latest version, IIRC. But they come with tools and options which you'll probably never use. My Dad wants to pay $200 to download a CS3 upgrade for whatever reason; I keep telling him it's a waste of money since he'll never need the new features.

And yeah, mine's safe.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

I dunno, the tech guy put it back on. ^^;;;

Hmm, I went to Dell and put in my service tag, and it gave me a list of drivers for my laptop. I'm downloading the wireless one that says "urgent". ^^; Here's the list:http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=&ServiceTag=HPF1H81

Ah okay. Well, maybe I'll get yours then, sure - 6 is kinda old, and most of the brushes and stuff online are for 7 and CS3. Can you burn me a copy?

...and really, heh, we shouldn't be talking so blatantly about illegal software sharing in an open post. XD

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Probably illegal :o

Oh so Dell has a driver/hardware detect thing? Hope that works.

Ah so that's why you wanted CS3.. I wasn't aware that there existed downloadable content. Yeah, I can burn you a copy of PS7.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Really quite illegal. *grin*

It didn't. *sigh* Downloaded and installed it, but my computer's still not detecting a wireless card. Will keeping fiddling...

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

This is driving me out of my fucking mind. Looking at Dell's website, I realized that I really need to download all of the drivers, and in a particular order. Which I already fucked up by installing the wireless one first, but whatever. So now I'm going through the list. And yeah, now I remember the first guy, last time, telling me on the phone that he was downloading all the drivers from Dell, so obviously this is a necessary step in reformatting/installing a new harddrive. Makes sense, I suppose; I just kinda assumed that it all happened automatically, but not when you reinstall Windows I guess.

It's still driving me out of my fucking mind, though. I really hope my wireless works after all this...

[bk635.livejournal.com]

You have all but two drivers installed already, so it's strange that it's making you download and install them again (unless you're currently using generic Windows drivers..).

What does Device Manager tell you about the network controller and video controller? Does it give any specific names for the hardware? Manufacturer?

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Well, as I'm downloading them, some say they already exist on the harddrive (I'm reinstalling them anyway, just in case...) and some don't. I dunno, it's weird. ^^;

Nah, nothing. Anyway, afaik the manufacturer is Dell, so this SHOULD work... *sigh* Getting there.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily. Dell just puts the computers together. The parts are usually manufactured by real hardware companies.

But yeah, if it's on their website then it should work. Those drivers are probably the same ones they supply on the CDs that they give out with new computers.

Hope it works.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

This is the list of the hardware on my computer...

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/my_systems_info/details?c=us&l=en&s=gen

I thought I'd downloaded the correct driver for the wireless, but it's not working. But it looks like the other drivers are for if you have a different type of wireless card. It makes no flipping sense. I'm downloading them anyway; hopefully I can't harm anything by installing them?? Well okay, probably can.. *sigh*

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Any luck?

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Nope.

Next step, gonna bug Ryan to come over and look at it. Step after, call Dell. Barring that, storm back into tech shop on Monday, but I'd prefer not to do that.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Yeah I tried to look through the Dell page, but they abbreviate everything so it's impossible to figure out what's what.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Moreover, going through their troubleshooting, I'm getting these instructions:

1. In the Device Manager window, click the (+ sigh) next to Network adapter.
2. Click the type of wireless network adapter installed in the computer below:
"Click here" if the adapter starts with Dell Wireless
"Click here" if the adapter starts with Intel(R) PRO/Wireless.

My Device Manager shows neither of these. So... basically, yeah, my computer can't even recognize that there is a wireless card at all - it's not just the drivers. So I prob shouldn't have downloaded all those; hope it won't fuck me up. o.o I really can't see an alternative now to taking it back to the tech shop... I don't see what the hell he could have done - what, did he accidentally unplug the wireless card from the rest of my computer or something while putting in the new harddrive? -___- Oh well... Internet works, anyway, and I'm glad I got it back for the weekend. Wouldn't mind not having wireless for the weekend if I knew it could be easily fixed come Monday - just hate the stress and worry!

Which all means that I prob won't be coming down on Monday. I'll go to him first thing, so maaaybe I'll come down later and we can see Ironman, but it's unlikely now. Dammit, and other movies are coming up fast - Narnia on Friday. Could conceivably see it opening night, but Friday before a long weekend + new popular movie = big lineups. The Indy the week after. Gah. ^^;

[bk635.livejournal.com]

If you have an entry like network controller under the 'Other' (I think that's what it's called) tree - the one with the yellow icon - then that means the computer does recognize the card, but it doesn't have the appropriate driver installed. Once it does, then it'll appear under the 'Network Adapter' tree.

The only thing I can come up with is that you didn't download the appropriate driver off Dell's website, or if it's even there at all.

The drivers you downloaded and installed probably won't harm anything, because they aren't being used by any device.

The tech shop guy probably either missed those two components, or couldn't find the drivers for them.

Um, you could try right clicking/properties on network controller (and later video controller), and there should be an option somewhere in that mess that let's Windows search the Internet for the driver; I think it comes up in the Wizard when you click on Update Drivers, but I'm not sure. I don't know how reliable the search is.

Another thing you could try is removing the network card with the computer off; turning it back on again; turning it off, reseating the network card; and turning it back on once more. Though I honestly don't know if it's possible if the card is integrated. :\

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

WOO HOO!!!! You were right, it was the one driver that I'd downloaded but hadn't installed yet cuz I was fed up by that point. It's installing now, and the little wireless symbol has finally appeared in my taskbar. Now just have to connect to my network.. and set a password. *goes to poke*

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Aaand, there we go. I've got wireless and a password. Chose WPA2 security or whatever, cuz I read it's the strongest? Or at least stronger than WEP or whatever the other one is. So yay. I'm at least kinda protected now. :) Wish I could choose my own password, though - when I set the router up (last night, before I realized that it was the lack of a driver that was giving me trouble) it just let me generate a password automatically, not choose one. Oh well, I've written it down and I have it in a txt file... will have to memorize it.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Now do the video controller. ;p

If I were you, I'd download all the drivers you need for your computer and burn them to a CD, along with a bunch of programs you use, CD keys, and so forth. Just handy to have around for future formats.

You should also make a live CD just so you have a chance at recovering stuff that you haven't had a chance to back up: http://ftp.rz.tu-bs.de/pub/mirror/knoppix/knoppix-cd/KNOPPIX_V5.1.0CD-2006-12-30-DE.iso

Burn it with Alcohol or Nero. Here's a guide for Alcohol: http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/G/Burning+ISO+Images+with+Alcohol+120
Nero is also easy (File > Open > Select "Image Files" from the Type of File drop-down > proceed to burn normally.)

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, I downloaded all the video drivers... but 'video controller' still has an exclamation point. I'll wait and see; if I can't play videos I'll go try again.

Yeah, good idea... cept I just went and deleted all the driver .exes I downloaded since I didn't think I'd need them anymore. -__- Oh well, I know where to go to get them now, anyway.

Okay... so I just right-click 'save link as', then burn it to a CD? I'll try that, sure. I'm skimming the link on Wikipedia you sent me earlier; it's all kinda flying over my head, but I get the gist. Dunno if I'll ever resort to using it, namely out of paranoia that I'll fuck something up, but good to have. ^^ Thanks for the tip.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Yeah, just download it to your desktop, and then burn it to a CD. Nothing fancy, just be sure to select "Image File" when in Nero from the "Type of File Drop-Down Menu" in the "File > Open" window.

The Live CD doesn't install anything or modify your hard drive in any way, and honestly, once you're at the point where you decide to use it (e.g., Windows doesn't boot anymore), then fucking something up doesn't matter. ;p But it's just nice to have the option to recover something by emailing it to yourself or uploading it somewhere, before having to format. If you had a Live CD, you could've gotten that picture off your hard drive before sending it off to have it formatted, for example.

Using a Live CD is simple. All you have to do is reboot the computer with the disc in the drive, and it's automatic from there. The Linux OS (in this case, Knoppix) will boot instead of Windows, and you'll be able to access your stuff.