Windows 7 Driver Problem

geraint83

Hi everyone,

I installed Windows 7 on my Dell Dimension 2400 PC (which dates back to 2003) last night. It was previously running XP.

Unfortunately, I was told that my my WiFi USB stick - a Netgear WG111v2 - wouldn't be compatible but proceeded anyway. As a result, the computer wasn't able to connect to the internet during installation to check for the latest drivers and I'm now stuck with all the generic drivers. This isn't too much of a problem, but the PC uses the incorrect screen resolution for my Dell monitor.

I've now purchased a new WiFi USB stick and can connect to the internet ok, but whenever I try and update the drivers - especially the one for the graphics card and the monitor - I'm told that the generic ones are the most up-to-date.

How can I solve this problem and get hold of the correct drivers? I know that there isn't a Windows 7 driver for every piece of hardware. Would it be easier to reinstall Windows 7 in the hope that everything will be ok the second time? All my data has been saved to an external hard drive.

I'd be grateful for any advice!

gaming_guy

you can use vista drivers in 7 just like you could use win 2000 drivers in xp

Money_Grabber13579

geraint83 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I installed Windows 7 on my Dell Dimension 2400 PC (which dates back to 2003) last night. It was previously running XP.

Unfortunately, I was told that my my WiFi USB stick - a Netgear WG111v2 - wouldn't be compatible but proceeded anyway. As a result, the computer wasn't able to connect to the internet during installation to check for the latest drivers and I'm now stuck with all the generic drivers. This isn't too much of a problem, but the PC uses the incorrect screen resolution for my Dell monitor.

I've now purchased a new WiFi USB stick and can connect to the internet ok, but whenever I try and update the drivers - especially the one for the graphics card and the monitor - I'm told that the generic ones are the most up-to-date.

How can I solve this problem and get hold of the correct drivers? I know that there isn't a Windows 7 driver for every piece of hardware. Would it be easier to reinstall Windows 7 in the hope that everything will be ok the second time? All my data has been saved to an external hard drive.

I'd be grateful for any advice!

How about you just re-install? That is probably the easiest way.

loudcox

I suspect you're searching for driver updates using Windows Update, which is notoriously out of date (my chipset drivers on W7 were 2yrs out of date!).

Go to the hardware manufacturers' sites and use their tools to identify the latest drivers you need to install.

geraint83

Thanks to all for their replies.

I suspect that it would be easier to go to the manufacturers' sites although I don't know the specific model codes of each piece of hardware, but I'll try this and see how I get on.

Failing that, I guess that I have nothing to lose by reinstalling Windows 7 again!

The note about using Vista drivers in Windows 7 was interesting, by the way, because I upgraded my laptop without a problem from Vista to 7, but doing the same on a PC which has been running XP is proving to be problematic!!