Reformatting Questions

[dunkindan]

STUPIDLY......I reformatted my friends computer to only realize that when it finally booted xp the vid card had no driver and well as the sound card. It is a Gateway 500SE model and I was just wondering if I needed to search and find the drivers somewhere or if there was a way to get around all of this?

[O[H]-Zone]

Start here (http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/ddaStep.asp)

[dunkindan]

So should I just choose the ones that I think are correct?

[O[H]-Zone]

First, figure out what kind of sound card you have.
1. Check the documentation that came with the computer (I know...it's a joke. NOBODY saves the documentation).
2. Figure out if it's onboard sound, or a card. Where do the speakers, microphone and input plug in? If the answer is "in the back of the case", it's onboard sound. If the answer is "in the back of one of the cards", then its a card.
3. Figure out what the heck it is...if it's a card, the manufacturer and type will be printed on the card itself. Turn the comp off, pull the card out, and read it (then put it back in, in the SAME SLOT)
If it's onboard, it's a bit tougher. You need to find the chip on the motherbord that does the sound. It will be labelled. Get a flashlight, open the case, and read the chips. You're looking for "Soundblaster", or "Soundmax"
Then download and install the right one. If you get it wrong, when you try to install it, it will tell you that you don't have that kind of hardware, so it's no big deal.
As far as Video drivers go, it depends on what kind of video it is...it's essentially the same process, but in most cases, I'd got to the video chip manufacturer ( ATI (http://www.ati.com), or Nvidia (http://www.nvidia.com)).
Hope this helped!

[chinoquezada]

Originally posted by O[H]-Zone
Start here (http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/ddaStep.asp)


Haven't checked the gateway support but most of the computer giants generally have a big serial number that represents the whole computer... Try to find it somewhere and search for it in the gateway support...

Im not sure about gateway doing this though. I know dell used to do it....

[dunkindan]

i opened up the case and i found that it is an intel integrated board, but I found the intel chipset chip and it did not match any of the numbers on the intel website, is there a specific place to look for these numbers? On the motherboard I found FW82801DB but i dunno if that means anything

[ameoba]

What about putting the serial number from the computer into the search box on the side of the Gateway page that asks for the serial number?

The way these things generally work is that, when you input this information, you get a page of the drivers specific to this computer.




Another thing to do is to is to boot up Linux (even a very basic one like the single-floppy Tom's (http://www.toms.net/rb/) boot disk) and look at the output of 'lspci' (which is just nice formatting on the contents of /proc/pci). This should have a string indicating the card model & chip for the sound & video.