Recently had a system crash and had to reload windows. Since then, among other problems, I have no internet connection. Does anyone know, under these circumstances... do i need to reinstall IE or Verizon FIOS software. I not given left with any disc after the original install.
System can't find &/or doesn't recognize hardware. Anyone been in this situation and have any thoughts?
@PC-TR wrote:System can't find &/or doesn't recognize hardware.
That would seem to imply that your system is not recognizing your NIC.
Using another computer, try downloading and installing the driver for your NIC from the manufacturer's web site.
That should get your NIC operational.
Once you're sure your NIC is operational, open a CMD window and type: IPCONFIG
That should display the IP address assigned by your router. It should normally be 192.168.1.x
If you see an IP address of 169.254.x.x, then your NIC can't communicate with your router.
I'd second the NIC drivers not being installed. Unless it's a very common NIC from back when Windows XP was created such as an old Intel, 3Com or SiS NIC, you're going to need to use another PC to get the drivers for it. Once the drivers for the NIC are installed, you should be up and running. From there, since this is an XP machine just run the FiOS Optimizer to get the connection speed to where it should be (XP out of the box won't do more than 6Mbps or so unless a server is really close). Then, of course run Windows Update and get those updates in, pop in some security software and you should be good to go.
I have a Dell Dimension "resource" CD, plus some others, that came with the unit ( Dell 4700). So the driver I need is probably on one of them. Just havn't quite figgered which one yet. Probably easier to get from the Dell site.
Now I just ran accross a paper from Dell saying that Drivers should be installed in a certain order.
1- DSS (They say it's important that this be loaded first)
2- Chipset
3- PCMCIA
4- Intel Storage
5- Audio adapter
6- Video adapter
7- NIC
Anyone have any thoughts on this. I'm appreciating all the help. Probably saving me hours of searching.
There isn't a need for Number One, especially once the warranty has run out, unless you prefer to have their Hardware Diagnostics tool handy. Otherwise, the CDs from Dell should have the needed drivers available. You can use the Device Manager in Windows to see if there are any missing drivers. They'll show up as Unknown Devices, and the names given by them should clue into what they are.
System Base Devices are normally devices that need a chipset driver installed.
Ethernet Controllers will be the NIC, but it can also be any wireless adapter attached to the machine if it happens to have one.
Other devices will usually be Sound, which you should be able to hear if it's working or not, and video, which would show up in the Device Manager as a "VGA Compatible" Display Adapter.
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