No drivers found after clean install

I did a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate on my new XPS 15. Now it is not recognizing most of the drivers. I managed to install the wifi drivers from the drivers an utilities disc, but the others not so much. When I go to the Devices/Hardware screen, I get a yellow exclamation point next to:

Ethernet Controller
PCI Simple Communications Controller
SM Bus Controller
Standard VGA Graphics Controller
USB Controller
"Unknown Device"

I've tried hittin Update Drivers on them, but it tells me no drivers are installed.

I've tried redoing the clean install several times and I have the same problems. Any help would be very appreciated, thanks.

 

You need to install the drivers off either the disk or Dell Downloads....Windows 7 doesn't have the drivers. That is also why hitting the "update driver" button fails. Windows doesn't KNOW what the device is to update (that's what the yellow exclamation point means)

Ethernet: Realtek Communications something-or-other.
Graphics: well, the graphics drivers for your system. For a new XPS 15, that's BOTH the Intel graphics and the NVidia graphics for your GPU (525m or 540m).

USB Controller, install the USB 3 drivers. Also install the chipset driver, the drop sensor driver and of course your wireless.

Basically, you need to know what components you have, and install every driver that is on the disc for those components. There will be a few you don't use but most you will.

 

Is there a way to check exactly what drivers there is in the computer after you bought it so you can print them out if a format is needed in the future?

 

There's a folder named "Dell" in the root of the C: drive, inside of which are a bunch of folders with odd letter/number names. These are the drivers folders, each folder is a different driver. You could theoretically actually just grab the Dell folder and then copy it back in place after a format and run the setup.exe in each driver folder. That ought to work.

I'm not positive if the Dell folder exists on factory-fresh systems (I never bothered to look before formatting mine ), but it should. Dell's drivers self-extract a bunch of files into these R234634 (example name) type folders, and auto-run the setup file in each to actually install the driver.

 

These what I do before I do a clean install.
I usually print out the System Information. (Search System Information in Windows start search bar)
Make recovery disks in case. Download all necessary drivers and software.
Draw out an installation plan and backup plan.
Test necessary drivers and software on factory install.
Backup Original Dell drivers and software set.

Execute Installation plan.

 

The default drivers the system came with are in the "C:\Drivers" folder with semi-descriptive names, too.

 

Rogo did a fantastic job of documenting all drivers needed for a clean install...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/7415385-post736.html

 

That looks to be a pretty solid list indeed. I find it interesting that all the video drivers are linked as one on his page, whereas at least for the 17" I know the two graphics cards are separate drivers in the Dell site.

The biggest thing is you need to know what major components are in your system, which if you ordered it you ought to know. I'm talking graphics card, wireless card, and the optional stuff like TV tuners and such.