Missing drivers after 1705 reformat?

Well my 1705 just arrived yesterday and needless to say it was filled with all of the standard Dell junk on it. I reformatted it immediately, and was pleased to see it booting up about three times faster. So I then put in the Dell drivers and utilities disk, hoping that I would have everything I need. However, I seem to be missing quite a few things still and am not sure where to start. First of all, I don't see anywhere anything notioning that I even have the Intel PRO wireless card, and likewise my "Hi-Fi" light does not turn yellow anymore when the notebook is on. I checked the device manager and it seems that everything is there, except under the section "Other devices" where everything has a question mark next to it. This includes "Network Controller" which I assume is most likely that Intel PRO wireless card that I don't have a driver for anymore. Pointing to these devices without drivers and selecting the Dell drivers and utility cd does nothing...

I tried actually plugging the notebook into the network, hoping that I could at least get onto the internet that way and maybe download some windowsupdates and extra drivers that were missing. I can't get on the internet this way either, and when I plug it in the computer doesn't even recognize that it's there. Probably because there is a big fat question mark next to my ethernet controller!

I thought reformatting was easier than this, but maybe I did something wrong or missed some step? I checked the sticky, but after putting in the drivers disk and not being able to get on the internet at all with it, I'm pretty lost.

 

Mine is a 1505, but, to get started, the wired network controller drivers (and most others) are installed through running a setup.exe file on the cd. Might try browsing the cd and taking a peek.

 

Alacrity,

The easy thing to do is to go to the support site at Dell.com, choose your unit and go to downloads. Then, download the following drivers: chipset, video, ethernet, wireless, and audio. Stick'em on a cd and install them, one at a time on your 1705. Then check to see what is left in device manager, and download those drivers. If you got the resource CD, you might find that helpful also (but not ususally the most up-to-date). I assume you have another computer to do this from, since you are able to get on this forum!!

 

hth

Mark

 

Or just go to Dell.com and install the drivers from there

 

BTW.... Was your E1705 and its hardware automatically 'detected' by the disk or did you have to choose from a drop down menu list???? Dell has a bad habit of sending out the wrong CDs. If it wasn't automatically detected, then that's a sign you've received the wrong one.

Mark

 

Right. But it was the "I can't get on the internet this way either" that told me dell.com wouldn't be a good solution.
I'd say get the nic driver off the cd then go to dell and get the latest drivers for everything else.

 

Thanks for all of the help guys. The drivers that MarkMcK pointed to got my internet up and running just fine. The only question marks I have now are three separate "Base System Device" items under Other devices. Are these at all important to have?

 

You need to run the 'Ricoh' driver which is under the 'Chipset Controller' category...

Mark

 

Thanks again, I think just about everything is set up!

 

hey...im having a similar problem with my inspiron e1705.
After reinstallation of drivers,im getting the similar yellow question mark next to :
OTHER DEVICES:
1.Base System Device
2.Base System Device
3. Base System Device
4.Network Controller
5.Video Controller (VGA Compatible)

Please help!!

 

hey...im having a similar problem with my inspiron e1705.
After reinstallation of drivers,im getting the similar yellow question mark next to :
OTHER DEVICES:
1.Base System Device
2.Base System Device
3. Base System Device
4.Network Controller
5.Video Controller (VGA Compatible)

Please help!!