Stuck without Drivers or Internet, Please Help

I know this has probably been posted several times, but I can't find any threads that solve my problem.

I just reformatted my Dell Inspiron 1150 (it crashed suddenly and I couldn't start windows). I installed windows xp home edition, and the drivers and utilites disk that came with the computer. Previously, I was connected to a home network via wireless router and the laptop's built-in wireless capabilities. When I bought the computer, during start up, a little wirless utilites icon appeared in the taskbar, also one showing availible wirless networks. Now, none of these things appear. I cannot update or download any drivers because I cannot connect to the internet. I went into device manager, and found a list of devices that had question marks next to them and no drivers installed for them. Here are the devices : Ethernet Controller, Multimedia Audio Controller (I don't get any sound, only beeps), Network Controller, PCI Modmem, Video Controller, Video Controller (VGA Compatible). I cannot access the internet (which means I cannot connect to Windows update), have no sound, and am stuck with the standard VGA video driver. What do I do?

 

How did you make this thread without internet access? If you can, hop on http://support.dell.com from another computer and download your drivers from there. Or at least download your network or ethernet driver so you can get the internet back then load everything else after. Your cd rom works, so just burn them to a cd and there you go.

 

I am using another computer. Thats a good idea, thank you for replying. One more thing: is there some way to get my system's complete spec's? It doesn't list everything in the device manager. Thank you again.

 

No problem. As for system specs just go to Start> All Programs> System Tool> System information and it should give you everything you want to know. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

 

You can also enter your service tag number (on a sticker on the bottom of your system) on the Dell Support website and get a list of both your original and current configurations. This is a more concise and general listing than the one you'd get from "system information," but it shows everything at once and lists the Dell PNs, which come in handy if you're every looking for compatible replacement parts.

To do this, go to http://support.dell.com/support/index.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
and click "my system and peripherals." After entering your service tag, there's a link on the left somehwere to view the configurations.

 

Thank you all, I just download the networking driver and loaded it onto the laptop. Things should go smoothly from here.

 

Don't forget that if you are using wireless you will need the ebcryption key to connect to the router, I am assuming you enabled encryption.

If this is missing in action you can get on for now with a cable. You don't need the key for this.