This isn't good... HELP!

Alright, I know I've started quite a few threads tonight, and I do apologize, but I really, REALLY need your guys' help. I reformatted my new 1420 and went to install the drivers, but when I put the disk in I realized that it's physically loose on the little thing that is supposed to hold it in and the drive doesn't even recognize that there's a disk on it.

If anyone who has a 1420 or knows exactly what I need to do (i.e. all the drivers I need to download), please post. I'm leaving for school in a couple days and want to have this all done ASAP.

Thanks in advance.

 

support.dell.com

Just go there and download all the drivers listed under 1420. If you can't connect to the internet w/ your 1420 just DL it onto a flash drive and install them.

 

There are a royal ton of them - do I need every single one? And they install like a program, or do I need to drop them in a folder somewhere?

Sorry for the ignorance...

 

You don't need all of them. It depends what is on your computer. These are some basics... assuming you're on vista

Audio drivers, chipset drivers, the network driver for your card, and then grab a videocard driver off laptopvideo2go.com, I'd recommend the 158.36

Just read what they're for, you should be able to make sense of any others that you may need.

 

Ugh, what's making me nervous/whatever is that a lot of those, like the chipset drivers, are listed as "optional."

How on earth could they ship me a disk with a hole that's too big? Ridiculous...

 

Well I've listed the most essential ones. If you get those for your laptop you'll live =P.

 

Just want to check - the 162.22 driver off the nVidia site will be fine, right? Why did you recommend the other over that?

 

The 162.22 driver is fine. I used it before switching to the 158.36. I haven't had any problems with either driver but I heard that the 158.xx series was more "stable", Another reason was that I wanted to mess a little with clock speeds (I don't recommend that) so it shouldn't matter which you use.

Like basically.. I'd use either. I just happen to have 158.36 installed currently . Make sure to grab the modified inf file or u cant install their drivers.

 

You might also want to contact Dell about a warranty fix if you have the time to do so.

 

Unfortunately, I don't. I leave on Friday.

And where would that be, exactly?

 

I think he meant that the CD hole was too big, not that the drive itself had any problems though if there is something wrong with the drive do contact dell warranty. Otherwise... I wouldn't bother with getting a new disk. Probably by the next time you'll need it all the drivers will be dated and you'll need the ones from the site anyways.

 

This link to download the driver. Extract all the files to one folder and replace the file that comes with that w/ this inf file.

 

That first link isn't working. I'm getting a 403 (Request Forbidden) error.

It won't work off the nVidia site?

 

You can't install driver's directly off of the nVidia site. You have to use the Dell drivers, or install modded one's like those available on LaptopVideo2Go. Check out this.

 

Whoops.. I guess they don't allow linking like that. Well go here then and download the driver, and then the modded inf which is linked right next to the driver dl.

 

Try http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers
then choose the driver you want.

 

Ok, hopefully last question:

Once I extract the files for the nVidia driver and replace the inf file, I run setup, and I'm done?

Edit: I also read through the thread on that link, and people were having some issues with the driver. Should I be worried?

 

Yep, you'll have to reboot, but you'll be done (with video drivers anyways). Also.. make sure to run Windows Update after you've gotten all the drivers you need to get Vista up to date!

 

Ehh, sorry for being a pain for nothing, but I think I'm just going to go with Dell's driver. I don't need super high performance out of it, or anything, and I'd rather avoid any issue that I might run into later...

 

That should be fine as well.

The only reason I may suggest that the other driver would be better is for compatibility or fixes with some games/applications but it most likely won't be a problem.

No need to fix something till its broken right? Just know that if something isn't working with the Dell driver that you have those options to go to.

 

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. My mistake about the advice then. Good luck with the problem.