e1505 restore

First and foremost, I'm new to the forums. Thanks for all the help you guys do.

Now to my problem. I have a co-worker who brought me their Inspiron e1505 laptop. It was BSOD'd due to the "c000021a fatal system error". Her issue wasn't fixable through any of the "Last know configurations" or file hacks I found. She doesn't have the discs that came with the computer. I had to reinstall windows XP on her computer. I wasn't able to recover anything on her computer because I think she also had a virus that corrupted everything. I had to totally reformat her drive to put XP on it. Which means that the original partitions are gone and I wasn't able to get any of the drivers from the computer.

Now, I have a fresh install of XP but nothing works because there are no drivers. When I goto the hardware menu only the 1390 Net Adapter is there. I don't even know what wifi card is installed on the system. I can't get the volume control to work because it says no mixer is installed. When I goto the dell site for the drivers, there are like 15 versions for everything but nothing seems to be installing correctly.

Is there a simpler way to get the equipment in her PC working again? This is making me wish it was compatible with win7 since all the drivers are built into win7...

 

If you have a license, just load 7... I'm 90% sure everything will "just work". On older mainstream machines like this, 7 almost always has all of the required drivers included.

 

I have this laptop all drivers are available at Dell's website. If you have the service tag on the machine all the specific drivers for your computer are there as well. Running the free program SIW should tell you are the hardware that is on the motherboard: SIW | System Information for Windows by Gabriel Topala

 

Windows 7 should find most of the drivers, if not all of them.

For XP, you can go to support.dell.com and punch in your service tag and download drivers there.

Also with 7, make sure you get the correct "bit" version. The original Core Duo which some E1505 ship with do not support 64 bit. For best compatibility just stick with 32 bit Windows 7. You can also use the Vista 32 bit drivers for Windows 7.

 

Thanks. I only have the 64 bit win7 disk so I can't install that. It doesn't support it. For some reason the service tag isn't bringing anything up. I went through and got most of the stuff working. I just can't get the wireless to work. I'll try your SIW program and see how it does. Thanks.

{Edit} I downloaded SIW. Very nice. However, I can't tell from looking at it, which wifi card is installed. How can I tell so that I can get the driver for it?

Also, If I call Dell and give them the service tag # do you think they can figure it out? The website says the number isn't valid.

 

Okay you can go into the BIOS by spamming F2 and the Service Tag is in there.

 

The service tag in the BIOS is the same that is on the sticker on the bottom of the laptop. It just doesn't work. I put in the # on the Dell site and I get

If I goto Dell and let them scan the laptop (via Hardline) it doesn't find the tag either.

 

Well you could just guess at the wifi card.

Try the 1390 driver first it was one of the most popular.

As for the media button you need dells quickset software.Shold be on their e1505 drive page too

 

That's weird, I've had Dell error out a few times with Service Tag. Then just select product Inspiron laptop and E1505 as the model number. You are going to have to manually look at your missing hardware ID's and find the correct drivers yourself.

Right click on the item, Properties, go to the Details tab, and scroll down to Hardware ID's and go to pcidatabase.com and fill in the VEN_XXXX and DEV_XXXX appropriately and download the corresponding drivers. E1505 should have Conexant 56k modem, Broadcom 10/100 LAN, either Dell WLAN or Intel, Intel ATI or Nvidia GPU, 945 chipset drivers, Ricoh card reader, and Sigmatel Audio.

 

I just don't get it.

1st I tried the "Yellow network controller".

It shows up as Broadcom. I already have the controller installed.

Then I pulled up the "Modem on High Definition Audio Device" and pulled it's numbers. There is nothing on the pcidatabase.com page for it. Says it doesn't exist.

I tried the Dell and Intel WLAN and they didn't work. Actaully one just locked up the computer.

Any other suggestions?

 

14E4 is the Broadcom WLAN card. Dell rebrands Realtek and Broadcom WLAN cards.

You need to also install the Sigmatel Audio drivers from Dell.

 

One of the unknown devices has to be a conexant modem..you will have get the driver from Dell's site. The wireless adapter has to be a Dell wireless of some kind in the list of drivers for the 1505

 

Thanks for the help. Tornado ripped through my area this week so I was without power and haven't had a chance to mess with it any more. Hopefully I can look at it tomorrow morning when I get off work. Hopefully this will fix it.

 

Any clue which WLAN card driver I might need. The broadcom controller freezes. The 1309 freezes. This is getting annoying.

 

What does the Vend and Dev ID say?

 

That the item doesn't exist. That was my issue a few posts ago when I posted the screenshots. Actually, I think I've installed all of the drivers from the 1505 page and none of them have worked.

Her computer only has 500mb of Ram. You think win7 would run ok with that little memory?

 

I think it depends on your specs, but minimum 1 GB and the E1505 houses the 945 chipset so it will do 4 GB RAM.

 

Here is something you could try: Download the free DriverMax and do a scan to find drivers..It may find that elusive wireless driver.

DriverMax - free driver updates