Clean Vista install on HP dv9700t

Hi,

My dv9700t arrived today, and the first thing I did (after creating the recovery DVDs) was a clean install of Vista Ultimate 32-bit on the laptop. However, when I got to HP's drivers site to download the drivers for the laptop, the dv9700t wasn't listed there. There are a lot of localized versions of the laptop listed (at least that's what I think they are) but the standard dv9700t US model (I'm in the US) isn't shown. Does anyone know what I should do? I tried getting the drivers from the individual chipset manufacturers, but NVIDIA's site said that I should get the drivers from HP because the OEMs customize the drivers based on the model of the laptop. I did try the NVIDIA stock driver, and it wouldn't work. Any ideas? This isn't really urgent, since I'm planning to install Linux next and I won't really be using Vista, but it'd still be nice to have all the hardware working in Vista anyway. Here's the link to the HP driver page: http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Nav?..._client=S-A-R163-1&h_page=hpcom&lang=en&cc=us .

Thanks in advance for the help!!

 

What you should have done was save SWSetup, but since it's too late, you can pull drivers for the dv9500t since all the parts are the same.

 

Did you make your recovery discs before repartition?

 

Yeah, I made recovery DVDs. I'll just use the dv9500t drivers then.

 

let us know how it goes

 

Now I'm really confused. I compared the drivers available for the dv9500t and the localized versions of the dv9700t, and they have different drivers. I was able to install most of the drivers automatically through Windows Update, but the wireless card and fingerprint reader (and possible the microphone and webcam, I haven't tested those) don't work. I'm not sure which one to use. I'll try running lspci in Linux and see if I can get information from there that will help me figure it out.

 

You should restore using the recovery discs, then save the SWsetup folder. There is other software in there other than drivers that you need to run things, like the fingerprint software, quicklaunch, etc.. Take a look at my clean install guide for details (in my sig).

 

Are you going to be using this laptop for business purposes or for specific programs? The reason I state this is because you should try out the 64-bit version. I've been using it on my desktop and haven't had any problems so far.

 

@orev:
Well, I've already installed Linux, and if I restored with the recovery discs, I would lose that. Since it took quite a while to get it set up, I'd rather not do that. Do you think HP will eventually put the drivers on their site? I have the wireless working now as well, so there's nothing important that doesn't work.

@Envision:
I'm not using it for any specific programs, but I won't be using Vista much anyway, so I just installed the 32-bit version. From what I've heard, the performance difference (between 32-bit and 64-bit) isn't great, except in a few scenarios.

 

They will eventually put the drivers up, but HP is really slow with keeping their drivers pages up to date. For the most part your best bet is getting the hardware information and finding the drivers from the manufacturers yourself. That is the only way to really keep your drivers up to date.

 

I think I'll first contact HP and see if they can help me out, though I really don't want to deal with customer service . If that doesn't go anywhere, I'll try to figure it out on my own, I guess.

 

Are you having a problem using the drivers for the dv9500t? That hardware is all the same with the dv9700t, afaik.

 

As I said, I don't know whether I should use the drivers for the dv9500t or localized versions of the dv9700t - both have available drivers on HP's site. So I think I'm just going to wait. I'm not in much of a rush, since I'll be using Linux.