Need help updating drivers please

Hi, so I just got an old Alienware m17-r3 laptop that came with nothing but the charger. The guy who I got it from completely formatted it and now it's missing like 10 drivers, including the ones needed to get a wifi or ethernet connection. I already tried downloading all of the drivers from dell and putting them onto the laptop from a different PC, but none of them work or their is an error during the install. How do I know exactly what driver I need to get internet? And if I do get that driver would it be possible to just search and download the remaining missing drivers?

Also their is just about nothing installed on the computer right now. Upon startup it asks for my windows 7 activation code that I don't have. So will I have to purchase Windows 7 from Amazon and wait for the activation key and cd in the mail? Sorry I don't know much about this. Any help is appreciated. Thanks

 

Try this: Drivers--click on link and click system analysis for specific drivers for your laptop- all drivers are listed below this.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/alienware-m17x-r3/drivers

Ask the person you bought it from for the license key code for your laptop--it will be an oem license number, its tied to this laptop and cannot be used again, M$ license rules --If he is trying to scam you-you can contact Microsoft and tell them the laptop serial number-they'll find the license in there data base and blackout any computer trying to use it, except yours as its tied to it. M$ frowns on software piracy in many forms.

Licenses can be purchased online without disk and then input in, win 7 Home,Ultimate, ect ISO can be downloaded and burned to dvd disk, go 64 bit Os'es as well

Cheers
3fees

 

Is there a CoA (certificate of authenticity) sticker on the bottom of the laptop, or beneath the battery?

If there is, try that key.

 

Hate to burst your bubble but that didn't come with Windows 10 it came with:
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Dell doesn't provide Windows 10 drivers for it. This will be up to you to find and install yourself.

You can get the drivers from Dell site if you go and look there.
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/alienware-m17x-r3/drivers

You should contact Dell and see if they have the Factory Recovery Media to restore it back to Factory install.

 

Download Driver Identified and run it on the system that is missing drivers. Select the option of having no internet connection and let it scan your system. When finished it will save the result as a HTML file - save that to a USB stick. Run the HTML file from an internet enabled system and download the WiFi driver. Copy those to a USB stick. Run the driver exe on the incomplete system from the USB drive. Profit.

Windows 8 drivers work fine with Windows 10 but Driver Identifier should find you drivers for Windows 10.