help my sister surf

March 10, 2009 7:23 AM

My sister just reformatted her hard drive replacing Vista with XP, but now she can't get online. HP was no help because they said they can't support her changing operating systems. How can I help her get online? Model and other details follow:

She has an HP Pavilion a1700n Desktop PC. On the HP website they carry no network drivers for XP for this model. It has to be possible to get her online, though, right? Please help... Thanks.

posted by crapples to computers & internet (12 comments total)

What is the problem she is having? What does she do and what results does she get?
posted by winston at 7:24 AM on March 10, 2009

I will assume you simply need the NIC driver check out the follow link

XP drivers for a1700n

So if you could burn it to CD or place it on a pen drive and give it to your sister you might be half way there
posted by moochoo at 7:28 AM on March 10, 2009

She can identify the network card by using an application like this one or she can google the PCI strings in Hardware Manager. Once identified she might be able to find the driver.

More info here. She's probably missing other drivers and doesnt know it. The XP disc comes with very few.

There's a chance that there might not be XP drivers for that network card. If that's the case then she can buy a new XP compatible network card and install it.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:30 AM on March 10, 2009

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=4&PFid=4&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true#RTL8110S-32/RTL8110SB(L)/RTL8169SB(L)/RTL8169SC(L)%3Cbr%3ERTL8169

looks like it could be the actual driver I am not on a windows machine at the minute to extract to see
posted by moochoo at 7:33 AM on March 10, 2009

I would say that moochoo is on the right track. If she used a Win XP install disc that didn't come with her PC then it most likely doesn't have the drivers for her NIC card.

Once those are installed (it may be as simple as running the driver executable) then the NIC card should be activated and all should be well.

I also 2nd damn dirty ape - she will most likely need drivers for other hardware in the PC. I have a Dell 420 XPS and did a dual boot setup and had to find the drivers for everything on the PC when I put XP Pro on it.
posted by Brettus at 7:37 AM on March 10, 2009

OK - Thanks a lot. I downloaded the drivers that moochoo pointed me to and put them on a thumb drive. I'll drive over to her house and see if it helps.

I did this once a couple of years ago, and I agree with others -- she will probably need printer drivers, video drivers, and a bunch of other stuff. But if you can get online, all of those problems can be solved.

thanks -- hope this works.
posted by crapples at 7:46 AM on March 10, 2009

You can see which device drivers you're missing by right-clicking "My Computer", select "Properties"-->"Hardware"-->"Device Manager". They items with question marks are devices that don't have a driver associated with them. The network card (NIC) is usually listed as "ethernet controller". You also should obtain the wireless card drivers.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:47 AM on March 10, 2009

After having done a couple Vista/XP flops myself I'm going to third Moochoo on this one. Best place to find the right drivers is usually the computer's company overlord's site. You can track them down individually by component of course, but the manufacturer site will have them all in one place.

Also, if she needs XP drivers her USB hardware probably isn't working yet. Best bet will be to burn all the drivers to a CD and take it with you. Don't add to the frustration by getting there with a thumb drive that her machine can not yet recognize.
posted by Gainesvillain at 7:48 AM on March 10, 2009

Also burn & take her a Linux live CD. It'll get her PC (not her OS, though, obviously) back online. Since she's competent to replace the OS, this would give her access to more tools to find whatever more information or software she needs.
posted by TruncatedTiller at 7:50 AM on March 10, 2009

XP recognizes USB root hubs without needing drivers. I've done a billion (feels like it) installs of that damn OS.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:54 AM on March 10, 2009

Unfortunately, the drivers that I brought over there (the ones that moochoo referred to) did not work. I think she is going to go back to Vista because all of the drivers for Vista are on the HP website for quick download. I wish there was a better way, but I can't figure out what it is. If anyone has any ideas, let me know -- otherwise, going back to Vista will probably solve the problem.
posted by crapples at 8:58 AM on March 10, 2009

Did you try the page I linked to earlier? You may want to try driver max first, as it looks pretty user friendly.

Perhaps if you told us what your problem with Vista is we could help in other ways. Switching to XP might not be the best solution, especially in the long run (lack of upgrade path to win7, MS cutting off support, terrible default security, etc).
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:06 AM on March 10, 2009