I need 64-bit drivers!
January 19, 2008 8:43 PM Subscribe
I've got an Inspiron M1730 on the way, and I need 64-bit drivers for XP.
Okay, so, my old Inspiron XPS Gen 2 just died tonight...sort of. It's crapping out enough that I don't trust it at all, and I'm barely able to make a backup of my data now. (I make nightlies, but I'm a data fiend, so I want everything that's on it from today, no matter what the cost.)
Thankfully, I was blessed enough that tonight, right after it broke, someone gave me the funds to buy an M1730, which I've had my eye on for months now. It's now on its way (or, rather, being built - whoo!) and my plan is to install the 64 bit edition of XP on it when it arrives, since I hate Vista and want to take advantage of all 4GB of delicious, yummy ooey gooey RAM. Now, there are drivers available for the regular version of XP on Dell's website, but are there 64 bit versions available? If so, where would I find them? (Please, no Linux snarks. I fully intend on installing some flavor of Linux on it as well, since I'll have 400GB of hard drive space to play with. I'm not that much of an MS sellout. )
(Yes, I could go look this up myself, but golly gee, I am just so flipping excited about this laptop that I can barely sit straight, and I'm giddy with glee, and I wanted to share that joy with Mefi while asking a question. Please humor me? :) )
Okay, so, my old Inspiron XPS Gen 2 just died tonight...sort of. It's crapping out enough that I don't trust it at all, and I'm barely able to make a backup of my data now. (I make nightlies, but I'm a data fiend, so I want everything that's on it from today, no matter what the cost.)
Thankfully, I was blessed enough that tonight, right after it broke, someone gave me the funds to buy an M1730, which I've had my eye on for months now. It's now on its way (or, rather, being built - whoo!) and my plan is to install the 64 bit edition of XP on it when it arrives, since I hate Vista and want to take advantage of all 4GB of delicious, yummy ooey gooey RAM. Now, there are drivers available for the regular version of XP on Dell's website, but are there 64 bit versions available? If so, where would I find them? (Please, no Linux snarks. I fully intend on installing some flavor of Linux on it as well, since I'll have 400GB of hard drive space to play with. I'm not that much of an MS sellout. )
(Yes, I could go look this up myself, but golly gee, I am just so flipping excited about this laptop that I can barely sit straight, and I'm giddy with glee, and I wanted to share that joy with Mefi while asking a question. Please humor me? :) )
Best answer: You're going to have to find out what kind of components make up the system and go find the XP 64 bit drivers for them at the manufacturer's sites. For something like the onboard Nvidia video it'll be easy, but for things like the wireless card, you may be out of luck, especially if you got the Dell-branded wireless. 64 bit XP is relatively rare and many companies have not bothered to write drivers for it.
posted by zsazsa at 12:03 AM on January 20, 2008
posted by zsazsa at 12:03 AM on January 20, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by mphuie at 10:09 PM on January 19, 2008