Can someone help me gathering drivers for my Dell?

[Trash_Bandatcoot]

As if I didn't knew XP died. That's sort of the idea here.

Imagine if I'm a PC-collector and I bought a old Windows 2000 PC. I delete the hard drive and start fresh. Do I collect information about the PC to fully restore it, or do I just install a lightweight OS and let it be done with?
Fully restoring is how restoration works.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Finally started up and performed the command. This is everything that's listed.
However, the weird thing is that Windows XP and even Ubuntu has no wireless internet options, despite before the C: drive format, it could connect effordlessly. There's even a switch on the back that enables, disables and can open a list of wifi connections. Even connecting via LAN doesn't work! Did formatting kill internet connectivity?

Ouch. Your screenshot hurts my eyes. Just run the commands like this
sudo lspci >> ~/Desktop/output.txt
and upload the text file. Much easier to read and much smaller.

Your WiFi chip may need additional drivers for Linux (more or less automatic for Ubuntu once connected with another network interface). See here and here. The wired interface should normally work out of the box. If not it may be a little tricky.

Reading only partially the many replies (that also go a little off-topic) I would say running legacy Windows is not a good idea for a connected computer. In addition to the security problems there is missing support for newer software (browsers) which leads to loss of functionality. While it is possible somehow, I agree on that with @Foxi4 , it's not worth the effort when other OS offer more security, more functionality and less work.

If you have time and interest for this, try multiple Windows and Linux versions and see which works best for you. On newer Windows (at least wired) network should work out of the box and in general less additional drivers are needed. Now that you know you have BCM4312 WiFi you can download the Windows driver for it. Automatic driver download applications are somewhat dubious in my opinion.

The thing with energy efficiency and slowness… I can’t agree on that. Laptops do not need that much energy (they can run on batteries after all) and if a system is not on 24/7 but only when needed, this has not much impact comparing to producing a new computer. Judging if a computer is fast enough for an area of application is up to the owner. Throwing away a system that still has an area of application is waste.

 

[Trash_Bandatcoot]

Ouch. Your screenshot hurts my eyes. Just run the commands like this
sudo lspci >> ~/Desktop/output.txt
and upload the text file. Much easier to read and much smaller.

Your WiFi chip may need additional drivers for Linux (more or less automatic for Ubuntu once connected with another network interface). See here and here. The wired interface should normally work out of the box. If not it may be a little tricky.

Reading only partially the many replies (that also go a little off-topic) I would say running legacy Windows is not a good idea for a connected computer. In addition to the security problems there is missing support for newer software (browsers) which leads to loss of functionality. While it is possible somehow, I agree on that with @Foxi4 , it's not worth the effort when other OS offer more security, more functionality and less work.

If you have time and interest for this, try multiple Windows and Linux versions and see which works best for you. On newer Windows (at least wired) network should work out of the box and in general less additional drivers are needed. Now that you know you have BCM4312 WiFi you can download the Windows driver for it. Automatic driver download applications are somewhat dubious in my opinion.

The thing with energy efficiency and slowness… I can’t agree on that. Laptops do not need that much energy (they can run on batteries after all) and if a system is not on 24/7 but only when needed, this has not much impact comparing to producing a new computer. Judging if a computer is fast enough for an area of application is up to the owner. Throwing away a system that still has an area of application is waste.

Yeah, I think I'll use Ubuntu or any other OS as a plan C, to avoid further discussion into which OS I should pick.

As Foxi4 already mentioned, I should also find and note drivers that work. I will also output the log onto my desktop so my camera doesn't ruin the show.
It's gonna be a bussy day today!

 

[Trash_Bandatcoot]

also the program Driver Booster will automatically find, download, and install missing or out of date drivers, easy!

Doesn't that require an internet connection?

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Doesn't that require an internet connection?

Obviously yes. So if you want to use such a driver downloader program (I dislike them) download and install the network driver(s) yourself and use the automatic program afterwards.
Broadcom BCM4312 is your WiFi

 

[slaphappygamer]

ive brought back a dell too. its an inspiron 600m. its got xp sp2 and runs fine. found all the drivers on dells site too. i just cant surf the web, but this laptop is for the kids to jack around with. also i put mame on it. the romset i have is old and they like this 32bit version of mame i have. also, also, i recently put in the bluetooth module for this laptop. im using a magic mouse with this. the steves would both be happy. restore it as if were 1998. have you tried to use the "service tag" number to get the drivers? thats what i did

 

[Trash_Bandatcoot]

Anyway, here's the output TXT. I have a bussy day today, so I can't do much about the computer.

Spoiler: output.txt

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) (rev 0c)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (secondary) (rev 0c)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
03:01.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. Cardbus bridge (rev 21)
03:01.4 FireWire (IEEE 1394): O2 Micro, Inc. Firewire (IEEE 1394) (rev 02)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5755M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)

 

[FAST6191]

[driverpacks.net]. Alternatively go with @FAST6191's suggestion, but I consider applications like these to be unnecessary bloatware - you can just as easily look up device ID's from the device manager itself.

While I would agree most automated driver scanners/installers for windows are scarcely a level above malware, if not outright malware or borderline scams, then back when I was using it driverpacks.net's stuff pretty much did "what if windows update was actually good", albeit with local libraries of drivers (which I typically kept on my USB drive of wonder so any bloat was mine*).

*I say that but these were usually just the 200KB of necessary and up to date drivers for each whole family*50 or so families, as opposed to the three chances to try your luck 30 meg installer for outdated drivers some laptop vendors would want you to download, and then have to try to extricate yourself from their handy dandy wireless manager program which was worse than XP's already less than ideal wireless management**, and would usually decide to gobble an additional 15-20 megs of RAM (of the maybe 1024 you might have been rocking there at that point in time). Never mind if you had to do this without another machine with working internet to download from.

**actually open call for anybody to tell me an occasion where the vendor wireless was better than XP's, outside of stuff you could easily achieve with a wireless signal strength mapping program.

I see the thread has moved on considerably since I left yesterday so I will probably be back with other replies but I will leave it there for now.

 

[smf]

Windows 32-Bit can use PAE and more than 4GB.

Only XP to Windows 7, it's no longer supported in Windows 10.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/Memory/physical-address-extension

But then if you have more than 4gb and are running Windows 10 then you should run 64 bit as generally 64 bit code is faster than 32 bit because it has more registers.

 

[spotanjo3]

So I recently decided to restore an old Dell my family has. It had a ton of virusses and some private stuff, so I took that off. I then tried my best to find a proper Windows XP Professional iso in Dutch and Service Pack 3 (which I didn't find but it has to do) but I just can't find any of the drivers after that.
I never backed them up, thinking they weren't required.
This is all I could find: https://www.dell.com/support/home/nl/nl/nlbsdt1/product-support/product/latitude-d630/drivers

If someone can help me searching some sound drivers, network drivers, screen drivers (the screen resolution is not correct and doesnt go any higher) and some other drivers that I probably need for my Dell Latitude D630, then feel free to help me!

You should contact your Dell with your old Dell information and they would send you the correct drivers. Since your dell was very old obviously then you should buy a new one.

Or just clean HD drive and format a brand new windows XP ISO and Service Pack 3. However, why Windows XP ? It is no good anymore. Again, buy a new PC then.

 

[FAST6191]

Wow we do seem rather bitter and pissy about someone just wanting to have a bit of fun with some old hardware.

 

[Foxi4]

Since the thread has gone horribly off-topic, I'm nuking *all* the posts that are not related to *finding drivers for this XP-based machine* and I will continue to do so going forward, this has gone on long enough. If you have no intention of helping the OP do what he intends to do with his machine, you have no business posting here - it's his machine.

 

[Trash_Bandatcoot]

Since the thread has gone horribly off-topic, I'm nuking *all* the posts that are not related to *finding drivers for this XP-based machine* and I will continue to do so going forward, this has gone on long enough.

About bloody time. I also have a 1TB harddrive that I can use for Ubuntu if my Wii doesn't like it. So Windows XP is for sure now going on the laptop itself!

Wow we do seem rather bitter and pissy about someone just wanting to have a bit of fun with some old hardware.

HOLY SHIT SAME, I should've said that way earlier.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

About bloody time. I also have a 1TB harddrive that I can use for Ubuntu if my Wii doesn't like it. So Windows XP is for sure now going on the laptop itself!

You made yourself clear and you're right. One warning about legacy OS is okay. But the endless discussion was not helpful.

Okay:

For starting you should download and install these drivers from the Dell page:

• Intel GM965 Express Chipset Family, v.6.14.10.5076, A07 (graphics)
  
• Broadcom 57XX Gigabit Integrated Controller, 59XX 10/100 Ethernet Controller, v.v10.15.01, A00 (Ethernet)
  
• Intel Mobile Chipset Driver (chipset)
  
• Dell Wireless 1350/1450/1370/1470 WLAN MiniPCI Card, Wireless 1350 WLAN PC Card, Wireless (US) WLAN Card, Wireless 1490 Dual-Band WLAN MiniCard, Wireless 1390 WLAN ExpressCard, Wireless 1390/1500/1505 WLAN mini Card Driver (WiFi)

Then have a look at the device manager if there are any missing drivers or if still generic drivers are used (or something still does not work).

Yes, I know the long name for the WiFi driver does not contain anything like Broadcom or BCM. This is confusing. But I downloaded it an found this inside the large file:

It should be the correct driver (sorry for the mouse pointer in the screenshot)

Edit:
These two sites claim to have the correct WiFi driver as well. Trustworthy? No idea.

 

[GothicIII]

Holy cow. How did this get so messy here?
You have two choices:

Install any linux you want.
Pro: Except wifi (broadcom has partly very bad support on linux. Atheros chipsets work best), the hardware compatibility and efficiency on this platform is top notch and
you'll get support for years.
Con: If it doesn't work out of the box you need to fiddle around (e.g. acpi standards are broken on older computers and you would need to experiment with grub parameters to boot).
ALSA will take care of sound and for video the intel-video package should suffice.

Install any windows you like.
I would suggest to stick with winxp and don't go online with that so security will be a non-issue. Windows 7 or later are very ressource intensive so those will run very slowly on that hardware and working with the laptop will be tedious.


For the driver issues I recommend AIDA64 to get the name of the hardware (lspci on linux does the same) and just use google to search for the device id + vendor id + winversion to get your drivers.
Use device-manager (execute devmgmt.msc) to get the device and vendor id. (double click yellow question mark->Details->HardwareID)
For example an intel 630 video card will look like this:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_591B&REV_04
Googling "VEN 8086 DEV 591B windows 7 x86" will yield results.

They're mostly hosted on softpedia or equivalent hardware sites.
Sadly support from companies like dell etc. is pretty much non-existent for older hardware.

Rule of the thumb: Extract all zipped packages and/or setup.exe files to get the needed *.inf files instead of executing them. Together with the *.inf there is always a *.cat file. Look into its properties to check the digital signature. If it is from microsoft you are good to go and the driver is valid and not tampered with any kind of virus.
To install the drivers use Device-Manager and go to the yellow question mark, check the device id and point the right .inf to it (double click->drivers->update driver).

Very old computers might be x86_64 compatible because of the builtin CPU but might not address more than 4GB of RAM because of mainboard limitations. Another problem is the lack of 64bit compatible drivers.
My advice would be to stick with 32bit because 64bit will consume more RAM (due to higher address space and larger variables) and the speed benefits will be negliable -if there are any- due to the old hardware.

 

[kuwanger]

If you want another alternative automated driver installer and don't mind d/ling 17.1GB, there's Snappy Driver Installer. Personally, I've never used it but PhilsComputerLab which does a lot of retro Youtube videos vouches for it.

One thing I'd throw out is that for XP you might need more than just WiFi drivers. You'll also need the actual wifi management software since that wasn't a standard part of Windows until Vista or 7, and at least some hardware has it as separate thing.

PS - I actually have a Dell Vostro 1510 I bought from a garage sale which is setup to dual boot XP and Ubuntu. IIRC, beyond using Dell's site for most the drivers, I don't recall have much trouble getting the hardware working. Now, Windows 10 and opengl acceleration on another laptop, that was a whole other thing. :/

 

[Foxi4]

If you want another alternative automated driver installer and don't mind d/ling 17.1GB, there's Snappy Driver Installer. Personally, I've never used it but PhilsComputerLab which does a lot of retro Youtube videos vouches for it.

One thing I'd throw out is that for XP you might need more than just WiFi drivers. You'll also need the actual wifi management software since that wasn't a standard part of Windows until Vista or 7, and at least some hardware has it as separate thing.

PS - I actually have a Dell Vostro 1510 I bought from a garage sale which is setup to dual boot XP and Ubuntu. IIRC, beyond using Dell's site for most the drivers, I don't recall have much trouble getting the hardware working. Now, Windows 10 and opengl acceleration on another laptop, that was a whole other thing. :/

I'm pretty sure XP shipped with Wireless Zero Configuration, although it's sometimes disabled.

 

[kuwanger]

I'm pretty sure XP shipped with Wireless Zero Configuration, although it's sometimes disabled.

Ah, I stand corrected. Apparently for WZC "there was no Wireless LAN API in Windows XP for developers to create wireless client programs and manage profiles and connections", so perhaps that's why my WiFI on XP had third party software. In any case, they replaced WZC with "Native WiFi" (clever name) in Vista which may be why I was confused on the point. :/

 

[Foxi4]

Ah, I stand corrected. Apparently for WZC "there was no Wireless LAN API in Windows XP for developers to create wireless client programs and manage profiles and connections", so perhaps that's why my WiFI on XP had third party software. In any case, they replaced WZC with "Native WiFi" (clever name) in Vista which may be why I was confused on the point. :/

This was common practice at the time, WZC was very barebones. Normally the drivers themselves came bundled with a third-party manager, much like it's done with audio drivers to this day.

 

[Trash_Bandatcoot]

Sorry that I didn't reply in a while. I've been busy with an HDD, but I've been reading the *ahem*, more usefull comments for sure. This weekend I could probably try these methods, and I'll find the correct drivers from the Dell page that KleinesSinchen listed as well.