Gaming Quick Windows 7 question (Internet connection)

[The Composer]

Here's the deal:

I installed Windows 7 Professional Edition (x86) on a Netbook. Because these computers dont have a optical drive, I used a program to create an iso from the disc, and then I used the original program to convert windows isos into a bootable usb drive.

So far the installation went ok and all. The problem is that now I cant connect to internet by wireless or wired connections.

I did this on another netbook I have with no problems, because while I couldnt connect on a wireless connection, I could connect with a lan cable so I installed all the updated and it worked.


My questions are: How can I connect to Internet on the first netbook, if I cant use the lan or wireless connections?

Can I download SP1 and convert it into a bootable usb drive so I can install the updated and make the wireless work?


Any advice will help.

 

[Sir-Fritz]

Probably need to update your netbooks drivers.

 

[The Composer]

Probably need to update your netbooks drivers.

In order to do that, should I search for the drivers and stuff in the official site?

 

[Originality]

One solution is to use USB tethering (requires a smartphone).

It's weird that WiFi isn't working though - normally generic WiFi drivers from Windows is enough to get connected. Stupid question: are you sure it's enabled (e.g. some laptops use Fn + F2 for the WiFi toggle)?

 

[FAST6191]

Incoming text dump. Hopefully it will at least be interesting in parts.


Official site as in company that made the laptop?
Or
Official site as in company that made the actual chips/resulting "card"?

You can try either, traditionally laptop manufacturers have lousy driver support and this is further troubled by them half forbidding otherwise totally workable drivers from working (see laptops some 5 years ago and back vs graphics drivers and the hacks* that resulted or indeed the current situation regarding some laptops and windows XP drivers http://www.getpcmemory.com/drivers/downloa...ows-xp-drivers/ ). Personally I tend to skip this and jump right to
http://www.pcidatabase.com/
You can find ven and dev numbers by going to device manager, finding the item, right click-> properties and one of the options in details should drag it up. This will lead you at worst (assuming it is there of course) to some good search terms.

Also re vista and 7 drivers, especially network- be prepared to go outside official circles for some things. Also be aware network device manufacturers (especially belkin (spits) and many smaller makers) use wide ranging chips for a device with the same model number (until you get down the serial) so you might have to play their games. I have never quite figured it out either by most webcam makers are seriously adverse to labelling their stuff.

Better yet knowing this trick often allows you to bypass nastiness with companies that rebadge other gear (see most high street tech gear) or have since left business.

Re chicken and egg situation regarding internet- liveCDs in a pinch, USB drives in other situations.

USB has a similar ability (if it is not catered to by inbuilt drivers) and most other non PCI stuff also can get done (ACPI or legacy PNP stuff mainly)


Option 2
http://driverpacks.net/

*I am somewhat outside this world at present but http://www.omegadrivers.net/index.php might be a good jumping off point and http://www.atheros.cz/ is another example of things.

Sidenote on option 1. It is an interesting game but especially when one gets to deal with laptop manufacturers the ability to hack an inf file into supporting your hardware (whether "this does not contain the relevant data for your hardware" appears is usually down to the ven and dev or equivalent numbers being or not being in their entries). The are fairly obvious stupid things you can do (ATI drivers will not necessarily run Nvidia graphics cards or indeed your network drivers will probably not run your sound card) but occasionally official devs do not want the headache of old hardware, laptop makers especially like to change numbers despite having the same underlying silicon or someone likes the idea of obsolescence but the actual binary blob is good enough to run the newer gear (nvidia do a fairly good line in this).

Sidenote 2- chances are you will end up in a linux forum at some point in your searches. Do not dismiss things quite as quickly as you might as interesting information can be gleaned from such things.

Sidenote 3- 7zip and to a lesser extent winrar can unpack drivers from exe files quite happily on many occasions. This means you can dodge having to mess around with installers. Some still make it difficult.

Sidenote 4- not necessarily for network but generally there are only a few types of audio drivers in this world. AC97 and HD Audio Codec Driver from Realtek/Intel being the two big ones at present, they are technically related but keep a copy of each on a USB drive if you fix machines on a regular basis.

 

[The Composer]

One solution is to use USB tethering (requires a smartphone).

It's weird that WiFi isn't working though - normally generic WiFi drivers from Windows is enough to get connected. Stupid question: are you sure it's enabled (e.g. some laptops use Fn + F2 for the WiFi toggle)?

I tried LAN, so I know that wasnt the case.


QUOTE(FAST6191 @ Mar 20 2011, 09:06 PM) Incoming text dump. Hopefully it will at least be interesting in parts.

Actually, I solved the problem before reading your answer. I'm sorry.


You see, the netbook was HP, so I went and looked into the support site, and I downloaded a driver that enabled the wireless broadband adapter (it was like a firmware upgrade).

So I could connect to wifi at least, and so on I will be able to download windows updated and eventually connect to LAN.


Thanks everyone for your kindness.