pctechguide.com

WinXP Driver Installation

Windows XP Setup will have attempted to load drivers for the hardware it recognised. However, there is no guarantee that the default drivers loaded are the latest available, or – if you’re re-building what had previously been an operational system – the same as the versions you were running previously.

The first thing to do is to check the status of all your installed hardware via Device Manager. Access this via Start > Control Panel, double-click System the click the Hardware tab and then Device Manager.

An exclamation mark in a yellow circle is used to indicate devices in a problem state. Right-clicking the entry and selecting Properties will display further information, including an associated error code. Oftentimes the problem will be the absence of an installed driver. In such cases you’ll need to install this, either from the CD-ROM or floppy disk that came with you hardware, or from a file that you subsequently downloaded from the Internet.

Click here to view the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article entitled Explanation of Error Codes Generated by Device Manager. This provides a listing of error codes and associated error messages, together with explanations and possible resolutions.

There are a number of ways to update a driver, one being to select the item in the Device Manager list, right-click and select Properties and then the Driver tab.

Tools

Click Update Driver.

Tools

… and proceed as appropriate.

An alternative method of installation – and one that is perhaps more guaranteed to work successfully – is to simply run the the driver’s Setup.exe program, if this is provided. This will install the drivers and usually prompt you to re-boot the system. Upon re-boot, Windows automatic installation routine will locate the drivers and install the hardware.

Filed Under: How To Do a Clean Installation of WinXP

Latest Articles

WinXP Windows Update

With previous versions of Windows, tracking down system patches and updated drivers was difficult. However, Microsoft streamlined the process in Windows 98 by including Windows Update on the Start menu, effectively providing an online extension of Windows designed to help maintain your … [Read More...]

Findamo.com Virus Removal Guide

  The Findamo.com virus belongs to a type of malware that has the sole purpose of redirecting and leading to a browser hijacker infection. This will make the user surfing experience prone to redirecting virus online and compromise the internet security. The Method of Infiltration Every … [Read More...]

Serial Ports

National Semiconductor has made the UART chips which have driven the PC's serial port ever since the emergence of IBM's first PC. The original PC serial interface used the INS8250-B UART chip. This could receive and transmit data … [Read More...]

Guides

Recent Posts

Hard Drive Planning

The first thing you're going to need to do is ensure that your system can accommodate a second hard disk drive. Most motherboards provide … [Read More...]