Why won't WinXP Home go online?

[bruticus_01]

My fiancee's laptop (HP Pavilion, AMD Turion processor, standard office-worker machine) crashed, hard, a while ago. After trying various fixes (recovery, partition the drive and install a second Windows,etc) , I just wiped the drive and reinstalled XP Home (an OEM, SP0 version)

The laptop starts just fine, but now its wireless is disabled and all the "PCI Bus devices" in DevMgr have the yellow!. I'm assuming this is because the OS doesn't jibe with it?

I've visited MS support.com but (unsurprisingly) it wasn't much help. It tells me that SP0 doesn't support AutoUpdates, and I have to install either SP2 or SP1a before I can install SP3.

But when I click the "how to get SP2/1a" links...it takes me to a page that says "your OS doesn't support AutoUpdate..." and repeats the directive to patch.

I just want to a) patch the OS and b) re-enable the wireless? How do I do this? Why does it seem like MS makes this harder as time goes on, rather than easier? If your machine doesn't support AutoUpdate...you're screwed!

Thanks

DjB

 

[bruticus_01]

(WHUPS, this should have been titled "why won't XP Home patch/go wireless")

DjB

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

You need to go to the hp site and download the drivers for your model.

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/support-drivers.html

Here ^

[:briovaz:3]

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/faqtip/windows-xp-service-pack-3-faq

Sevice Pack Facts ^

 

[bruticus_01]

Thanks.

Fortunately/ironically/whatever-ly, fixing this has become a much lesser priority because her family pooled their resources and bought her a 13" MacBookPro!!

DjB

You need to go to the hp site and download the drivers for your model.

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/support-drivers.html

Here ^

[:briovaz:3]

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/faqtip/windows-xp-service-pack-3-faq

Sevice Pack Facts ^

 

[bribry58]

I agree with area51. when you wiped the drive you introduced a new problem. The drivers for the hp model were also wiped and you need to get them reinstalled. I strongly suggest that you get a recovery cd from hp for the model you have. The oem version may work but it obviously does not have the drivers for every model. I also strongly suggest installing sp2 then sp3 before going online. There may be a wireless driver for the laptop from the hp site but I still suggest the latter.