XP Home won't let me install drivers

[roadw2k]

Hello all!

I am fixing this lady's computer and this has me stumped! Okay she told me that someone called from Microsoft and said her XP has expired and she needed to pay money to keep it active. She didn't have the money and they ended up getting access to her computer and locking it through BIOS and putting a system password on it. I know how to get around both and have done so successfully. I reinstalled Windows XP Home and after it finished installing. I downloaded the drivers off of dell's website that was for her computer. After clicking each of them it came up that the exe files failed to initialize. I then executed them on my laptop and copied over the files back to her computer and when trying to install them it says its not correct and they will not initialize either. I have reinstalled Windows XP after reformatting the long way and the quick way. Still having the same issues. Anyone have any ideas what I could do next?

 

[COLGeek]

XP doesn't expire. The "lady" more likely has an expired warranty and can no longer get free support from Dell. XP is very old, by the way. She definitely did not get a call from Microsoft.

What model of Dell is this?

 

[roadw2k]

I told her that he was trying to scam her. But anyway it is a Dell Dimension 3000.

 

[Saga Lout]

When you copied the drivers over, did you then turn the Device Manager>Driver Update system loose on the folders you created for each individual driver? Are you sure the Dell Service Tag was the right one you entered into Dell's website?

Given your lady customer was conned by some remote trickster, you're lucky to have a system installed at all. Use this method to find the ethernet driver to get the box online so it can search for the other drivers by itself.

Go into Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager, find the ethernet device under Network Adapters, then right click that and go to Properties.

Click the Details tab, then scroll to Hardware IDs and note down the four characters after VEN for Vendor and the four which follow DEV for Device. Go to http://www.pcidatabase.com and input those details in the relevant boxes and you will see the list of all the right manufacturer's products but sadly, they aren't in order. Use Internet Explorers Edit menu then Find to type in the DEVice ID and the search will find the correct entry. Follow the link to the site for the correct driver, download it and transfer to her system by flash drive.

 

[roadw2k]

That definitely did the trick! Yes the dell service tag was correct. I tried just with the model # then the service tag and both failed to run from the .exe file. But thank you for the Hardware ID to get the info for the right drivers!