A Sea Of Red

I had to do a complete reinstall of Windows XP on a friends laptop. I ran the restore disk. Now I want to start doing all the Windows updates, but the computer is not giving me an option to connect to the internet. It does not give me a wireless connection option (it was connected to wireless before) nor does it connect when I plug in an ethernet cord. It is only trying to allow me to connect via dialup.

What stupid step am I missing? I have tried to setup Network Connections, and it only allows me to do dial up....

Also...when I go to my network connections, I only have a 1394 Connection....no Local Connection...what happened?

OK...after more research, it appears that the ethernet drivers are not connected. But I can not connect to the internet to download them. I tried the restore disk that came with it, but to no avail.

Any ideas how to download the correct drivers without being connected to the internet?

get a mac.

(kidding and making fun of mac fan boys)

HenryGale wrote:Any ideas how to download the correct drivers without being connected to the internet?

Use one of your other computers. Isn't that what everyone does?

Um, no really. I'm assuming if you're posting here you have some form of Internet access. Right?

I do...so apparently this is a stupid question, but how do I find out what drivers I need, and then, can I just save it to a flash drive or something and then download it on the other computer?

HenryGale wrote:I do...so apparently this is a stupid question, but how do I find out what drivers I need, and then, can I just save it to a flash drive or something and then download it on the other computer?

Yes. That's the best way to do it. Get what you need, put them on a flash drive and then install them on your other machine.

Typically you can go to the support website of the computer manufacturer, put in your model or serial number and get a list of drivers for your machine. If you don't have a brand-name PC you can get the drivers from the support websites of the manufacturers of the components you need a drivers for.

hey, speaking of windows XP updates, does anybody still running XP get security updates forced on them every couple of weeks? It's so annoying because it includes an automatic restart. You can delay it every couple of minutes if you're on your computer, but I've lost work at least 3 times because I've left home to do something and my computer has restarted. It's so irritating.

Thanks Scorcho...I will spend some time working on that!

LUconn - Yes, its been driving me nuts the past week or so as well on my work laptop.

LUconn wrote:hey, speaking of windows XP updates, does anybody still running XP get security updates forced on them every couple of weeks? It's so annoying because it includes an automatic restart. You can delay it every couple of minutes if you're on your computer, but I've lost work at least 3 times because I've left home to do something and my computer has restarted. It's so irritating.

That shouldn't happen unless you have Windows Updates set to both download and install automatically. If you have both of those set, it will automatically reboot on some security updates because the update is patching something that's being actively exploited.

I get the impression that a recent update has changed my setup because it is ridiculous how often updates are resetting my XP laptop over the past week or so. It always gives me the 10 minutes to close down any projects which is great when I am sitting in front of my monitor. Its not so great when I am working elsewhere on our campus.

Just move to Vista already. It's not as clunky as it was at launch.

TDDance234 wrote:Just move to Vista already. It's not as clunky as it was at launch.

Or you know just wait until windows 7 comes out, unless you are in the market for a new computer and can get the windows 7 free upgrade...

Did I mention this was a work computer ... at a church? I'm waiting on a nice economic turnaround or two more years on the budget cycle before I get an upgrade in my office.

On my home front, believe it or not I am possibly about to step into the Mac cult (albeit kicking & screaming).

For what it's worth I'm running Windows 7 on my work PC and like it. As much as one can like Windows, anyway.

However I'm also now running Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) on my laptop as of this past weekend and I'm very happy with it.

So, as always, I say use what you like or what works for you...and don't ask me to fix it for free.

Scorcho...do you see the University making the switch to Windows 7 anytime soon?

HenryGale wrote:Scorcho...do you see the University making the switch to Windows 7 anytime soon?

I'm actually not sure. Not my realm to manage, thankfully.