Hey guys, I have a dell inspiron 1705 laptop. I recently had to erase everything and reload a copy of XP pro I own. I am having a hard time trying to get things to work. the computer is 2 1/2 years old, dell no longer has it on file and i have no discs. I know that the only sound i get out of this is a beep whenever a noise is suppose to be there. I also cannot make my monitor bigger then 1024 wide. I downloaded all the drivers form the dell site and none of them worked. How can i even figure out what hardware i have on this computer. Thanks for any help.

http://support.dell.com/support/dow... "And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

I suggest you download and burn to disk ALL the drivers and other software available at that link and save for future use.

I had already gone there and downloaded them and tried them but nothing. Before I did this to my laptop i had the option of like 5 different views for my monitor and it showed two monitors now i only have the option for 1024 and it shows 1 monitor. When i bought the laptop it was for my wife and had the mdeia edition in it but 2 1/2 years later she has a new one and i have the old one, i put xp pro on it and i think that is why the drivers from dell isnt happening. Any more ides? How can i tell which video card i have?

Look at Dell's website to find out specs on the computer. What motherboard does it have? Google the motherboard, and it should take you to the manufacturer's website. Download the motherboard drivers there. Next, find out what the northbridge chip is on the motherboard. Google for your northbridge drivers. The computer is about 2.5 years...I think that's about the time when HD audio came out? Anyway, the hardware cannot work without drivers, and the drivers will not install without at least XP SP1 installed. So update your Windows first. Afterwards, google for your soundcard drivers. If your computer has that media PC light, there are no drivers for that. Disable it in device manager. As for your video card...download the drivers from its chip's manufacturer's site (for nvidia, it would be www.nvidia.com). I think they have a separate software for the nvidia control panel, which will allow more features. The computer manufacturers like Dell have their own drivers. You can use the manufacturer's drivers as well; some are even better than those that Dell will provide (especially since you can get the latest update quicker).