I had a Dell 8300 that I gave to my husband and he added Vista. Now, unfortunately none of the drivers work. Where can I get the appropriate drivers? I can't find anything doing a search for the integrated sound so far and I suspect Dell will not support the upgrade, (not theirs). Aren't there some generics somewhere?

Lynn

Generic drivers NO, drivers supplied by the Original Equipment Manufature, possibly!

Is it a DIMENSION 8300 ? and actually Microsoft provide an upgrade advisor tool to run before buying VISTA:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pr...

I personally use HWINFO to identify the manufacturer of hardware:

http://wwww.hwinfo.com

Yes, Dimensions 8300. Ran the upgrade adviser and there didn't seem to be a problem but I didn't do it back when I had it as I didn't want to risk losing anything as I knew it was borderline.

I like using Belarc to ID things and it does a so-so job, I'll check your site.

Thanks for responding.

Lynn

i went to dell's support page and checked a few things.

1. this model was offered with 3 different graphics cards, ATI Radeon 9800, nVidia GeForce 4 MX and FX 5200. if you computer came with a GeForce 4MX then you're out of luck altogether, no Vista drivers for this model, the Radeon 9800 and the FX5200 are both supported by ATI's and nVidia's Vista driver bundle.

2. the onboard sound chip Analog Devices 198x is standard on your model, a SB Live! 5.1 was optional. i have Vista installed on a Dimension 5000 with the same sound chip, but it was a rather troublesome experience. according to dell tech support, the XP driver 'should' work with Vista ... well, it didn't. worse, i had to reinstall vista from scratch. eventually i found an ADI 198x XP driver at the HP/Compaq support page that works ... but only after 'brute force' installation by choosing the driver myself and ignoring all the warnings.

Why would he upgrade to Vista??? Bad move, especially without collecting all the needed drivers first.

You would think M$ would include the necessary drivers for all current hardware when Vista came out, but NO!

Tell him to go back to XP.

What you should do first is visit Windows Update. Many hardware drivers are not installed during Vista installation and are installed later by just simply paying a visit to Windows Update.

Apart from this, most XP drivers for hardware, except for display adapter or graphics card, generally work with Vista, though some functions may not work.

You can find the information on the hardware through the Device Manager. Just expand the related hardware in Device Manager and click the Driver tab. The opening window will tell you the necessary info on the hardware. This window is also where you will update the driver.

According to the info you have just obtained, visit the manufacturer's web site to look for a Vista driver. If you are out of luck, you can try XP drivers, then.

Hope the above is of help.

Regards

suatcini

A few ways can tell. If you use the the device manager , hardware, and look for the problems. Open each entry and look for the details tab.
You should see something like PCI\VEN_10B7&DEV_9200&SUBSYS_00C71028&REV_78\4&8537DD&0&60F0

The vendor can be found online by what follows VEN (10b7)and the chipset is the DEV (9200)entry.

Then you can go to the vendor of that device and see if they have vista drivers. If not then try a xp/2000 or even nt driver.
I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

Problem solved and not happily so. Turns out when Dell was nice enough to install a new motherboard, she didn't see her way clear to include the integrated audio, not all USB ports work (seemed shared) nor does the ps2 for his keyboard. Not a happy camper about this but he's so easy going he went out and bought a new sound card, USB hub and USB to ps2 converter. I should find a way of getting this our of Dell but I know better than to hold my breath for that one!

Lynn

Update. When I complained to Dell about this, they gave me a $100 coupon for my husband to make up for the money he laid out. Issue resolved but not very ideally. Thanks for the responses.

Lynn