I’ve re-formatted and re-installed more Dell’s than I care to mention. Desktop, Laptops and Servers you name it I’ve spend hours doing it.

One thing I’ve learned for an easy life install the drivers in the order below.

1:System Software
2:Chipset
3:Video Adaptor
4:Network Card
5:Audio
6:Modem
7:Wireless
8:Input things like touch pad
9:Bluetooth
10:PMCIA/Smart Card

Other Tips

Tip: Prior to reformatting your Dell PC BACK IT UP.

Tip: Not all Dells are the same look at the device manager and make a note or screen dump of how the hardware has been identified. In particular What Network, Audio and Video is installed as this can vary.

Picture: Windows Device Manager

Tip: Prior to reformatting locate all the latest drivers for your specific model from www.support.dell.com

Dell have a more detailed “What Driver Order” Document which you can read on the link below.

Link: Dell Support Document

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 4:37 pm and is filed under Blog Entries, DELL, Tech Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.