Need help installing drivers or I will blend baby squirrels

[Guest]

I posted this same thing in the Dell forum but would also like to ask here.

 

Alright so, I'm at wits end here. I've been trying to find out how to update my drivers for my old alienware m17x laptop (I regret buying it every second of my life) but have been at a loss every time I try.

 

So I finally figured out that Nvidia drivers from their website won't work because Dell did something to these drivers, so I finally found out about downloading drivers here. I put in my laptop's serial key and then brought the the "Drivers and Downloads" page. There I could choose between either seeing my specific laptop's recommended upgrades (13 recommendations) or a more broad one (with 30 recommendations). I selected the first one and went down to drivers. Apparently, for some odd reason, the recommended driver it wants me to install applies to the gtx 260 GPU. However, when I check in dxdiag it says that I'm using the Geforce 9400. But I won't argue so I decide to download the driver in internet explorer and save it to desktop. Then I run it, and I extract the contents to the default location (C:\DELL\DRIVERS\R279498). However, after that, something extremely odd occurs, the installation text is IN CHINESE. I have no idea what it says and am at a loss again. So I just inch my way through and then my computer restarts. I'm hoping that it worked, however I notice no noticeable changes in anything. In fact, when I went back, it still recommended me to install the same drivers. After a while, the laptop specific upgrades option no longer appears so I am left with a ton of options for downloads and I am not sure if they apply to my computer or not.

 

So, what do I do to get these drivers installed, and how do I know if I installed them?

 

 

 

I'm actually just kidding about that part. You know, the baby squirrels. I'm not REALLY going to blend them, well not yet at least. So you better help me!

[Brucealso]

Have you gone in and deleted your old drivers before installing your new ones? Thats what i had to do on my older systems...try to find your drivers in your program add remove section and remove them and since you have your other driver setup saved to desktop then reload them.

 

 

http://support.alienware.com/Support_Pages/Restricted_Pages/driver_downloads.aspx

 

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?c=us&docid=545523

[gregathit]

Using the dell site is a real pain in the ass.

 

Do you know what brand your video card is? Is it EVGA, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte or some other? I recommend you go directly to that manufacturers website and download the video driver from there. If you try to use Dell or even the Nvidia site you just get a general driver that may not work well with that manufacturers specific card.

[Brucealso]

I found an alienware site for him to try but evidently from what i read this thing is touchy when it comes to drivers. He could also try running cpuid cpu-z and it will tell him what he has.

[Kashiwaba Tomoe]

I vote he kill the baby squirrels and post the video on youtube, for luls.

[Lucherenren]

It'd be best to check what's your metal, o Mad One.

 

There is a host of utilities you can use to this end, from CPU-Z (and its cousin, GPU-Z, which deals with graphic cards), to SiSoftware's Sandra and Gabriel Topala's System Information for Windows - just to name a few.

 

If you have a Knoppix LiveCD handy, that'd be another way to get good information on your system (other Linux distros may apply as well).