I've recently been having problems with my dell dimension 3000 so i chose to backup my data and reinstall windows. Now that i have done that, there are various hardware devices that arnt being recognised and dont have any drivers installed for them. these include: Ethernet controller, Multimedia audio controller, pci modem, sm bus controller and video controller.

I have my disks that came with the computer but as neither I, or the computer knows what hardware is actually in the pc then i do not know which drivers to install.

If anybody could pass on any words of wisdom it would be much appreciated!
cheers

Hi. i just saw your post about re-installing windows and getting hardware problems. A few months ago, my printer stopped working, and my imaging program did too. Then one day, my XPsp2 had mysteriously disappeared and when we finally got it to load again, I lost all my audio and nothing worked to get it back. So, we bought a new sound card and my husband installed it. Device manager listed the new card, but control panel sound tab still said "No Audio Device" installed. We tried for two weeks to fix this problem. Downloaded every "fix" that Microsoft had that we could find. Changed the drivers, etc. My husband recently purchased some Linux CD's off E-Bay and used it in an old computer that he thought he could restore and the program told him that the hard drive was bad. So, after working on my computer for hours, in desperation, he put the Linux CD called Ubuntu into my computer. When it opened up, astonishingly, my sound works perfectly!!!! I suppose the problem is in XPsp2 somewhere since with sp1 my sound worked fine. Who knows why? We downloaded fixes that were supposed to fix the problem, but didn't. Anyway, I will either use Linux or maybe someone can tell me what the problem is with XP sp2 that causes you to lose so many capabilities and what to do to correct it. Just an input.

Hi, we specialise in new and refurbished Dell systems so, if the Dimension has an Internet connection, I can give you a solution that works almost every time. Go to http://www.dell.co.uk/support and then go into the Drivers / Downloads section. There will be an area to filter downloads based on system model, etc. Enter your system tag number in here. This will typically be seven characters, e.g. "4GH3J0L" etc and will be printed on a label on the back of your system case. If your Dimension's case has a flap on the front covering a couple of front-mounted USB ports and headphones socket, then the system tag will usually be on a little black label under the flap as well. The system tag will allow the web site to show you a list of available downloads as well as the original system configuration (i.e. what parts were in the PC when Dell originally built it) - that's a REALLY handy feature. The other good thing about Dell's download site being able to work off of the system tag is that you can put that number into the web site using a different PC and you'll still get all of the same information

Hope that helps

sometime it happens with Dell Computers and laptops so don't worry about this minor problem, try to visit Dell Online-Help site as there is updated all types of drivers software available try to download and then install them. it is a minor problem. now you can visit for online technical help on to this site.