[atticusblack]

i've been looking around for days, so i wouldnt be posting here unless i was completely desperate.

i got my laptop, Dell Inspiron 6400 about 2 weeks ago. Tried Vista, hated it.. formatted to my old XP Home. realised i had to download and install all the drivers myself as i dont have any cd's or manuals from Dell. so i did that..

only problem is my 'Ethernet Controller' and 2 'PCI Devices# have yellow exclamation marks next to them, and i have no sound on the laptop. ive tried absolutely everything. hundreds of different drivers, tutorials, etc. i'm very desperate. i need my sound back. please help if you have ANY idea's.

thanks very much.

[The Hound]

Welcome to TSG...

XP drivers for the Inspiron 6400 are here...

Lots of choices there--you could download Lavalys' Everest Free Edition at Majorgeeks.com...install and run it, and you'll know for sure what's in the box.

[The_Oracle]

well ... trying 'hundreds of different drivers' may not have been such a good idea. a force-installation of the wrong driver may cause the correct driver not to work.

you may reinstall XP again. all drivers for your model can be downloaded here:

http://support.dell.com/support/down...&catid=&impid=

the first driver you should install is the chipset driver (INTEL, not RICOH - that would be optional for a MM card reader if present) and then the sound driver (dell recommends the Creative driver but your model may have the SigmaTel C-Major sound chip)

and then get all the other drivers (LAN, WLAN, Graphics, etc.) but use ONLY drivers from this website.

[missg]

installing drivers sound fix the issue! if not.. call dell support u might have hardware issue...

[missg]

should fix the issue

[Dell_CA]

Hello,

My name is Mike, I’m a Technical Analyst located at Dell corporate headquarters in Round Rock, TX. I’m part of an internet outreach team developed to interact with the online community regarding technical questions and issues that customers face with Dell products. I read about the problem and wanted to offer some help.

Everyone here has the right idea, especially The_Oracle, I just wanted to add a little on top of the advice here. The order that the drivers are installed is important and can be found here. After the drivers are installed you should be all set.

Mike
Dell customer advocate