Inline.
mindydee113 via WindowsKB.com wrote:
> Daave:
>
> Oh yeah, still celebrating! My 3 kids get out of school early today.
> All the schools in the area are allowing 2 hour early dismissal
> today. The city is throwing a parade for the Saints tonight at 5pm,
> that being the reason for the early dismissal. All city offices are
> shut down today as well. It is going to be crazy out there! Mardi
> Gras is a week away, but the celebrating and revelry has come early
> this year! So anyways.....back to the task at hand lol........
>
> The exact model # of the laptop is.....M2010US Notebook PC.
This is your page for drivers for that model:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=459484
You will not need to download *everything*!
At the least, you should download and install these for starters:
Chipset Installation Utility
Graphics Controller Driver
Audio Driver
Also, if you never use the built-in modem for good ol' fashioned dialup,
there is no need to download/install the modem driver.
Do you have a wireless card or Bluetooth on that laptop? If not, ditto.
To get an idea of other drivers to download, report back with regard to
the questions marks / exclamation marks you noted while in Device
Manager. For instance, find out what kind of NIC (Ethernet card) you
have. That will determine which driver to download (Broadcom or
Realtek).
Usually, all you need to do is double-click the isntallation file and
follow all the screen prompts (often you will need to reboot). If that
doesn't work, post back for further guidance.
> The type
> of XP I should have is: Home. The type of XP installed is:
> Microsoft Windows XP Professional, with service pack 2.
I was afraid of that. This could be a *big* problem.
First of all, you own a license (as evidenced by your COA sticker) to
run XP Home on that particular laptop. You do *not* have a license to
run XP Pro on it. So your cranky friend has installed the wrong OS!
Furthermore, at some point, it may be flagged by Microsoft, and you may
not ever be able to run it.
You need to find out what kind of XP Pro was installed on the laptop. It
could be Retail or OEM. It could be an unauthorized or expired volume
license or a pirated copy of XP Pro. Ask the friend what he used.
(Hopefully he will cooperate!) If you are lucky, he used a Retail CD
(unlikely, but anything's possible). If this is his gift to you, he
needs to give you the CD so you have the Product Key. A license without
a Product Key is useless! If you do have a valid Retail version of XP
Pro, you're in good shape. Otherwise, you really should figure out how
to get the proper installation media (XP Home).
(It's possible your laptop has a hidden recovery partition. Check the
documentation. If it does, that is what you need to do to reinstall XP
and return the laptop to its pristine condition.)
Try this:
Right-click My Computer and select Properties. (This is another way to
find out the type of XP and SP level, by the way.) Underneath
"Registered to", you will see the Product ID (not the same thing as the
Product Key but there is a relationship). You can decode this ID to
figure out some useful information. First of all, what are the first
five digits? Once you find out, look at the chart here:
http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/Product_IDs
Also, do you see the letters -OEM- after that first five-digit string?
If so, you don't have a Retail version installed!
> When I click
> start, then all programs, nothing shows up like Norton or McAfee.
> Only programs associated with Windows. When I checked under System
> Configuration, there are no items listed under the Startup tab.
Sounds like a generic XP Pro installation CD was used (not a branded OEM
recovery disk). This also explains why you need to install the hardware
drivers.
> Im not sure of the type of drivers that each computer needs to run
> efficiently, so could you let me know all the drivers I will need to
> install? I do not know if this laptop has the Realtek Ethernet card
> or not. How would I find out? Or was that just an example that I do
> not need to concern myself with?
See above.
> Also, another one of the posts said to download Updates first before
> installing the drivers, is that correct?
The post may have said that, but I never do it that way. What I do is
use another PC to download all the necessary drivers to a flash drive.
Then when I am ready, I connect the flash drive to the laptop. The
important thing is to make sure the laptop is physically disconnected
from the Internet. If it is connected to the Net, I can see the value of
installing SP3 and then all the subsequent post-SP3 Windows XP security
updates. But with my method, since the laptop is not physically online,
there is no chance of a hacker or malware getting into the
as-of-yet-unpatched system. Do what makes you feel most comfortable.
> Is it OK to go to the
> Internet and download anything before installing the anti virus
> protection?
You need to use another PC to download everything if you want to be
safe. Then just copy the installation files to the laptop. Or you could
even run them from the flash drive once it is connected to the laptop.
> I just want to make sure I do everything in the correct
> order and I do not want to let my daughter get any where near the
> Internet until I know it is safe for her to do so, without fear of
> getting a virus.
That is wise.
Now you see how involved a Clean Install can be! This is why many people
wind up paying a professional to do it (or ask a "geeky" friend or
relative).
> Alright then......chow for now..... till the next
> post!
The first thing you need to do is figure out if you have a license for
XP Pro. If not, you really need to figure out a way to install XP Home.
Check your documentation. I'll look online in the meanwhile.
> Daave wrote:
>> PA Bear provided lots of good information. I would print out his post
>> for reference.
>>
>> Elmo posted some helpful links. Bookmark those.
>>
>> We need to get more specific information.
>>
>> We don't know what kind of disk that the cranky friend used. It might
>> match the license. Or not.
>>
>> Using the link Elmo posted:
>>
>> http://h20180.www2.hp.com:80/apps/L...2&h_query=Compaq+Presario+M2000&submit=Go+%BB
>>
>> ... please tell us the *exact* model number of this laptop. This page
>> should help, too:
>>
>> http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...ct=212728&dest_page=product&docname=c00033108
>>
>> And look at the Microsoft Certificate of Authenticity (COA) sticker
>> in order to determine the type of XP you should have. It will be
>> Home, Pro, or Media Center Edition.
>>
>> Now look to see which version of XP your neighbor installed. One way
>> is this:
>>
>> Start | Run
>>
>> Type:
>>
>> winver
>>
>> Click OK.
>>
>> In the blue section, which type of XP do you have? Also, what Service
>> pack level is it at?
>>
>> Hopefully what your cranky friend installed matches the license on
>> your COA sticker!
>>
>> Also, I wonder if he used a generic OEM installation CD. Or did he
>> use the actual Compaq disk? If the latter, I would imagine you have
>> a number of trialware programs installed (like Norton or McAfee).
>> Would you be able to confirm either way? One way is to click Start
>> and then select All Programs. Another way is run the Windows XP
>> System Configuration Utility:
>>
>> Start | Run
>>
>> Type:
>>
>> msconfig
>>
>> Click OK.
>>
>> What items do you see listed when you click the Startup tab?
>>
>> I would imagine the other link provided by Elmo would allow you to
>> download the specific drivers you still need (represented by the
>> marks you saw in Device Manager). For example, you may need to
>> download the Realtek NIC driver (that is, if your daughter's laptop
>> indeed has the Realtek Ethernet card). But if you let us know the
>> *exact* model number of the laptop, we will know for sure.
>>
>> So, are you still celebrating? 
>>
>>> Daave:
>>>
>> [quoted text clipped - 69 lines]
>>>> (MBAM and SAS are free and recommended), and a number of other
>>>> things. POst back if you still have questions.