Fresh Windows XP, no network controller driver

Hi all everytime I reformatt and install fresh copy of windows xp its always missing the same for drivers in device manager one being the network controller ethernet . so I cant get on internet to download the other missing drivers , the main problem is when im trying to install driver for it it says code 10 all the time please help ./ thanks

its a pc tower how do I find all this out bud . as ive tried 4 different drivers after going on sites and getting them but keeps giving the code 10 error

one is hp one is compaq I went to where it says look for driver yourself in device manager clcik on network adapters right click then properties etc then gives u a list but stil no joy

thats the way I normally do it but becoz the tower just says hp on front I dont know model or anything or will that not matter with towers

na none just xp sticker its annoying lol
it was saying what driver I needed in properties from = sign in device manager but didnt work . windows 7 never a problem just windows xp lol

I 100% stand by what Leeky has said here! You just can't make a mad dash power grab for every network interface card driver under the sun, moon and stars. You have to be very mindful of what your trying to do here, many drivers for interface cards may come close, due to similar attributes, but even with being very similar, if the driver isn't written for your exact network card, the driver won't work. You just cant make a power grab for everything and throw it all against the wall, and see what sticks! I would strongly recommend that you take a couple minutes here and go about things in a more "hands on" way.

(1) Go to the computer in question.
(2) Go behind the computer and unplug the power cord, let it rest upon the floor.
(3) Grab an appropriate sizes screw driver and or use whatever means your computer is set for, and take the case off.
(4) Look towards the rear or back of the interior, match up the exterior RJ-45 connector to the card inside.
(5) Once located with the appropriate sized screw driver or other way, unsecure the network card and remove it from the PC.
(6) Once the card is in hand, inspect it, there should be various names and numbers on it.
(7) Once a company name and or model number is secured, jot it down on paper, all you find, jot it all down.
(8) Replace the network card back where you found it inside the computer, making sure it's secured.
(9) Replace the outer case of your computer, make sure all screws are secured and back in place.
(10) Replace the power cord, that has been resting on the floor, plug it back into your computers power supply.
(11) Proceed to a computer that has Internet connectivity.
(12) Open up a web browser, go to Goggle Search, and start inputting what you jotted down, company, model number, ect.
(13) Through the search, start targeting in on your findings, if manufacturer links to the card show up, click on that.
(14) If manufacture links showed up and you click on those, you should now find downloadable drivers for your network card.
(15) By whatever means, download the appropriate driver for your network card.
(16) Once the download is complete, use whatever medium to off load the driver from that computer.
(17) Take said driver on either USB flash drive, CD-R, ect. to the computer with the network card issue.
(18) Via the medium, go about making the computer ready for the new driver, either by "auto launch" or the "update driver"
feature located by accessing your device manager, finding the card, ((right)) clicking on it and selecting "properties.
Once the properties are being shown, select the "driver" tab button up above. You will now see and option in there
called "update driver", ((left)) click on that to accept. A directory window will now pop up, asking if it should look for the
driver automatically or should it look for the driver where you tell it to look? You will want to instruct this feature to look
for the driver where you want it to look, direct the driver search feature to the medium, USB, CD-R, CD-RW, whatever.
Tell it to look at the medium and select "ok" to accept. If successful you will see some "copying" in between Windows and
the medium, that means the driver is being copied and with luck the network card will soon be yours to use. Wait for this
process to complete. After everything is done, you will want to then confirm that this whole procedure was successful.
Go back into your "device manager" and look for your network solutions, if successful you should now see your network
in there and is now ready to use. Back out of your device manager and test things out by trying to gain access to the
Internet, if solved, you should now see whatever main web page the browser was programmed for.

I'm sure other might chime in here and either support what I've said, add onto it, or shoot it down, but if you do what I have said, you will then have your network card problem resolved.

Good luck!

thank you all so much for your time

There are some additional methods to try and figure out your computer model and identify your network adapter hardware.

> As Leeky mentioned above, it's best/easiest if you can find the driver on the HP website. To help identify the computer, try running a dxdiag report. Click Start->Run, enter dxdiag. See if it displays both the computer make and model

If you need to identify the net adapter hardware itself:
> Tip #1: Every Plug and Play (PnP) hardware device has a set of PnP IDs burned into its firmware by the manufacturer. When a PnP device connects to a PnP bus, it sends its PnP IDs to Windows. That's how Windows tries to find the right driver for PnP devices on its own

> Tip #2: Windows doesn't need a driver to detect PnP hardware and receive its PnP IDs. It only needs a driver to actually use the functionality of the hardware device. (By definition, the PnP bus protocol supports simple data block transfers thus allowing Windows to receive hardware PnP IDs BEFORE the device driver is found and needed)

There are usually several IDs programmed into each device (that are sent to Windows). The "Hardware ID" for devices that connect to the PCI bus (internal PCI chips and cards such as your network adapter) have ID strings that start with PCI\VEN_xxxx&DEV_yyyy where both xxxx and yyyy are four digit hexadecimal numbers

• VEN is the vendor ID. Each vendor ID is globally unique per manufacturer (an international PCI organization assigns them)
• DEV is the device number. Each vendor can assign their own device numbers so device # may not be unique across vendors BUT the combination of VEN ID and DEV number is unique per device and can be enough to tell you what the hardware card is

/* edit */ Note to anyone reading: The PCI\ Id strings often include the number zero but NOT the letter "O". Don't confuse with digit 0 with the letter O. /* end edit */

There are several methods to try and determine PCI hardware based on its IDs. Here's one: in device mgr, right click the device->Properties->Details tab. XP default display is the "Device Instance ID" (for Vista and Win 7 you need to change the pull down option to see its "Hardware IDs")

Example: On my XP computer, I right click my Network adapter (as per above and I see)

Code:

PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_1698&SUBSYS_02941028&REV_10\4&117729E2&0&00E0

In this case the Vendor ID= 14E4 and the Device ID= 1698.

Now with this info in hand, again, there are several approaches. Here's one to try

• Go to PCIdatabase.com. Enter the vendor ID for vendor click Search. For my case, you'll discover VEN_14E4 is Broadcom. And since vendor ID is unique you should have one and only one vendor (assuming it's in this wiki database)
• Next enter the Device # for the device and click Search. You can get zero or more hits
  • Zero if the Device number is not defined in the wiki PCI database
  • One or more devices may be listed since the four digit device number doesn't have to be unique across vendors)

If the database contains more then one device for the device number, just find the one for the vendor you found in step above

For my case (for my network adapter) I find VEN_14E4 and DEV_1698 means its a Broadcom Netlink adapter. Now try to find the driver for your device and your Windows OS

/* Edit */
Note: the PnP IDs burned into the firmware are OS independent. ID string formats are defined by the Plug and Play standard. Linux variants receive the same IDs. But I don't know how to find/view them under Linux

hi yea I noticed when I click on properties then device details or so it tells me same as above ven_ etc so I will try that thanks again all