Korean Job Discussion Forums

[davyteacher]

Hi All,

I want to format my friends computer but they said they don`t have the CD to re-install the drivers after I`ve formatted it. What is the best way of getting round this, just take it to a computer shop or just reformat it and try and find the drivers (sound card, modem etc....) manually.???????

Thanks

Dave

[the saint]

You need to find out what hardware the computer consists of including graphics audio cards, motherboard and any other peripherals.

Click on Start Menu and the right click over My Computer
Select Properties and then the Hardware Tab
Click on Device Manager and see what's listed. Under Properties of each device, you can find out the drivers etc.

You can then go to the manufacturer's sites and download drivers from there. Once you've done this, burn the guy a disk with them on and nail it to the case of his pc.

[itaewonguy]

just format and reinstall..

insert then CD ROM.. and the option to format will appear..
before you install..

[Bulsajo]

Belarc Advisor would be invaluable in this situation- it'll tell you what you have so you know what drivers to look for to download and burn onto CD before you do your reformat.

[the saint]

[Bulsajo]

Yes- Itaewon Guy's advice is to 'insert the CD' even thought the OP said 'they don't have the CD'. It does depend on the computer and the o/s somewhat though (i.e. if it's not a brand new model and the o/s is XP all the drivers would probably be found automatically during the [re]install of the o/s after the format).

I Still recommend Belarc Advisor to use to determine which drivers to start looking for to download, and I have a question for the OP- WHY do you want to re-format your friend's computer? Is it to fix a problem (i.e. a problem that may be dealt with using less drastic measures)?

[davyteacher]

I had to re-format it because when I kept turning it on it just when into freeze mode showing only the desktop and it is around five years old and never been formatted, leaving lots of viruses on it and general crap of little downloads (didn`t want to mess with disk defragment and all that).

Anyway, I`ve re-formatted it now and installed Windows ME on it (originally had Windows 98 on it). I used the program you suggested (Belarc) and it showed that the graphics card as a VGA Standard etc (basically what Windows inputs if it doesn`t know what the hardware is, but must say it was quite a useful program getting more info on the comp).

So I searched the Internet to find any software that could recognize the hardware in the computer, and found Dr Hardware, but after downloading the program it freezes after I double click on it. When that happened I kicked the computer and now it doesn`t turn and make a buzzing noise, I`ll have to hit it again and hopefully go back to normal.

Anyway, with some good advice from Demophobe I`m gradually working through it, and it looks like I`ll have to open the case and look at the card to find out who the manufacturer is (alhough I`m not good at the actual hardware and the insidey things of the computer).

The only thing I need to sort out is the graphics card and setting the Keybaord so it can type Korean again, only types English (been to Keyboard setting on Control Panel but offers a limited amount of languages, not Korean).

But thanks for the info people and I`ll defo use it in the future (belarc and SiSoftware) and keep you up-dated when I eventually throw it out the window.

Thanks

Dave

[the saint]

[Derrek]

I had to go through all of this when I was "given" an old E-machines Celeron 300mhz machine when I first came to Korea. No discs either, except for a copy of Windows 98SE in English, which I brought with me.

I had to re-load all of the drivers and hunt the web to find them. One by one, I used another computer to download the drivers and burn them to a CD-RW as it popped up what I needed. Then when I was done, I kept a disc filled with them all.

To figure out the sound drivers, I had to look at the onboard sound chip on the mainboard, then hunt the web for that.

Got it going fine though!

[davyteacher]

Getting on the internet was no problem because I went to `Connect To The Web`(it was already on the dekstop) and then connect through LAN connection which it recognised already (connect via LAN area or something like that anyway), that was the easiest part of this driver dilema (in which I thought I would have to get a Korean ISP guy to re-install and configure it.)

[davyteacher]

This is a real old post, thought I would post on it to see if anyone has got an older one.

[schwa]

I needed my unit reformatted recently (& physically cleaned as well) & had zero discs. I lugged the tower to a computer shop nearby, mustered my best Korean to explain "doesnt work, please fix it."

It took them a couple hours & it came back reloaded with english XP Pro & all necessary drivers, ready to plug in & go, & cost me $20.