Primarily a system update issue turned into Network Driver problem

sweetfindings

New Member
My boyfriend complained that his Vista laptop was still not working after months of laying about so I thought I'd take a look and see what I could do. He mentioned that it was stuck in an update loop, being this one:

Vista OS - Configuring Updates: Stage 3 of 3 - 0% complete. Do - Microsoft Answers

After some research I managed to reinstall Vista on the laptop. Harder than it sounds for a novice! Couldn't boot in safe mode or anything else..

I've reinstalled it as normal, although it gave me the option of two partitions. I opted for the larger one which also has OS written somewhere in a little box. It installed fine and obviously we've lost all files etc. but the one problem we're having now, is connecting to the internet. Nowhere is it allowing me to connect or even show any sort of wireless ability (which is has built in).. I opened up the device manager and neither of the two network drivers were installed so I thought perhaps this was behind the problem. Whereas the ethernet driver has now installed from the driver/utility disc, the other drive, the LAN named one.. will not install. The install wizard comes up on screen and says: 'Dell Wireless WLAN Card Setup is Preparing'... only to be rudely interrupted by an error stating, 'no compatible hardware found..'

I've tried this install a couple of times. I've also downloaded it from my working laptop and USB'd it across. I've also ran the application Driver Zone and found which driver is needed which is STILL not working. I've tried reinstalling the OS on the other partition... What can I do? I know it's not a simple matter of clicking the Wireless switch on the keyboard because yes, I tried that at the beginning.

Any suggestions as to why the driver isn't working and how I can get it to work? The laptop is pretty useless without any wireless capabilities because the ethernet ports are always all in use elsewhere.

Dell Vostro A850?! (Can't read the tiny print)
Vista OS
Service Tag: H45M6H1

Thanks in advance.. Cassy.
 

My Computer

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Dual L5639 // i7 950 @ 4.0Ghz
    Motherboard
    Evga SR-2 // Gigabyte x58a-ud3r
    Memory
    12Gig Corsair XMS3 // 6Gig OCZ Gold
    Graphics Card(s)
    gtx 560 ti // gtx 260-216
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual 22" // Headless
    Hard Drives
    OCZ aGILITY 3, 120Gig + Seagate 500Gig x 2
    PSU
    Silverstone da700 // Corsair 520hx
    Case
    Rosewill BlackHawk Ultra // Antec 900v1
    Cooling
    Twin CM Hyper 212+ // Noctua NH-u12
    Other Info
    Acer 8930 laptop with x9100...
im having this same problem with a gateway using vista home premium sp1 ive updated some drivers theres still 2 with yellow checkers there named unknown, and im about half way done from doing the windows update ive been stuck without wifi for about a week ever since i did the windows vista reinstall
 

My Computer

If you can take a screen shot of the device manger it'd help a lot.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Dual L5639 // i7 950 @ 4.0Ghz
    Motherboard
    Evga SR-2 // Gigabyte x58a-ud3r
    Memory
    12Gig Corsair XMS3 // 6Gig OCZ Gold
    Graphics Card(s)
    gtx 560 ti // gtx 260-216
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual 22" // Headless
    Hard Drives
    OCZ aGILITY 3, 120Gig + Seagate 500Gig x 2
    PSU
    Silverstone da700 // Corsair 520hx
    Case
    Rosewill BlackHawk Ultra // Antec 900v1
    Cooling
    Twin CM Hyper 212+ // Noctua NH-u12
    Other Info
    Acer 8930 laptop with x9100...
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