Chipset Drivers

I'm helping out a friend with her Dell Dimension 8100 desktop.

Since I'll be performing a clean install, I want to make sure I first
have all the necessary drivers. But when it comes to the chipset driver,
I'm confused. I searched the Web and got conflicting information:

1. The Dell Web site doesn't even have chipset drivers for this model!

2. Some people say it's not necessary to search for chipset drivers
because Windows 2000 and XP already provide them.

3. The board is a special OEM one made by Intel and requires the Intel
850 chipset.

4. Installing an Intel driver on a Dell board can result in problems.

Suggestions? TIA!

Daave wrote:
I'm helping out a friend with her Dell Dimension 8100 desktop.

Since I'll be performing a clean install, I want to make sure I first
have all the necessary drivers. But when it comes to the chipset driver,
I'm confused. I searched the Web and got conflicting information:

1. The Dell Web site doesn't even have chipset drivers for this model!

2. Some people say it's not necessary to search for chipset drivers
because Windows 2000 and XP already provide them.

3. The board is a special OEM one made by Intel and requires the Intel
850 chipset.

4. Installing an Intel driver on a Dell board can result in problems.

Suggestions? TIA!


Get the driver from the Dell support site.
http://support.dell.com/support/down...g=en&TabIndex=

I clicked on the link from the 2nd poster and did not see the chipset
driver.

I have a Dell Latitude D600 that I reinstalled Windows on a couple of
days ago. I had all my drivers saved my external hard drive so it was
easy to reinstall all the drivers and one of them was the chipset
driver. The install did not give any kind of msgs of drivers already
being installed (by XP) so it did do something.

You are right about part 2. I have to say that I have not seen a big
difference before and after. I am not a big tweaker but I do make
sure all my devices are installed proplery. Although, I do try to get
the chipset driver if they are available.

Intel's website is pretty complete and their desktop board pages are
pretty thorough. I would try to find what board your Dell is the
closest to compared to an Intel board and install the driver if it is
there. On the page some driver's may say they were included in the
Windows installation and are not necessary so if it says that I would
not install it.

If you want to try it, image your hard drive before you try it and see
what happens. You could also set a restore point before you start.
The restore saved me the other day after my windows logon profile got
corrupted and this RP thing saved my butt. I had never needed to use
it before.

I don't know about #4, not related to Dell but I've gotten my hands on
very very cheap motherboards that for whatever reason does not have a
website associated with it. I think I had an Emachine that buy their
motherboards from some place and they make it hard to find the
original manufacturer. Anyway, it was an Intel chipset and I was able
to download the driver from Intel. If you install the chipset and it
does not work you can reinstall or try a restore point.

"Pen" wrote in message
...
Daave wrote:
I'm helping out a friend with her Dell Dimension 8100 desktop.

Since I'll be performing a clean install, I want to make sure I first
have all the necessary drivers. But when it comes to the chipset
driver, I'm confused. I searched the Web and got conflicting
information:

1. The Dell Web site doesn't even have chipset drivers for this
model!

2. Some people say it's not necessary to search for chipset drivers
because Windows 2000 and XP already provide them.

3. The board is a special OEM one made by Intel and requires the
Intel 850 chipset.

4. Installing an Intel driver on a Dell board can result in problems.

Suggestions? TIA!
Get the driver from the Dell support site.
http://support.dell.com/support/down...g=en&TabIndex=

As I already mentioned, that page does not have any chipset drivers.

But it does raise a second question: What exacty is the following item?:

Dell Driver -- Patches and Fixes (Cross LOB)

"vbDavidC" wrote in message
...
I clicked on the link from the 2nd poster and did not see the chipset
driver.


snip

Odd that Dell wouldn't have the chipset driver posted for either the Dim8100
or its sister system, the Optiplex GX400.

I suppose you could simply try the Intel driver. It's what I would do rather
than continuing to dig around on the Dell support pages:
http://intel.driversdown.com/Intel-d...ty_72586.shtml


-Stew

Use this link instead - the other one is dead or bogus:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...178&lang=e ng

Daave wrote:
"Pen" wrote in message
...
Daave wrote:
I'm helping out a friend with her Dell Dimension 8100 desktop.

Since I'll be performing a clean install, I want to make sure I first
have all the necessary drivers. But when it comes to the chipset
driver, I'm confused. I searched the Web and got conflicting
information:

1. The Dell Web site doesn't even have chipset drivers for this
model!

2. Some people say it's not necessary to search for chipset drivers
because Windows 2000 and XP already provide them.

3. The board is a special OEM one made by Intel and requires the
Intel 850 chipset.

4. Installing an Intel driver on a Dell board can result in problems.

Suggestions? TIA!
Get the driver from the Dell support site.
http://support.dell.com/support/down...g=en&TabIndex=

As I already mentioned, that page does not have any chipset drivers.

But it does raise a second question: What exacty is the following item?:

Dell Driver -- Patches and Fixes (Cross LOB)


Sorry, I left out that you have to change the op system to ME or 98.
Then the driver appears. This also implies you don't need it for 2K or
later.

"Pen" wrote in message
...
Daave wrote:
"Pen" wrote in message
...
Daave wrote:
I'm helping out a friend with her Dell Dimension 8100 desktop.

Since I'll be performing a clean install, I want to make sure I
first have all the necessary drivers. But when it comes to the
chipset driver, I'm confused. I searched the Web and got
conflicting information:

1. The Dell Web site doesn't even have chipset drivers for this
model!

2. Some people say it's not necessary to search for chipset drivers
because Windows 2000 and XP already provide them.

3. The board is a special OEM one made by Intel and requires the
Intel 850 chipset.

4. Installing an Intel driver on a Dell board can result in
problems.

Suggestions? TIA!
Get the driver from the Dell support site.
http://support.dell.com/support/down...g=en&TabIndex=

As I already mentioned, that page does not have any chipset drivers.

But it does raise a second question: What exacty is the following
item?:

Dell Driver -- Patches and Fixes (Cross LOB)
Sorry, I left out that you have to change the op system to ME or 98.
Then the driver appears. This also implies you don't need it for 2K or
later.

That's what I suspected. Thanks for confirming that.

On Thu, 2 Apr 2009 15:58:13 -0400, "Daave"
wrote:

I'm helping out a friend with her Dell Dimension 8100 desktop.

Since I'll be performing a clean install, I want to make sure I first
have all the necessary drivers. But when it comes to the chipset driver,
I'm confused. I searched the Web and got conflicting information:

1. The Dell Web site doesn't even have chipset drivers for this model!

2. Some people say it's not necessary to search for chipset drivers
because Windows 2000 and XP already provide them.

I'd be quite surprised at that. Chipset drivers are board/chipset-specific.
While I appreciate the excessive bloat in later Windoze versions, I hate to
think that they contain chipset drivers for *every* possible chipset/mobo that
could support that OS.


3. The board is a special OEM one made by Intel and requires the Intel
850 chipset.

... drivers

4. Installing an Intel driver on a Dell board can result in problems.

Less likely. The driver is to match the chipset, not the badge.

Suggestions? TIA!

Hi!

3. The board is a special OEM one made by Intel and requires the Intel
850 chipset.

It surely is the i850, which apart from its unique use of RDRAM, can be
treated as though it were a member of the early 800-series chipset
family--more precisely, it's right at home along the 810, 815, 820, 845, 865
and 875. (I don't think there was an 830 chipset.) All are served by the
same general software release. Don't use the newer download for Intel 3, 4
and 900 series chipsets, it does not work.

The files you seek are not so much drivers, they are more along the lines of
..INF files that tell Windows how to configure and use certain aspects of the
chipset hardware. Neither Windows 2000 or XP are new enough to have these
built in for anything other than the earliest 800 series chipsets (such as
the 810, 815 and 820).

4. Installing an Intel driver on a Dell board can result in problems.

Not that I've ever seen...the Intel provided chipset, graphics (on systems
that have integrated graphics) and network drivers work *fine*. That's been
true on a Dimension 2400, 3000, 4600, 8300 and 8400. I've also found it to
be true on the OptiPlex 170L, 210, GX170, GX400 (probably a very close
relative of the Dim8100), and the GX620. Dell didn't get too creative with
the hardware on these boards, and Intel did have a hand in their
development.

Using the latest drivers is always best, and those from Intel will do fine.

Chipset:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Prod...D=572&lang=eng

Intel Networking (if you have it, you might find that there is an integrated
3Com adapter onboard--and if you do, XP/2000 both have the driver for that):
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Prod...D=923&lang=eng

William