Windows 7: How do I find missing drivers?
2014-06
Fischer
I installed windows 7 32 bit for a friend, his laptop is hp 2000-2d07ee. I installed all the drivers I could find here. I ran windows update, I searched in device manager for these drivers couldn't find them
I googled, found nothing, do you know how I can get them?
Jason C
For many devices, if Windows can't find the drivers, you can find them by doing the following:
- Open the Device Manager
- Right-click on the troublesome device and choose Properties
- Go to the Details tab
- Choose "Hardware IDs" from the property drop down.
There you will see a lot of numbers, like this:
PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8136&...
The 4 digits after "VEN" are the vendor ID, and the 4 digits after "DEV" are the device ID. In this case, vendor is 10EC and device is 8136. If the ID starts with "PCI", then:
- Go to http://www.pcidatabase.com/
- In the "device search" search box, type the device ID then search (for this example, 8136 search results). You could search for the vendor instead if you prefer.
- If more than one device is listed, find the one with the matching vendor ID (10EC for us). Click the vendor name on the right.
- Find the device ID in that list. That's your device. The model number and name will be there.
In your case the device is a RealTek RTL8102E ethernet controller, so at least now you have a good thing to Google for.
So we Google for "hp realtek rtl8102e driver" and take a quick look at the results. Through there, we find the official download page for those drivers, and the drivers can be obtained there. Take care to download drivers only from official sources; I added "hp" to the search terms to see if HP had an official set (the original link I posted was to unofficial drivers, which carry a potential risk).
I don't know why Windows wasn't able to find this device, it's not an uncommon controller. However, this technique can often be used to locate drivers that Windows can't find.
If your hardware ID in device manager doesn't start with "PCI", you might not be able to find it on that web site. In that case, a good starting point is to Google for the entire device string (do them all if there is multiple, or just search for the longest common prefix).
This won't be possible for all devices, of course.
For your SM Bus Controller, we can start with a search of the generic device description itself, perhaps modified with the machine's vendor name.
In your case, let's take a look at "sm bus controller driver hp" (Google actually autocompleted most of that for me, interestingly... pay attention to search suggestions, if it is a common problem then these can be a good hint).
From there I found Driver for SM Bus Controller in Windows on the official HP site. This contains a set of instructions. Follow these, and see if they do the trick.
Ryan Griggs
Here you go. http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-Systems-and-Software/Drivers/m-p/3540133#M181757 Looks like the 64-bit downloads also contain 32-bit versions.
Noam Gal
I am trying to install the HP Deskjet AIO (non-network) driver on my machine, which is running the 64-bit version of Windows 7.
Before installing it, Windows detected my printer just fine... But I wanted to use the HP scanning application, because tt allows me to scan several photos at once.
I ran the DJ_AIO_NonNetwork_ENU_NB file I got from their site, and the installation went almost without a problem... However, at the part where it should have detected the printer, it didn't, so I skipped it - telling the installer I'll connect the printer later. After it was finished I was able to use it regularly, and also scan using the wanted HP application.
However, the installer kept popping at random intervals, and giving me an error message. Yesterday I tried removing all the installed HP Applications, and installing from scratch. Running the same installer setup, it now insists that it does not support my operating system, and that 64-bit Vista is the highest it can go... I just don't understand why this is occuring all of the sudden.
Has anybody here successfully installed the AIO driver on the 64-bit version of Windows 7?
UPDATE:
Been chatting with HP chat support over the weekend. Managed to really mess up my windows. At first, they told me to uninstall using an "unintall_l3" batch file inside their installer package, and then reinstall. Didn't work. Also the "l4" batch didn't make any difference. Afterwards I was told to install "Windows install clean up" and remove many hp entries (most of which were not listed on my computer), and I also removed many other hp entries I bumped upon. Then my office 2k7 started failing. I searched around the web, and ran Security Restore, so now my office works, but my windows explorer is all buggy - can't seem to open windows explorer - it hangs while trying to load my hard drives, or completely ignores them and just shows my libraries.
Anyone here has any idea how I can restore my win7 to normal, with or without the annoying scanner?
UPDATE 2:
Ok - explorer back to normal. I guess I just had to wait until it finishes searching while opening the windows explorer for the first time after the Security Restore. Scanner still not working though.
Breakthrough
Have you tried running the installer in Compatibility Mode?
Failing that, you can try to manually extract the installation executable with a third-party program (e.g. WinRAR or 7-Zip), and see if there is any nested installers... You should be able to at least extract the drivers without a hitch.
Noam Gal
I have no good news - but I have recently purchased a new HD, and installed a brand new win7 x64 on it, instead of my old system. ran the same DJ_AIO_NonNet_Full_Win_WW_130_140 setup on it, and scan just works now (needless to say, I still have the same old crappy f2180 printer).
So I don't know what caused the original problem, or how to fix it, but formatting the system disk did solve it eventually.