Driver problems I have a Dell Dimension 4600 PC with Windows XP Home Edition. I reformatted the hard drive but when it came time to reinstall the drivers, I am having a hard time finding them. Also, the PC shows a connection to the internet (broadband - always on), but I am not able to connect to the internet. Any ideas?

You may want to check the hard drive - sounds like it may be starting to fail. When it reaches the point of not continuing does it start to click? If you hear clicking then the drive is having issues and its time for a new one.

find your driver from these site
1)dell.driversdown.com/dell-drivers-list/s_631_1.shtml
2) www.allegro.cc/forums/print-thread/587511
3)

Before you go ahead and try reformatting the system , Please disconnect everything from the system (Except Mouse, Keyboard and screen)
and then try to use the disc to reformat the system. and if it still hangs up or freezes up that clearly seems to be a hard drive failure.

Hope this help.
Cheers!!!!

If this is a clean install (formatted drive and reinstalled) then the likelihood of it being a driver issue is greatly reduced. Did you download the drivers from Dell?
Secondly, the fact that the audio works makes me think it is a hardware issue. Since audio and the mic are connected in the device manager, the easiest solution might be to replace the sound with a PCI soundcard. They are fairly inexpensive, and they will generally include the drivers with the disk.

The SAM hive is the security function of Windows XP. I am surprised that you can boot to Windows at all. From your description, it sounds like you have a virus infection.

Since you cannot access the internet or run any programs, it may be simpler to just try to re-image the system.

If your system is a Dell 4600 it should be equipped with PC Restore (At boot, just after the Dell screen, you should have a black screen with a blue bar across the top for about 1 second) when that screen appears, press CNTL+F11 and you should be able to re-image your system. (This will wipe out all data, but should get the viruses too)

If that fails, or you don't have a Dell, the boot to your XP CD and reformat the HDD and install a clean copy of XP

If you have it available, boot to the Dell DImension Resource CD and run the diagnostics on the hard drive. From the description of you problem, you may have a failing hard drive.

Other things to check:

1. Ensure the system BIOS (F2 at boot) sees the hard drive and has the correct date and time. If the motherboard battery is failing, the time and date will not be retained when system is powered off.

2. If you are able to format the hard drive, but the windows XP installation process gives you file copy errors, then you may have a bad RAM module. If the system has 2 or more modules, take out all but 1, retry the install. If you get file copy errors again, try a different module.

3. If the Hard drive passes dieagnostics, but fails to complete a format, replace the hard drive.

go to soundmax.com and dl ther latest drive ok

I assume you want to reformat it and then reinstall some sort of operating system. The esiest way to do this is to reformat it during the reinstallation of the operating system. If you are using Windows XP, it gives you the option of using FAT32 or NTFS file system to format the drive. If you are using Windows 98 or ME, you can boot to the CD and use the fdisk/format commands found on the CD.

i need an ethernet controller driver for my dell dimension 4600 the operating system is windows xp home edition

Did you reinstall windows or was this a second hard drive that you installed?