Automatic driver detection?

[Guest]

My nephew did something that caused XP to lose it's recognition of the graphics and ethernet cards. I found them in device manager with the yellow question mark beside them. I removed them and rebooted hoping that XP would find the drivers and reinstall them. It didn't. They just came back with the yellow question marks. So I started trying to update the driver manually in device manager. I picked the "don't search" option and was presented with a list of about five driver. I searched Dell's website to determine which was right and was sucessful in updating it. I tried the same thing with the ethernet card but was unsuccessful. Then I told it to search a specific location and while browsing found a directory in the windows system directory call c:\windows\dell\drivers. I pointed to this directory and XP installed the proper driver. I am a little confused by the process and have the following questions

1. On a new install of XP it seems to have all the drivers it needs. Does it store(post installation) these in a specific location that can be pointed to if the drive becomes damaged

2. Why couldn't XP find the right drivers automatically like it does on a new install

3. Under what kind of circumstances might XP lose track of the right driver

4. When I removed the driver from device manager why didn't XP find the right one after the reboot

5. In a bigger sense how does all this work in XP

Thank
Michae

 

[Cerridwen]

My nephew did something that caused XP to lose it's recognition of
the graphics and ethernet cards. I found them in device manager with
the yellow question mark beside them. I removed them and rebooted
hoping that XP would find the drivers and reinstall them. It didn't.
They just came back with the yellow question marks. So I started
trying to update the driver manually in device manager. I picked the
"don't search" option and was presented with a list of about five
driver. I searched Dell's website to determine which was right and
was sucessful in updating it. I tried the same thing with the
ethernet card but was unsuccessful. Then I told it to search a
specific location and while browsing found a directory in the windows
system directory call c:\windows\dell\drivers. I pointed to this
directory and XP installed the proper driver. I am a little confused
by the process and have the following questions.

1. On a new install of XP it seems to have all the drivers it needs.
Does it store(post installation) these in a specific location that
can be pointed to if the drive becomes damaged?

I wouldn't know - I suggest you ask Dell.

2. Why couldn't XP find the right drivers automatically like it does
on a new install?

I've no idea. Ask Dell.

3. Under what kind of circumstances might XP lose track of the right
driver?

No idea. Ask Dell

4. When I removed the driver from device manager why didn't XP find
the right one after the reboot?

Not the foggiest. Ask Dell

5. In a bigger sense how does all this work in XP?

Not a clue. Ask Dell. Getting the idea?