# Dell's shitty website making it impossible for me to download driver - help! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 23, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dells-shitty-website-making-it-impossible-for-me-to-download-driver-help/526169 "2010-01-23T22:56:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dells-shitty-website-making-it-impossible-for-me-to-download-driver-help/526169/1 "2010-01-23T22:56:49Z")
So I’ve installed Windows 7 on my Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop, and now the scroll function on my touchpad doesn’t work anymore. YAAAAY! FUN!!! YIPPEEEEEEE! All attempts to download the necessary driver from Dell’s evil, shitty, incompetently-designed and utterly unhelpful website have been failures. First of all, everything on their Support page takes 100 years to load, even though I’m plugged into a fast internet connection and everything else on the internet loads normally. [Here](http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=2684&l=en&s=pub&ServiceTag=DCXTBG1&SystemID=INS_PNT_PM_1720&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=) is the Dell driver download page. Under “Input Device Drivers” is the touchpad driver I need to download. I click the big, blue Download button. You’d think this would be nice and simple, but nope - yippee! More fun! Instead, it does absolutely nothing for about four minutes, and then I get an error page. I can’t find the needed driver anywhere else. I’m about to throw my computer out of the window. Can anyone help me through this? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dells-shitty-website-making-it-impossible-for-me-to-download-driver-help/526169/2 "2010-01-23T23:06:19Z")
Well, I downloaded the right driver, finally - from [this](http://download-laptop-drivers.com/get.php) super-fun, third-party, shady-looking site (thank God it turned out to actually be the right driver and not malware.) It restored the touchpad scroll, as I had hoped. This has been yet another in the very long line of problems I’ve had with Dell’s technical support. I’ve owned Dells in some form or another for about 7 years now, and I can safely say my current laptop will be my last Dell. I have found their customer support to be absolutely atrocious. Do not buy a Dell. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dells-shitty-website-making-it-impossible-for-me-to-download-driver-help/526169/3 "2010-01-24T01:48:44Z")
We have buildings full of them. They work great. Just yesterday i had to download a bunch of drivers. The site was accurate & simple to use. They did download a bit slowly, but otherwiise no complaint. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dells-shitty-website-making-it-impossible-for-me-to-download-driver-help/526169/4 "2010-01-24T02:54:12Z")
Dell’s site is very easy to find drivers – you just need the service code. Once you enter that, it will take you to the correct drivers. You need that number, though. I recently needed drivers for two computers, both the same model and both bought at the same time and arriving in the same shipment. They had different drivers. But I just typed in the code (usually on a sticker on the back of the desktop or the bottom of the laptop) it found them fine. They also have a little applet that will find the code for you. ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dells-shitty-website-making-it-impossible-for-me-to-download-driver-help/526169/5 "2010-01-24T07:41:05Z")
That download worked fine for me, tho I chose “download with browser” and it turned out to actually be an ftp download rather than an http one. A browser will usually handle a simple ftp download but it’s possible that you have some firewall blocking the ftp protocol.