Vista Driver Problem

Factual Questions
1

So I finaly put Vista on my desk top. I always said I’d never use it because of its problems with drivers, but a friend said there worked out and it’s good now. So I install it and, drivers don’t work.

Three of my motherboards drivers don’t work. And one of them is its ethernet driver, so it won’t go online. The motherboard is BIOSTAR TForce TF570SLI: BIOSTAR TForce TF570SLI AM2 ATX AMD Motherboard - Newegg.com
I tried to find its Vista drivers and install them using a flash drive, but they don’t seem to have a vista driver for the ethernet listed on the site.

I have a ethernet card that I put in, thinking its drivers would work, but no. I found its vista drivers on there main site and installed them with a flash drive. All I got was a message that it is not a windows program (or something like that), and it could not be opened. The card is D-Link dfe-538tx.
Anyone have any ideas? Or should I just go back to XP?

2

If you can’t find the answer here you may want to also look at Rage 3D. I found a few answers to driver questions I’ve had over there

3

Based on Newegg reviews of your board Vista should be installing this driver automatically with no issues. Have you checked your MB switch or BIOS setup settings to make sure the onboard Ethernet is activated?

4

It was active right before I installed Vista on it. Would the act of installing Vista deactivate it somehow? I am at work, but I will check when I get home.

PS, a friend of mine looked into it for me. He found that many people on forums are having the same problem, not just with the motherboard I have, but with any board with the same ethernet chip. They don’t seem to have a Vista driver, or if they do it is not easy to find.

5

Have you tried manually installing the driver in Device Manager? You do this by right-clicking on the device, choosing Update Driver, and using the Have Disk button to point the wizard at the directory with the inf file that came with the driver download. Also verify that you downloaded the correct driver for the OS architecture you are running (either 32 or 64 bit).

6

OK, I found the driver for the on board ethernet. http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/driver.php?S_ID=304

It is Vista 64 (I should have said in the OP it was Vista 64, not just Vista). It downloads as an .exe file. But it on the flash drive, load it on the computer, open it. It opens and installes, but dosn’t say its installed. And the ethernet still does not work.
And a side note, in device manager, nothing shows up as Network adapter, or anything with Network in it. Under “Other Devices” I have “Multimedia Controller” and 2 “Other PCI Bridge Device”. I am assuming the “Multimedia Controller” is the ethernet, but I don’t know. I tried updating drivers, for all three. Pointing it at the CD than came with the motherboard, nothing.

7

There is no inf file. Only an exe.

8

If no one has any ideas I’ll switch back to XP 32 bit this week.

9

My Vista audio hangs once in a while. I’ll be on UTube and the video will paly but no sound. I have to reboot the computer for the driver to load. I have not figured out how to fix it although it is annoying. XP was more stable. Try a hard boot.

10

Boggle.

Are you sure he didn’t mean Windows 7?

With Windows 7 available, I would never install Vista by choice. And the 64 bit Vista drivers should work with Windows 7.

11

This .exe file is a self-extracting file. You can open it with Winrar or Winzip and see the driver files inside. Then you can extract them to some folder and try to manually install them.

Also try the XP 64bit drivers. Sometimes they work with Vista.

12

I extracted the files and tried it again. It tells me there is no ethernet card. I checked for a third time in the BIOS, and the on board LAN is on.

This is really more trouble than it is worth. I’ll be switching back to XP as soon as I have time.

Thanks all.