HP Drivers Download. Network / Ethernet Drivers for HP Other Drivers for HP Printer Drivers for HP Removable Drive Drivers for HP Scanner Drivers. In Windows XP. I went into control panel and found yellow question marks beside network Skip to. Windows XP; Windows; Search. How do i download the drivers I need when I. Reinstalling drivers on a new Windows XP installation. Tips on how to locate missing drivers, download them from the web, and how to install them to get your stuff working again.
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You might need to update drivers in Windows when a new piece of hardware you've installed doesn't work automatically or maybe after upgrading to a new version of Windows.
Updating drivers is also a great troubleshooting step when the device is having some kind of problem or is generating an error, like a Device Manager error code.
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A driver update isn't always a fix-it task, either. An updated driver might enable new features for the hardware, something we see on a regular basis with popular video cards and sound cards.
Updating drivers yourself is not difficult, but there are programs that will more or less do it for you. See our List of Free Driver Updater Tools for reviews of the best ones out there.
Time Required: It usually takes around 15 minutes to update a driver a Windows, even less time if the driver is self-installable or you get it via Windows Update (more on all of that below).
Follow the easy steps below to update drivers in Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP:
How to Update Drivers in Windows
Optional Walkthrough: If you'd like to follow the process below, but with more details and screenshots for each step, use our Step by Step Guide to Updating Drivers in Windows instead.
Locate, download, and extract the latest drivers for the hardware. You should always check with the hardware manufacturer first when looking for an updated driver. When downloaded direct from the hardware maker, you'll know the driver is both valid and the most recent for the hardware.
If no drivers are available from the hardware maker, check Windows Update or even the disc that came with the computer or piece of hardware, if you received one. There are also several other driver download options if those ideas don't work.
Many drivers are integrated with software that automatically installs them, making the below instructions unnecessary. If there's no indication of that on the driver download page, a good bet that you'll need to manually install a driver is if it comes in the ZIP format. Drivers obtained via Windows Update are automatically installed.
Open Device Manager. There are several ways to get to Device Manager in Windows but doing so from the Control Panel (the method outlined in the link) is pretty simple.
Device Manager is one of the shortcuts on the Power User Menu in Windows 10 and Windows 8. Just press WIN+X to open that handy tool.
With Device Manager open, click or touch the > or [+] icon (depending on your version of Windows) to open the category that you think contains the device you want to update the drivers for.
If you don't find the device you're after, just open some other categories until you do. Windows doesn't always categorize hardware the way you and we might when we think about a device and what it does.
Once you've found the device you're updating drivers for, the next step depends on your version of Windows:
See What Version of Windows Do I Have? if you're not sure which you're running, then proceed with the steps below.
- Windows 10 & 8: Right click or press-and-hold on the hardware's name or icon and choose Update Driver (W10) or Update Driver Software... (W8).
- Windows 7 & Vista: Right click on the hardware's name or icon, choose Properties, then the Driver tab, followed by the Update Drive... button.
- The Update Drivers or Update Driver Software wizard will begin, which we'll completely step through to finish the driver update for this piece of hardware.
- Windows XP Only: Right click on the hardware item, choose Properties, the Driver tab, and then the Update Drive... button. From the Hardware Update Wizard, choose No, not this time to the Windows Update question, followed by Next >. From the search and installation options screen, choose Don't search I will choose the driver to install option, again followed by Next >. Skip to Step 7 below.
To the How do you want to search for drivers? question, or in some versions of Windows, How do you want to search for driver software?, click or touch Browse my computer for driver software.
On the next window, click or touch Let me pick pick from a list of available drivers on my computer (Windows 10) or Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer, located near the bottom of the window.
Touch or click on the Have Disk... button, located on the bottom-right, under the text box.
On the Install From Disk window that appears, click or touch the Browse... button on the bottom-right corner of the window.
On the Locate File window you see now, work your way to the folder that you created as part of the driver download and extraction in Step 1.
There may be several nested folders within the folder you extracted. Ideally there will be one labeled with your version of Windows (like Windows 10, or Windows 7, etc.) but if not, try to make an educated guess, based on what you're updating the drivers for, as to which folder might contain the driver files.
Touch or click any INF file in the file list and then touch or click the Open button. INF files are the only files that Device Manager accepts for driver setup information and so are the only types of files you'll be shown.
- Find several INF files in one folder? Don't worry about this. The driver update wizard loads information from all the INF files in the folder you're in automatically, so it doesn't matter which one you choose.
- Find many folders with INF files? Try an INF file from each folder until you find the correct one.
- Didn't find an INF file in the folder you chose? Look through other folders, if there are any, until you find one with an INF file.
- Didn't find any INF files? If you haven't found an INF file in any folder included in the extracted driver download, it's possible that the download was corrupted. Try downloading and extracting the driver package again.
Touch or click OK back on the Install From Disk window.
Choose the newly added hardware in the text box and then click or touch Next.
If you get a warning after pressing Next, see Step 13 below. If you don't see an error or other message, move on to Step 14.
There are a number of common warnings and other messages that you might get at this point in the driver update process, several of which are paraphrased and listed here along with advice on what to do:
- Windows cannot verify that the driver is compatible: If you're sure this driver is the right one, touch or click Yes to continue installing it. Choose No if you think you might have the driver for the wrong model or something like that, in which case you should look for other INF files or maybe an entirely different driver download. Checking the Show compatible hardware box, if available, located on the window from Step 12, can help prevent this.
- Windows can't verify the publisher of this driver software: Choose Yes to continue installing this driver only if you received it directly from the manufacturer or from their installation disc. Choose No if you downloaded the driver elsewhere and didn't exhaust your search for a manufacturer-provided one.
- This driver hasn't been signed: Similarly to the publisher verification problem above, choose Yes only when you're confident about the driver's source.
- Windows requires a digitally signed driver: In 64-bit versions of Windows, you won't even see the above two messages because Windows won't let you install a driver that has a digital signature issue. If you see this message, end the driver update process and locate the correct driver from the hardware maker's website.
While on the Installing driver software... screen, which should only last a few to several seconds, Windows will use the instructions included in the INF file from Step 10 to install the updated drivers for your hardware.
Depending on the drivers you happen to be installing, you may be required to enter additional information or make certain choices during this process, but this isn't very common.
Once the driver update process is complete, you should see a Windows has successfully updated your driver software window.
- Touch or click on the Close button. You can also now close Device Manager.
Restart your computer, even if you're not prompted to do so. Windows doesn't always force you to restart after updating a driver but it's a good idea. Driver updates involve changes to the Windows Registry and other important parts of Windows, so restarting is a good way to make sure that this update hasn't negatively impacted some other part of Windows. If you do find that the driver update caused some kind of problem, just roll back the driver to the previous version and then try updating it again.
One thing that Windows has got better at over the years is offering more driver support out of the box and installing compatible drivers for many components in a system without having to go online. Windows XP didn’t have the best driver support from the CD although it did a fair job for the time, but the amount of drivers available on the Windows install disk really got stepped up with Windows Vista and then Windows 7. Nowadays Windows can usually install the majority of the most important drivers on a system without having to connect to the internet first.
After a visit to Windows Update, there will probably be one or two drivers at the most which need to be downloaded from a third party. There is a driver though which is one of the most important of all, and that is the network adapter driver. If you have no wired or wireless network driver installed, you have no internet connection. And if you have no internet connection you can’t go online, install other drivers from Windows Update, use any driver scanning software to download drivers automatically, and you can’t download drivers from a manufacturer’s website.
Installing Windows and finding a network driver has not been detected and installed can be a real cause for frustration. If you’re lucky you have the driver files backed up somewhere or a driver installer package such as DriverPack Solution, but many users won’t have those things to hand. If you have access to another computer there are ways around this issue to get your network driver installed even though you don’t have a driver for it, here we have four solutions that can help.
1. 3DP Net3DP Net has been around for several years and is a dedicated network adapter driver installer that supports a wide array of ethernet and Wifi adapters for offline installation. Although several sites list it just as an ethernet driver installer it does actually detect and install wireless drivers as well. 3DP Net is loosely based on Driver packs so the around 100MB executable file you download needs to be extracted first before the detection and updating program can run.
When you run the downloaded EXE it will ask for a location to extract the files, make sure the target has at least 1GB of free space as that’s about the size of all the extracted files. After that the updater program will run and popup a small user interface with a list of network adapters on the system, if there is already a driver installed it will show the version number and date. To switch between adapters if you have more than one, click the green plus button and a selectable list will show on the right.
Click on the network adapter in the main part of the window to begin the install, it uses the standard Microsoft Driver Package installer to install the driver so it’s just a case of clicking Next and then Finish when the process is complete. To install another driver select it from the right hand list to bring it to the main window, click it and go through the same process. 3DP Net also includes a driver backup and restore option for any driver on your system, not just network related drivers. It works on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1.
Download 3DP Net
2. Snappy Driver Installer
Snappy Driver Installer (SDI) is developed by a former coder of Driverpack Solution that became unhappy with the direction it was going and decided to create his own driver updater. The result is a program that’s small, fast and supposedly has one of the most accurate driver detection algorithms around. It relies on Driver packs similar to those found at Driverpacks.net although a driver pack downloading tool is included which uses Bittorrent to download the archives seamlessly in the background.
To get the ethernet or Wifi driver for your offline computer SDI has to be run on a computer with an internet connection first, extract the downloaded zip and run the executable. At the top it will say updates are available and to click on the bar to download, when you do that an Update window will pop up. Select the 4 LAN packs in the list (3 if you don’t want the XP pack) and/or the WLAN pack if you want to install a Wifi driver. Click OK and let the files download.
Once that’s done and the new driver packs have been indexed, close the program and take the SDI folder to the offline computer and run Snappy Driver Installer again. Within a few seconds your network adapter should appear along with the option to install the ethernet and/or wireless driver, simply tick the required driver and press the Install button, a restore point is optional. The driver(s) will begin to install and within a matter of seconds your network should be up and running complete with a working driver.
Being based on driver packs, you can download all the packs you require to create your own complete offline driver package and let Snappy install all of your missing or outdated drivers. During testing it does indeed appear to be quite accurate with its detection routines which is good when it comes to correctly identifying more tricky drivers. A complete 9GB package is available via torrent on the product download page. Driver installation is supported from XP up to Windows 8.1.
Download Snappy Driver Installer
3. DriveTheLife for Network Card
DriveTheLife calls itself the world’s leading Windows drivers update software, which is quite a claim. Two different versions are available which are the standard cloud based version that will go online to detect and download the drivers and the DriveTheLife for Network Card version that includes common ethernet and Wifi drivers in the download package for offline usage. Simply download the setup file of around 120MB and install the program. It should automatically detect any missing network drivers during the install/setup phase.
Unfortunately on our laptop, DriveTheLfe for Network Card didn’t detect that both the Broadcom Ethernet and Intel wireless adapters had no installed driver. Ironically a popup appeared recommending we try DriveTheLife for Network Card! The listed feature “All commonly used network drivers are integrated” isn’t helpful if it doesn’t say what the commonly used drivers or brands are. Things were slightly better on another PC when it installed a missing Realtek LAN driver but even that gave us problems when the program crashed causing Explorer to also crash.
You may have some better luck with DriveTheLife For Network Card but our experience was very hit and miss, and there’s a fair chance it might not detect you have network adapters with no installed drivers. As a result it should be used as a last resort if other solutions here fail. The online DriveTheLife might be better but can’t be used when you have no working internet connection. Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8/8.1 are supported.
Download DriveTheLife for Network Card
4. DriverEasy
DriverEasy is one of a sizeable number of cloud based driver updating applications. What makes this program more useful is DriverEasy has an offline mode that allows you to scan the computer without a network driver, then read the scan log on a computer with an internet connection to download the required driver. DriverEasy is free to use but has some restrictions unless you upgrade, one being the download speed limit of around 80KB/s.
A drawback is the DriverEasy program has to be installed on both the offline and online computer. First install to the offline computer and run the program, click the Tools menu button and then select Offline Scan. Click Next and then the Browse button to choose a save name and location such as a USB flash drive for the scan file, finally click the Offline Scan button. The .deos file will be saved ready to load into DriverEasy on the other computer.
To do that, install and run DriverEasy on the internet enabled computer, go to Tools > Offline Scan and choose Upload Offline Scan File. Click Next and Browse for the .deos file you just saved, after clicking Next again the program will list any missing drivers it found from the scan file. Download the ethernet or wireless driver, if there are more than one they’ll be downloaded in turn. The resulting driver file will likely be a setup executable or a zip containing a setup file or a batch script, copy/extract the file(s) to the target computer and execute to install the driver.
On our test laptop DriverEasy found and installed the Intel wireless driver fine but missed the Broadcom ethernet adapter, not perfect but at least it gave us one working network adapter to go online with. DriverEasy works on systems from XP up to Windows 8.1.
Download DriverEasy
Final Note: While the above methods are useful if you have a system without a network driver installed, you can obviously choose to backup your driver first if you are still using the operating system before a reinstall. Something like Double Driver or Driver Backup! would be good programs to try. Another option is trying a Windows PE distro which might have compatible network drivers already integrated allowing you to go online and download third party network drivers or even one of the tools above without needing another internet enabled computer.
You might also like:
OpenVPN Portable Auto Uninstalls Virtual Network Drivers on Exit5 Tools to Backup and Restore your Windows Drivers7 Ways to Detect And Remove Old, Unused or Hidden Device Drivers2 Tools to Detect Problematic Drivers causing Audio or Video Streaming DropoutsHow To Make a Windows XP Install Disc That Includes DriversThis is the best and easiest resolution online! It took seconds only to resolved my network problem. It can be installed online and automatically detects network problem. Thank you, Sir for sharing this wonderful knowledge! You’re the best!
Replycheck IntegrateDrv from vm1.duckdns.org/Public/IntegrateDrv/IntegrateDrv.htm
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Replybro i dont have any net. connected pc and i have one newly installed windows pc on which i have installed all the drivers from support. hppc.com by giving model no. and selecting win 7 x64 bit and now i cant access network & netowrk driver needs update how to fix the prob.? or how to install the network driver?
ReplyThank you very much!
Driver easy helped for my ethernet card driver
and 3DPnet for me wireless card driver
Thanks a lot!
ReplyThanks. I installed the network driver with Driver Talent for Network Card. Thank you for your recommendation. It is quite useful for me. :)
ReplyCan anyone please tell me.. what would be the reasons for NIC driver went to disable state and is there any event id to check why the NIC driver went to disable state?
ReplyAmazing. Thankyou very much
ReplyThe Driver Talent ( former name Drive the Life) is very useful! All driver problems in my Windows 10 computer are fixed with it!
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ReplyAs you can see from our test it did poorly when trying to detect network drivers when none are installed. The full version might work OK for other drivers but wouldn’t help if you are not online.
ReplySaved my arse, Fujitsu siemens suck for keeping old drivers on their site and was having real problems with the NIC, this little program sorted it out, added it to my toolbox. Many thanks, kept me from pulling the rest of my hair out.
Replyworked for me sanned file with pctools spyware dr and came up clean… found a driver for my old emachinr – that i cound not find anywhere else. Works good! installer copies to c drive , run from there.
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ReplyThank you Raymond – another very useful piece of kit in my toolbox!
ReplyThank You very much for this.
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Replythanks raymond.this one is surely of gr88 help.
Reply