Vista drivers for a Dell Inspiron 8200

In order to run the Hyper-V Manager I put Vista onto the only spare machine I had available, a Dell Inspiron 8200. Apart from shrunken graphics all appeared well until I couldn't get a network driver for Vista. Apparently Dell don't do it.

Does anyone have a work around?

Ed
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edhastedAsked:
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WakeupSpecialist 1Commented:
If you still cant figure out a way to find a driver another solution would be to purchase a USB Wireless adapter, USB Network adapter (for ethernet if you dont want to go wireless), PCMCIA Wireless, or PCMCIA Ethernet adapter that has vista driver support.

So looks like this laptop has the 3com network card?
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&ServiceTag=&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4_8200&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=

Anyway hmmm, you might check 3com for driver support...
Some people have had luck with using the 3c905c drivers working.
http://support.3com.com/infodeli/tools/nic/3c905c.htm

see here how they got it to work:
http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/530768.htm
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=738859&SiteID=17
Of course it seems to be a hit and miss.  Sometimes it works and sometimes not.  Worth a shot though!
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Gary CaseRetiredCommented:
First thing I'd do (if you haven't already) is update Vista to SP1 => it MAY simply "know" about the network adapter at that point [It has a very extensive hardware database which was improved even more with SP1].

If that doesn't do it, download (obviously on another PC) the free Belarc Advisor [http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html ] and/or a demo copy of Everest Ultimate [http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=3&ps=UE&lang=en ];  run them and see what they show for the network adapter.   Post the results and we can probably find you a driver :-)
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edhastedAuthor Commented:
Gentlemen - I apologise and I capitulated and took the machine back to XP.

I am sure if I had followed your careful detective work I could have picked my way around the major issues. I am just worried that I would be on a perennially complex upgrade and fix path...

Very many thanks,

Ed Hasted

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edhastedAuthor Commented:
This is unfortunately the way forward with this type of issue. Go down to a low level - find out what the underlying hardware is and try and locate the Vista driver.....
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