No plug and play drivers

Hello all, I'm running windows xp pro sp 2 and recentrly tried to install a camera and a dvd burner and while trying to install both of them I noticed that my computer doesn't have any divers available for anything, and so I couldn't install the hardware which is supposed to be plug and play. Has anyone heard of this before and if so is there a way to solve this? Thank you

 

Plug N Play does not mean windows will have the drivers it needs for all devices. It means windows will autodetect that a new device has been attached and install it for you.If it has the drivers it will look for and install these. It will search harddrive, floppy and cd looking for the best drivers based on what it has detected the device to be. If they're not any of the drivers windows has found to be available to offer or use, you will need to tell it where the drivers will be found. In this case you will need the drivers or the setups for the device. Often, even if windows has the drivers it can't seem to find them. This is jokingly called or referred to as "Windows Amnesia ". It happens for a variety of reasons but the answer is the same, you will have to point the way to the drivers or .inf file it's a lookin' for. That requires foreknowledge on your part. If you know where they are, browse and point your way to them. It often helps to go on line and find the most recent version of drivers or setups (that are best for your system [latest does not necessarily mean the greatest]). In truth, it is recommended that you do this anyway as often there are newer updated, and (in theory)less problematic, ones available. Expand/extract/ (if required) these to folder "name of choice" and when windows is playing dumb, point your way to them.

This process is not called "Plug and Pray" for nothing....
NOTE: To add to this misery, sometimes windows will not detect the device as a specific manufacturer/make&model or correctly identify the ones you do install. As if that is not confusing or frustrating enough for you, the actual device may have it's own method or "Proper Procedure" of installing. These may require a setup routine which install files ahead of time before you actually connect or install the device. Other wise the device can be problematic, not detected, not detected correctly, no drivers, or drivers detected but disabled due to conflicts. etc etc etc. Hence "Plug and Pray ". If these came with disks you should explore them (as opposed to opening and running them) and look for the readmes that tell you how to install the device. If that option is not available to you, your going to have to go to the manufacturers support site and see if they offer downloads for the drivers, manuals or instructions you'll need. Any search engine such as google.com or yahoo.com etc., may help you track the support site down. You may luck into leads on where to get drivers and instructions.

If you are really stuck and can not do this and still need help, you need to include the specifics on the camera and dvd. Perhaps, I or another can help you track these down.

 

thank you goddez, but maybe I wasn't very clear on my problem, I did look for the drivers and what I found is that apparently my laptop has no drivers "included" (I looked around in the list where windows lets you choose what type of device you are installing, when it doesn't find the correct driver by itself, and the list was empty), I later tried to install both the peripherals on another computer with windows xp sp2 and had no problems and no cd's or floppies or anything was required for the installation. I hope this is a bit clearer, thank you

 

Hello sirrivas,

Did you It often helps to go on line and find the most recent version of drivers or setups (that are best for your system [latest does not necessarily mean the greatest]) (from goddez's post to you)?

The web site for your camera and DVD burner will have drivers for them.

Regards - Charles

 

Check to see if the I386 folder is on the hard drive. this is where the drivers are located. if not just copy this folder with all it contents from your XP CD to your hard drive.