A driver is a program that controls a device such as a printer, mouse, or keyboard. All devices require a driver program.
A driver acts like a translator between the device and any other programs that use the device. Each device has its own set of specialized commands that only its driver recognizes.
Dell ships your Tablet-PC to you with required drivers already installed—no further installation or configuration is needed.
NOTICE: The Drivers and Utilities media may contain drivers for operating systems that are not on your Tablet-PC. Ensure that you are installing software appropriate for your operating system.
Many drivers, such as the keyboard driver, come with your Microsoft® Windows® operating system. You may need to install drivers if you:
Upgrade your operating system
Reinstall your operating system
Connect or install a new device
Identifying Drivers
If you experience a problem with any device, identify whether the driver is the source of your problem and, if necessary, update the driver.
Click Start, and right-click Computer.
In Windows XP, click Start and right-click My Computer.
Click Properties® Device Manager.
In Windows XP, click Properties® Hardware®Device Manager.
NOTE: In Windows Vista®, the User Account Control window may appear. If you are an administrator on the Tablet-PC, click Continue; otherwise, contact your administrator to continue.
Scroll down the list to see if any device has an exclamation point (a yellow circle with a [!]) on the device icon.
If an exclamation point is next to the device name, you may need to reinstall the driver or install a new driver (see Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities).
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities
NOTICE: The Dell Support website at support.dell.com and your Drivers and Utilities media provide approved drivers for Dell™ computers. If you install drivers obtained from other sources, your Tablet-PC might not work correctly.
Using Windows Device Driver Rollback
If a problem occurs on your Tablet-PC after you install or update a driver, use Windows Device Driver Rollback to replace the driver with the previously installed version.
Click Start, and right-click Computer.
In Windows XP, click Start and right-click My Computer.
Click Properties® Device Manager.
In Windows XP, click Properties® Hardware®Device Manager.
NOTE: In Windows Vista, the User Account Control window may appear. If you are an administrator on the Tablet-PC, click Continue; otherwise, contact your administrator to enter the Device Manager.
Right-click the device for which the new driver was installed and click
Properties.
Click the Driver tab® Roll Back Driver.
If Device Driver Rollback does not resolve the problem, then use System Restore (see Restoring Your Operating System) to return your Tablet-PC to the operating state that existed before you installed the new driver.
Using the Drivers and Utilities Media
If using Device Driver Rollback or System Restore (see Restoring Your Operating System) does not resolve the problem, then reinstall the driver from the Drivers and Utilities media.
Save and close any open files, and exit any open programs.
Insert the Drivers and Utilitiesmedia.
In most cases, the CD/DVD starts running automatically. If it does not, start Windows Explorer, click your CD/DVD drive directory to display the CD/DVD contents, and then double-click the autorcd.exe file. The first time that you run the CD/DVD, it might prompt you to install setup files. Click OK, and follow the instructions on the screen to continue.
From the Language drop-down menu in the toolbar, select your preferred
language for the driver or utility (if available).
At the welcome screen, click Next and wait for the CD/DVD to complete
the hardware scan.
To detect other drivers and utilities, under Search Criteria, select the
appropriate categories from the System Model, Operating System, and
Topic drop-down menus.
A link or links appear(s) for the specific drivers and utilities used by your Tablet-PC.
Click the link of a specific driver or utility to display information about the
driver or utility that you want to install.
Click the Install button (if present) to begin installing the driver or utility.
At the welcome screen, follow the screen prompts to complete the
installation.
If no Install button is present, automatic installation is not an option. For installation instructions, either see the appropriate instructions in the following subsections, or click Extract, follow the extracting instructions, and then read the readme file.
If instructed to navigate to the driver files, click the CD/DVD directory on the driver information window to display the files associated with that driver.
Manually Reinstalling Drivers
After extracting the driver files to your hard drive as described in the previous section, do the following:
Click Start, and right-click Computer.
In Windows XP, click Start and right-click My Computer.
Click Properties® Device Manager.
In Windows XP, click Properties® Hardware®Device Manager.
NOTE: In Windows Vista, the User Account Control window may appear. If you are an administrator on the Tablet-PC, click Continue; otherwise, contact your administrator to enter the Device Manager.
Double-click the type of device for which you are installing the driver (for
example, Audio or Video).
Double-click the name of the device for which you are installing the driver.
Click Driver® Update Driver® Browse my computer for driver software.
NOTE: In Windows XP, the Hardware Update Wizard may display. In this case, follow the wizard instructions instead of completing the remainder of this procedure.
Click Browse and browse to the location to which you previously copied
the driver files.
When the name of the appropriate driver appears, click the name of the
driver® OK® Next.
Click Finish and restart your Tablet-PC.
Restoring Your Operating System
You can restore your operating system in the following ways:
System Restore returns your Tablet-PC to an earlier operating state without affecting data files. Use System Restore as the first solution for restoring your operating system and preserving data files.
Dell Factory Image Restore returns your hard drive to the operating state it was in when you purchased the Tablet-PC. All data on the hard drive and any programs installed after you received the Tablet-PC are permanently deleted. Use Dell Factory Image Restore only if System Restore did not resolve your operating system problem.
If you received an Operating System disc with your Tablet-PC, you can use it to restore your operating system. However, using the Operating System disc also deletes all data on the hard drive. Use the disc only if System Restore did not resolve your operating system problem.
Using Microsoft Windows System Restore
The Windows operating systems provide a System Restore option which allows you to return your Tablet-PC to an earlier operating state (without affecting data files) if changes to the hardware, software, or other system settings have left the Tablet-PC in an undesirable operating state. Any changes that System Restore makes to your Tablet-PC are completely reversible.
NOTICE: Make regular backups of your data files. System Restore does not monitor your data files or recover them.
NOTE: The procedures in this document were written for the Windows default view, so they may not apply if you set your Dell™ Tablet-PC to the Windows Classic view.
Starting System Restore
Use System Restore to return the system to a previous state. In the event that System Restore does not resolve the issue, you may undo the last system restore.
Windows Vista
Click Start.
In the Search box, type System Restore and press <Enter>.
NOTE: The User Account Control window may appear. If you are an administrator on the Tablet-PC, click Continue; otherwise, contact your administrator to continue the desired action.
Click Next and follow the remaining prompts on the screen.
Windows XP
Click Start® Help and Support
In the Search box, type System Restore and press <Enter>.
Select Run the System Restore Wizard as displayed in the search results.
Click Next and follow the remaining prompts on the screen.
Undoing the Last System Restore
NOTICE: Before you undo the last system restore, save and close all open files and exit any open programs. Do not alter, open, or delete any files or programs until the system restoration is complete.
Windows Vista
Click Start .
In the Start Search box, type System Restore and press <Enter>.
Click Undo my last restoration and click Next.
Windows XP
Click Start® Help and Support
In the Search box, type System Restore and press <Enter>.
Select Run the System Restore Wizard as displayed in the search results.
Select Undo the last restoration.
Click Next and follow the remaining prompts on the screen.
Using Dell Factory Image Restore
NOTICE: Using Dell Factory Image Restore permanently deletes all data on the hard drive and removes any programs or drivers installed after you received your Tablet-PC. If possible, back up the data before using this option. Use Dell Factory Image Restore only if System Restore did not resolve your operating system problem.
NOTE: Dell Factory Image Restore may not be available in certain countries or on certain computers.
Use Dell Factory Image Restore only as the last method to restore your operating system. These options restore your hard drive to the operating state it was in when you purchased the Tablet-PC. Any programs or files added since you received your Tablet-PC—including data files—are permanently deleted from the hard drive. Data files include documents, spreadsheets, e-mail messages, digital photos, music files, and so on. If possible, back up all data before using Dell Factory Image Restore.
Turn on the Tablet-PC. When the Dell logo appears, press <F8> several
times to access the Vista Advanced Boot Options Window.
Select Repair Your Computer.
The System Recovery Options window appears.
Select a keyboard layout and click Next.
To access the recovery options, log on as a local user. To access the
command prompt, type administrator in the User name field, then
click OK.
Click Dell Factory Image Restore.
NOTE: Depending upon your configuration, you may need to select Dell Factory Tools, then Dell Factory Image Restore.
The Dell Factory Image Restore welcome screen appears.
Click Next.
The Confirm Data Deletion screen appears.
NOTICE: If you do not want to proceed with Dell Factory Image Restore, click Cancel.
Click the checkbox to confirm that you want to continue reformatting the
hard drive and restoring the system software to the factory condition, then
click Next.
The restore process begins and may take five or more minutes to complete. A message appears when the operating system and factory-installed applications have been restored to factory condition.
Click Finish to reboot the system.
Using the Operating System Media
Before you Begin
If you are considering reinstalling the Windows operating system to correct a problem with a newly installed driver, first try using Windows Device Driver Rollback. See Using Windows Device Driver Rollback. If Device Driver Rollback does not resolve the problem, then use System Restore to return your operating system to the operating state it was in before you installed the new device driver. See Using MicrosoftWindowsSystem Restore.
NOTICE: Before performing the installation, back up all data files on your primary hard drive. For conventional hard drive configurations, the primary hard drive is the first drive detected by the Tablet-PC.
To reinstall Windows, you need the following items:
Dell™ Operating System media
Dell Drivers and Utilities media
NOTE: The Dell Drivers and Utilities media contains drivers that were installed during the assembly of the Tablet-PC. Use the Dell Drivers and Utilities media to load any required drivers. Depending on the region from which you ordered your Tablet-PC, or whether you requested the media, the Dell Drivers and Utilities media and Operating System media may not ship with your Tablet-PC.
Reinstalling the Operating System
The reinstallation process can take 1 to 2 hours to complete. After you reinstall the operating system, you must also reinstall the device drivers, virus protection program, and other software.
Save and close any open files and exit any open programs.
Insert the Operating System media.
NOTE: When reinstalling Windows XP, insert the operating system media into an externally powered USB optical drive.
Click Exit if the Install Windows message appears.
Restart the Tablet-PC.
When the DELL logo appears, press <F12> immediately.
NOTE: If you wait too long and the operating system logo appears, continue to wait until you see the Microsoft® Windows® desktop; then, shut down your Tablet-PC and try again.
NOTE: The next steps change the boot sequence for one time only. On the next start-up, the Tablet-PC boots according to the devices specified in the system setup program.
When the boot device list appears, highlight CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
and press <Enter>.
Press any key to Boot from CD-ROM.
Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.
