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Intel Ethernet Driver needed for Vista 32 bit

Anonymous
2015-08-22T09:18:14+00:00

Just installed a new motherboard

Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI.

Intel GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 mbit)

Fortunately, I have two drives, one is Linuxmint which I am using to post this, the other is Vista 32 bit.

I completed the rebuild, plugged in the Linux drive, powered up, and everything worked perfectly. I didn't have to do anything at all.

I plugged in the Vista drive, and had to go through the phone thing to get a new id, which I completed. That part was fine.

It then starts throwing up messages to say that I need drivers, the main one of which is the ethernet driver. Without that I cannot connect to the internet to get anything at all. The Microsoft site is geared to detecting a users pc, but as the only way that I can connect is via Linux, I can't use it.

I have tried the Intel site and driver PROWinVista_32_18.4.exebut that couldn't find my LAN chip.

The CD that came with the motherboard does not have anything on it that supports Vista as far as I can see, the auto run will not work, and searching for Vista drivers comes up with nothing.

At the moment I seem to have an OS that I can no longer use. Is there a driver anywhere?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-08-30T07:50:40+00:00

    To cut a long story short.

    Although Microsoft say that they are still supporting Vista, the manufacturers have started dropping it already. There are officially no XP/Vista drivers at all for some of the new motherboards that are on the market.

    If you buy one, and then plug your HD in you will be asked to obtain a new id for the OS. Do this and you have a legal copy of the OS. At that point you cannot use XP/Vista anymore as you will have linked the OS to a motherboard that does not allow it to run with any drivers.

    You can't switch back to the old motherboard as you have just changed the id.

    In short you have a brick by design.

    My advice to anyone is to do what I did. Before you take a single screw out of your pc, download Linuxmint and create a bootable USB stick. You can run the whole of Linuxmint from the stick, you can install Linux from the stick, and you can read the Windows files from the stick, or from a Linux installation. It is a very simple click, click, click process and takes mere minutes from start to finish. It is 100% free, and it works just like Windows.

    Linuxmint has free office software included with the download, along  with media players, software manager etc. All software is free and is simply downloaded from a simple screen within Linux, search and click, a bit like the Play Store, except everything is totally free.

    You can then either drop Windows altogether as I have now had to do (not my choice - Microsoft dropped XP/Vista customers when they gave all their other customers W10 for free, I won't get stung like that again).

    I have no idea what sort of marketing strategy Microsoft have embarked upon, but isolating and kicking one group of people who bought their product for no good reason, whilst rewarding others, is one hell of a way to run a business.

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