I'd like to first start off by saying while I do appreciate their nice quality parts, customization, and price and such what I don't appreciate is the lack of drivers provided for re installation. I formatted the computer I am typing on three days ago because It was just "that time" again (Slow-ness, lack of HDD space and such etc.). So I formatted. I had to reinstall Windows 7 three times. The first time was installing the 32-bit version. The second was 64-bit, and the third 64-bit again.
Why is this?
Well the first two times I was installing Windows 7 from discs I had purchased awhile back from the store to upgrade my older Vista machine. Now both times when I installed 32-bit and 64-bit, I had encountered a serious problem.
My network adapter and webcam had no drivers. I had run Windows' "Update Drivers" function twice on both, but since I had no internet I couldn't find anything. So I tried installing the 64-bit version of Windows 7 [B]provided by iBuyPower for re installation if the time ever came for that and it even says on the disc that it should work with all iBuyPower products.[/B] But no. This came with the same webcam and network adapter problems. At the time this was my only computer. So I had to drive to my mum's house and borrow her laptop so I could download drivers from the iBuyPower site and put them on an external harddrive I brought with me. So I went to their site and got a link to their manufacturer's site which led me to the manufacturer's driver list. They were all listed (about 200 of them) with no organization what-so-ever and were only classified if they were for Vista or 7. I had to scroll through a giant list of obscure names like "REALTEK-919" or something like that. I just downloaded about 30 that looked good and guess what? I didn't have write permissions to my external hard drive. Not even on an Admin account. Stupid Macbook. So I drive home grab another external and drive back and then wait around for an hour for the drivers to move onto the external. I drive home and just give up as it's been about 3 hours and I was pretty pissed.
Moving onto today I installed all the drivers only that 26 of them didn't work and the 4 that were there were the webcam driver, an ATi driver, a synaptics touchpad driver, and my beloved network adapter driver. But even then my network adapter driver was out of date so I had to go and use the "Update Driver" function to find the latest version.
[B]tl;dr[/B] Now finally I have moved about 90% of my files onto this freshly formatted machine and I just don't get it. Why so much trouble when it should just be as simple as popping the official Windows 7 disc in and having supported drivers there already, and if not in then using the disc supplied by the company and even says specifically that it will work.
iBuypower <- There's your problem.
Seems like you didn't buy power.
You see kids, this is why you build your own computer if you're going for a beefy machine.
Same thing if you build it yourself. You have to get the drivers for the parts and put them on a disc or flash drive so when you do reformat you can install them easily.
You can't expect them to make a dedicated windows disc for every computer that is ordered.
Not iBuyPower's fault.
[QUOTE=QuikKill;28224741]Same thing if you build it yourself. You have to get the drivers for the parts and put them on a disc or flash drive so when you do reformat you can install them easily.
You can't expect them to make a dedicated windows disc for every computer that is ordered.[/QUOTE]
Both Windows 7 and Linux have drivers for everything in my system automatically except for my GPU.
And if I put those drivers on a disc, new ones just get released a week later.
[QUOTE=Odellus;28224831]Not iBuyPower's fault.[/QUOTE]
This, if you're going to reformat you should make a note of all the drivers and get a copy of the latest ones.
[QUOTE=compwhizii;28225257]This, if you're going to reformat you should make a note of all the drivers and get a copy of the latest ones.[/QUOTE][QUOTE=Odellus;28224831]Not iBuyPower's fault.[/QUOTE][QUOTE=QuikKill;28224741]Same thing if you build it yourself. You have to get the drivers for the parts and put them on a disc or flash drive so when you do reformat you can install them easily.
You can't expect them to make a dedicated windows disc for every computer that is ordered.[/QUOTE]I understand that they can't create a new disc for every computer, and that it was kind of weird that it said that it would work, but the problem is that it says on the disc and in a manual (that I threw out) it said that the re-installation disc has every driver your machine needs with the operating system you ordered.
So I am a disapoint. :(
[QUOTE=Shotgunz;28225352]I understand that they can't create a new disc for every computer, and that it was kind of weird that it said that it would work, but the problem is that it says on the disc and in a manual (that I threw out) it said that the re-installation disc has every driver your machine needs with the operating system you ordered.
So I am a disapoint. :([/QUOTE]
I suggest not using the drivers on the re-installation disc. They're usually outdated and sometimes they come with bloatware.
Just go in Device Manager, find your part's model # and download the drivers from the manufacturer's website.
[QUOTE=ze beaver;28225422]I suggest not using the drivers on the re-installation disc. They're usually outdated and sometimes they come with bloatware.
[b]Just go in Device Manager, find your part's model # and download the drivers from the manufacturer's website.[/b][/QUOTE]
Then burn all those drivers to disc and put it in a very safe place :)
I've never had to install network adapter drivers before, either. They're supposed to be in the device itself and shouldn't have anything to do with reformatting.
Dell prebuilt towers come with like 12 different CDs with drivers and windows on them
[QUOTE=koeniginator;28248456]Dell prebuilt towers come with like 12 different CDs with drivers and windows on them[/QUOTE]
When I bought a Dell it came with 1 DVD for both OS / Drivers
I bought an HP, and it did not come with any DVD's :(
[QUOTE=green bandit;28248969]I bought an HP, and it did not come with any DVD's :([/QUOTE]
You have to burn them yourself. It takes forever (around 45 minutes per disc, and it took 5 DVDs), but it's worth the time should your hard drive ever die. It's usually best to do it as soon as possible after you buy the computer. HP has a utility on the computer to do it.
Always burn your restore CD's when you have the chance. It costs an arm and a leg to order them, not to mention it takes weeks for them to arrive.
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