Long story..
I have this Toshiba laptop with Windows 7 on it. It was a hand-me-down from my friends father. It wasnt running so smooth and he didnt have the original software or anything so i wiped it clean and installed my old copy of Vista 64 on it. I realize Vista is old and Microsoft will no longer support it after April, regardless, for what he wants it for will work just fine and really doesnt matter that its old.
anyways. After installing Vista, I needed the drivers for all the hardware inside.
Went to the Toshiba drivers site. Entered in the model of the laptop and then when asked for the operating system, I selected the new o/s I just installed.. Vista 64; however, that option does not offer any real driver support such as Network drivers.
I then selected the previous operating system. Windows 7 (64) and was able to find all the drivers I thought I needed.. no, not the case..
ok. so let me back up as I did not mention, Ive wiped and installed a fresh O/S twice already..
The first time, the network drivers I installed got my LAN network/internet online and I was able to be online and search, however. the wifi ethernet card was not working. In the device manager, the Network Controller and SM Bus were highlighted. I dont know where I found the driver, but I downloaded something off another site that solved the Network Controller problem, but still no wireless capabilities . then , a chip set driver I found hidden within the various driver downloads on the Toshiba support site, once I installed that, the wirless came on and all was good! Up until I completed all the Windows vista updates. When I shut it down to reboot, it never came back on. it froze. it was totally useless.
So, thinking that I had it all solved, I decided to wipe it again and start over with another fresh install. Since I knew where the drivers were and which ones worked, no problem, right???
WRONG
so this 2nd install, Went back to the Toshiba support site, downloaded and installed every network driver, however, this time.. none of these drivers solve the Network Controller issue im having. The laptop connects to the internet through the LAN, but the wireless still does not come on.
Device manager shows Network Controller driver is missing and none of these Toshiba drivers offered are solving this issue.
I did a hardware id ( PCIVEN_168C&DEV_002b&SUBSYS_661111AD&REV_01 ) and was able to find the manufacture; however, every link i've found to get the driver is either broken or leads me to crap like driverid or a website that wants me to download their exe file into my system to detect my system and then charge me.. not going to do that
So I feel stuck. I'm about to do a 3rd wipe and startover, but I have a feeling i'll just run into the same headaches.
Is there a certain order to install these drivers?
The only thing thats holding me back is this dame wireless ethernet thats tied into this Network Controller issue
Please help