Unknown devices

Soldato
Joined
1 Jun 2005
Posts
5,152
Location
Kent
I recently did a fresh install of XP pro on my Lenovo R61 Thinkpad, the problem is that unlike Ubuntu which i also install, windows lacked a lot of drivers and so device manager lists quite a few things in "Other devices" which lack drivers, the problem is i dont know what they are so not sure what drivers to get.

I have 3 things listed as 'base system device', 2 'unknown device', 'Video controller', 'Video controller (VGA Compatible), and an 'SM Bus Controller'.

Ive tried letting windows attempt to find its own drivers without much luck, so i am hoping someone knows a way to figure out how to sort this out.
 
I take it everything works including card readers etc?

I have a feeling the SM thing could be the intel storage manager. You should be able to find all your drivers HERE
 
I dont have any memory cards to test the card readers, so i have no way to know if it works or not. I havn't tried doing much on XP yet so i am not sure if anything is not working, so far the only things i have encountered on my general use that dont work are the laptop hotkeys, like Fn + f5 to controll wireless/bluetooth, or the the mute button on my set of volume controls (volume up/down work though).

In ubuntu everything seems to work fine though.

The problem with that link of drivers you posted is that although i have got some of the drivers off there, some of them vary depending on what hardware the laptop is equiped with, so without knowing precisely what the unknown devices are i am not going to just download all drivers and hope for the best. i would rather figure out what the unknown devices are then get the specific drivers for them.

It's a shame lenovo didn't supply any driver CDs or anything (they didnt even supply a XP cd :()
 
install everest, it'll tell you what they are

chipset drivers need to be installed if 'SMbus' is showing up
 
This might seem too much like an obvious question but have you been to the Lenovo website and downloaded all the drivers for your laptop from there, they seen to have everything listed for you particular laptop. Now some of these might be outdated but at least it will get everything identified and running then you can look for updated drivers using this info if you so wish.

Linky to get you started: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/homeLenovo.do?country=uk
 
I dont mean to sound ungratefull, but links to the drivers page isn't helpfull to me at all. I know where to get the drivers, thats where i have been getting the ones from for devices that i specificaly know what they are. But its not too helpfull with the R61 range of laptops can come with different components.

Like if you look at that drivers page you will see they have different drivers for 2 different ethernet network cards, 3 different sets of drivers for wireless, 3 different sets of drivers for different ultranavs etc... If i know which of the 3 wireless cards i had, or which type of ultranav i had i could download the correct drivers for it. But i simply dont know why it is.

Ill try and install everest now and see if that helps me.
 
Back
Top Bottom