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Driver update for Latitude E4300



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 22nd 17, 05:03 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,alt.windows7.general
micky
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 439
Default Driver update for Latitude E4300

Hi, I bought 2 weeks ago a Dell Latitude E4300, a small laptop, Win7,
64-bit.

It had a fingerprint sensor and an ID card sensor. They don't have
their software anymore, because win7 was re-installed, but that implies
to me the computer was used in a corporate or government environment.

(It also had IIUC the ability to do a special fast boot that would
enable it only to get email. It used separate boot files that were hard
coded somewhere iiuc, but I'm sure that also required software I don't
have now. That's okay because I'm not some executive who has to read
his email every 20 minutes. And in practice I would never turn the
computer on only to get email. Even if I only planned that, the email
might make me want to check the web for something.)

I probably have lots of questions, but this is the first one.

I went to dell support, entered the tag number, and ran the driver
checkup and it listed 9 drivers to be updated!!!

Gosh that's hard to believe.

Video, Chipset, Video Graphics, Audio, Bios, Mouse/Keyboard, Network,
Network Wireless, Serial ATA.

That's almost everything. (What's left?) Even though the thing seems to
be working fine now. Should I install them one at a time or all at
once?

It says "Auto Installation not available. Please try again later or
manually download nad install individual updates." Is this one of
those times when later will never come? Or should I wait?

This would imply the previous owner never updated drivers at all, and
that seems surprising in a corporate environment. Or not??

Thanks.
  #2  
Old August 22nd 17, 07:34 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,alt.windows7.general
Paul[_28_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,467
Default Driver update for Latitude E4300

micky wrote:
Hi, I bought 2 weeks ago a Dell Latitude E4300, a small laptop, Win7,
64-bit.

It had a fingerprint sensor and an ID card sensor. They don't have
their software anymore, because win7 was re-installed, but that implies
to me the computer was used in a corporate or government environment.

(It also had IIUC the ability to do a special fast boot that would
enable it only to get email. It used separate boot files that were hard
coded somewhere iiuc, but I'm sure that also required software I don't
have now. That's okay because I'm not some executive who has to read
his email every 20 minutes. And in practice I would never turn the
computer on only to get email. Even if I only planned that, the email
might make me want to check the web for something.)

I probably have lots of questions, but this is the first one.

I went to dell support, entered the tag number, and ran the driver
checkup and it listed 9 drivers to be updated!!!

Gosh that's hard to believe.

Video, Chipset, Video Graphics, Audio, Bios, Mouse/Keyboard, Network,
Network Wireless, Serial ATA.

That's almost everything. (What's left?) Even though the thing seems to
be working fine now. Should I install them one at a time or all at
once?

It says "Auto Installation not available. Please try again later or
manually download nad install individual updates." Is this one of
those times when later will never come? Or should I wait?

This would imply the previous owner never updated drivers at all, and
that seems surprising in a corporate environment. Or not??

Thanks.


A corporate environment, would likely not return a lease machine
(three year lease) with the company "internal OS image" on it.

Once a machine comes off lease, a refurbisher may get their hands
on it (Joy Systems). And there's a refurbisher OS placed on it.

This sounds like a SOHO deal, where it could have been a smaller
business, that bought from Dell. And really, it would be an open
question as to how much attention it received. Would the owner
have used "factory restore" before selling or giving it away ?
Who can say. If they were careless, running a copy of Photorec
or Recuva over it, might dig up things better left buried.

Here's a (post) review of the thing you bought. I gather from this,
it's a Vista era machine.

http://www.digitalrig.com/hardware/d...-months-later/

If the previous owner did Factory Restore, then it's quite possible
the restored drivers are not current. And that would be why they're
all listed as needing updates. Nobody would waste the time, bringing
such a machine up-to-date on drivers. Only if they were using it,
would they do that.

If you wanted to do forensics on the disk (Photorec or Recuva),
you'd clone the disk with "dd" or similar, and grab every sector.
And then you can take your time scanning the clone for "gems". In
normal usage, the disk white space will get overwritten by
normal activities, and that will tend to eat away at any
of the previous owners files still sitting on the disk hidden.

When you delete a file, just a single byte is flipped in the
$MFT, invalidating it, but the clusters with the data are
still sitting there. Overwriting large files, on a delete,
would take too long, and people would hate that if that's how
Microsoft had implemented it. And this is why "undelete" utilities
exist - they look for that flipped byte value, compare the clusters
in the entry to see if they conflict with current files, and then
the utility can tell you whether "Good" or "Poor" quality undelete
is possible. "Good" quality, means the clusters listed for the
(hidden) file, do not conflict with any other clusters currently
in usage.

*******

If you want to properly prepare a machine for sale, it takes
a lot of work to make it forensically clean... The Factory Restore
isn't good enough by itself, requiring you to dream up your
own workflow to do it. (On your technician machine "Diskpart"
"Clean All", then restore the factory partition using Macrium
and your backup of the hard drive, move the drive back to the laptop,
boot, and run Factory Restore. It should have a clean background
then. The "Clean All" gives you a clean place to start building
the disk up again.)

Paul
  #3  
Old August 22nd 17, 07:44 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,alt.windows7.general
micky
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 439
Default Driver update for Latitude E4300

In alt.sys.pc-clone.dell, on Tue, 22 Aug 2017 13:24:30 -0400, Wolf K
wrote:

On 2017-08-22 12:03, micky wrote:
Hi, I bought 2 weeks ago a Dell Latitude E4300, a small laptop, Win7,
64-bit.

It had a fingerprint sensor and an ID card sensor. They don't have
their software anymore, because win7 was re-installed, but that implies
to me the computer was used in a corporate or government environment.

(It also had IIUC the ability to do a special fast boot that would
enable it only to get email. It used separate boot files that were hard
coded somewhere iiuc, but I'm sure that also required software I don't
have now. That's okay because I'm not some executive who has to read
his email every 20 minutes. And in practice I would never turn the
computer on only to get email. Even if I only planned that, the email
might make me want to check the web for something.)

I probably have lots of questions, but this is the first one.

I went to dell support, entered the tag number, and ran the driver
checkup and it listed 9 drivers to be updated!!!

Gosh that's hard to believe.

Video, Chipset, Video Graphics, Audio, Bios, Mouse/Keyboard, Network,
Network Wireless, Serial ATA.

That's almost everything. (What's left?) Even though the thing seems to
be working fine now. Should I install them one at a time or all at
once?

It says "Auto Installation not available. Please try again later or
manually download nad install individual updates." Is this one of
those times when later will never come? Or should I wait?

This would imply the previous owner never updated drivers at all, and
that seems surprising in a corporate environment. Or not??

Thanks.


Before you do anything else, make an image of C: on a bootable disk or
USB stick first. Search for "making USB bootable windows 7" for
instructions. If the machine has an optical drive, you can make a
bootable disk. Use Macrium or similar.


It's a good thing I asked. Yeah, it has a DVD writer. I didnt' want
one, to save weight, but this is what they were selling, and it's
already useful**.

However, when it comes to drovers, the basic rule is If It Ain't Broke,
Don't Fix it. If you know you have a driver problem, update only that
one driver.


It's a good thing I asked. I am often a goody-two shoes who wants
everything in its place and updates everything like a good boy, and that
was my tendency here. OTOH, sometimes I don't do anything like I'm
supposed to. Thanks a lot for such a helpful reply.

As for no updates etc, check the existing partitions using Control Panel
Administrative tasks Storage. You should see one or more

rescue/maintenance partitions. If there aren't any, the machine has been
purposely changed so that you can't Refresh it. If those partitions


It's not there. I think the machines were wiped and dumped by the
company that used them and the reseller installed win7.

But maybe there is room for another partition. The HDD is 148GB and I
haven't much software or data yet but I'm only using 34 GB (and I don't
load that much on a laptop). 114GB empty. Maybe in addition to the
DVD, I should copy or clone the current partition to a new one, and then
it will be right there when I need it??


exist, then you can Refresh the machine, which will set it back to
factory-fresh. That means you'll have to update it, which should solve
the driver update problem. Refreshing may be the best bet, because then
you would get the the fingerprint sensor etc back.


That would be fun, but I don't even set a password so it would only be
so I could brag about my fancy computer.

Still, do you think I could find and dowload the fingerprint software,
or the speedy email software? I'll go look.

Good luck.

Remember to make that bootable image!


Yes, sir. The bootable image is not the whole HDD, just windows and a
couple other files, is that right?



**This machine weighs 3.75 pounds and my old acer netbook weighs 3
pounds. I was hoping for 2 pounds but this old thing was a lot cheaper
and after I bought it, the vendor said it was more sturdy than the Acer.
Not sure why she said that.

  #4  
Old August 22nd 17, 08:42 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 31
Default Driver update for Latitude E4300

In message , micky
writes:
Hi, I bought 2 weeks ago a Dell Latitude E4300, a small laptop, Win7,
64-bit.

It had a fingerprint sensor and an ID card sensor. They don't have


(What's an ID card sensor - I mean, what sort of card?)

their software anymore, because win7 was re-installed, but that implies
to me the computer was used in a corporate or government environment.


Not necessarily - some resellers do that too. (In fact most respectable
_refurbishers_ do.)

(It also had IIUC the ability to do a special fast boot that would
enable it only to get email. It used separate boot files that were hard

[]
I went to dell support, entered the tag number, and ran the driver
checkup and it listed 9 drivers to be updated!!!

Gosh that's hard to believe.

Video, Chipset, Video Graphics, Audio, Bios, Mouse/Keyboard, Network,
Network Wireless, Serial ATA.


Not to me: the refurbisher (or original owner if they did it) could well
have installed the minimum set of drivers that give you a working
machine. (Can you even get all the video resolutions the hardware is
capable of?)

That's almost everything. (What's left?) Even though the thing seems to
be working fine now. Should I install them one at a time or all at
once?


As others have said, when it comes to drivers, "if it is working, don't
upgrade" - unless you know there's something (a) it can do (b) you want
to do (c) the current driver can't. (That would include your fingerprint
reader and "ID card reader", which I notice aren't in the above nine,
unless they come under "chipset" or "Bios", which I doubt. Or possibly
"Mouse/Keyboard".)

It says "Auto Installation not available. Please try again later or
manually download nad install individual updates." Is this one of
those times when later will never come? Or should I wait?


See above.

This would imply the previous owner never updated drivers at all, and
that seems surprising in a corporate environment. Or not??


If "win7 was re-installed", it's highly unlikely that any original
drivers were left, updated or not.

Thanks.


You're welcome (-:.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

This was before we knew that a laboratory rat, if experimented upon, will
develop cancer. [Quoted by] Anne ), 1997-1-29
  #5  
Old August 22nd 17, 08:48 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 31
Default Driver update for Latitude E4300

In message , Wolf K
writes:
[]
Before you do anything else, make an image of C: on a bootable disk or
USB stick first. Search for "making USB bootable windows 7" for
instructions. If the machine has an optical drive, you can make a
bootable disk. Use Macrium or similar.


Seconded, other than the image itself doesn't have to be bootable; you
just need _something_ bootable that can restore (from) an image.
(Including being able to _access_ where you _put_ the image.) I image to
an external (USB) hard disc, and Macrium 5 as the bootable restorer (and
saver - I feel happier making an image of Windows from a _not_ running
Windows); my Macrium fits on a mini-CD, and can access the external HDD.
[]
Good luck.

+1

Remember to make that bootable image!

Or non-bootable, but with _something_ that is.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Bread is lovely, don't get me wrong. But it's not cake. Or it's rubbish cake.
I always thought that bread needed more sugar and some icing. - Sarah Millican
(Radio Times 11-17 May 2013)
  #6  
Old August 22nd 17, 09:09 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 31
Default Driver update for Latitude E4300

In message , micky
writes:
[]
But maybe there is room for another partition. The HDD is 148GB and I
haven't much software or data yet but I'm only using 34 GB (and I don't
load that much on a laptop). 114GB empty. Maybe in addition to the
DVD, I should copy or clone the current partition to a new one, and then
it will be right there when I need it??

Personally, I make a small C: partition for Windows and software, making
the rest D:, for data - and I only _image_ C: against disaster, just
_copying_ D: (well, I use SyncToy, but in effect that's what that does).
That makes the image a lot quicker to make (and restore if the worst
happens).
[]
Still, do you think I could find and dowload the fingerprint software,
or the speedy email software? I'll go look.

Good luck.

+1.

Remember to make that bootable image!


Yes, sir. The bootable image is not the whole HDD, just windows and a
couple other files, is that right?

The image (see my earlier post about whether it needs to be bootable)
can be the whole HDD, or just the whole of the C: partition (see above)
plus any hidden partitions the system needs to boot, or - the commonest
- just the _used_ part of C: (plus the hiddens if any). This is of
course the commonest because it makes the smallest (and thus quickest to
create and restore from) images. Most imaging software will let you
choose which you want to create - often with the option of some
compression too, which produces even smaller images, at the expense of
slightly longer creation/restore time (which may be more than
compensated for by the time saved if they're via an external slow drive,
such as USB2).

Note that an image _isn't_ just a _copy_ ("of Windows and a couple [of]
other files"); it includes the necessary magic to make sure that, once
restored, the system will boot (master boot records and other such
arcanery), which just a _copy_ most certainly wouldn't. (Macrium makes
the image as one large - .mrimg - file; I think other imaging software
tends to do so as well.)


**This machine weighs 3.75 pounds and my old acer netbook weighs 3
pounds. I was hoping for 2 pounds but this old thing was a lot cheaper
and after I bought it, the vendor said it was more sturdy than the Acer.
Not sure why she said that.

Because she was the vendor (-:.

I have an old Toshiba machine from Windows '9x days (actually I think it
may even precede those, but it runs 98SElite fine), that is very heavy
(and quite sturdy) - but partly because it includes the power supply:
I'd far rather be able to buy such a machine nowadays, rather than
having a separate lump to trip over, damage the connectors for, and so
on. Never going to happen, of course, while the pretence of ever-lighter
machines continues.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Bread is lovely, don't get me wrong. But it's not cake. Or it's rubbish cake.
I always thought that bread needed more sugar and some icing. - Sarah Millican
(Radio Times 11-17 May 2013)
  #7  
Old August 22nd 17, 11:25 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,alt.windows7.general
micky
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 439
Default Driver update for Latitude E4300

In alt.windows7.general, on Tue, 22 Aug 2017 20:42:21 +0100, "J. P.
Gilliver (John)" wrote:

In message , micky
writes:
Hi, I bought 2 weeks ago a Dell Latitude E4300, a small laptop, Win7,
64-bit.

It had a fingerprint sensor and an ID card sensor. They don't have


(What's an ID card sensor - I mean, what sort of card?)


The Dell manual calls it a "Contactless smart-card reader (optional)"
but it's not a slot. It's a part of the surface to the right of the
touch pad and it has a little embossed rectangle with a small paren and
a little bigger paren just outside of that on both sides of the
rectangle. I think it's an image of a card that is radiating.

their software anymore, because win7 was re-installed, but that implies
to me the computer was used in a corporate or government environment.


Not necessarily - some resellers do that too. (In fact most respectable
_refurbishers_ do.)

(It also had IIUC the ability to do a special fast boot that would
enable it only to get email. It used separate boot files that were hard

[]
I went to dell support, entered the tag number, and ran the driver
checkup and it listed 9 drivers to be updated!!!

Gosh that's hard to believe.

Video, Chipset, Video Graphics, Audio, Bios, Mouse/Keyboard, Network,
Network Wireless, Serial ATA.


Not to me: the refurbisher (or original owner if they did it) could well
have installed the minimum set of drivers that give you a working
machine. (Can you even get all the video resolutions the hardware is
capable of?)


Good question. So far everything looks nice, but I'll find something
that benefits from greater resolution.

The vendor was pushing the frame around the screen down and I think she
said they replaced the screen. I bought this at a hamfest, in
Berryville Va. and she came all the way from Michigan. She was some
place else in Virgina the previous day, and she had a lot of laptops,
though only one of this model.

That's almost everything. (What's left?) Even though the thing seems to
be working fine now. Should I install them one at a time or all at
once?


As others have said, when it comes to drivers, "if it is working, don't
upgrade" - unless you know there's something (a) it can do (b) you want
to do (c) the current driver can't. (That would include your fingerprint
reader and "ID card reader", which I notice aren't in the above nine,


Good point.

unless they come under "chipset" or "Bios", which I doubt. Or possibly
"Mouse/Keyboard".)

It says "Auto Installation not available. Please try again later or
manually download nad install individual updates." Is this one of
those times when later will never come? Or should I wait?


See above.


Right. Only one at a time, if that many.

This would imply the previous owner never updated drivers at all, and
that seems surprising in a corporate environment. Or not??


If "win7 was re-installed", it's highly unlikely that any original
drivers were left, updated or not.


Oh, yeah.

Thanks.


You're welcome (-:.



I'm not going to try to fix this, for fear I wont' be able to uninstall
it later, but I've included this for the curious:

"Hi Rick,

Thank you for your reply. It turns out that the fingerprint reader on
the Latitude E-Series is controlled by the Embassy Security Suite, which
is embedded in the Dell Control Point. After stumbling around --and
locking myself out of the system completely -- I managed to find someone
who could explain how it all fits together. I was very lucky that I had
a day-old image that I could use to reload and start over.

There is no real manual for this and the support material for the E4300
completely ignores it. You have to know to use "Embassy Security" as a
search term in the Dell Knowlege Base then read through all the
disorganized papers to figure out the steps. If you don't do things in
the proper order, you essentially trash your system.

Bottom line: the software is on the system and it does work but the
user documentation is unacceptably disorganized."



This guy can't uninstall something or other:

"There is, however, a left over of my attempts to setup fingerprint
scanner, which I can not get rid off. Hence my questions to someone who
may have encountered similar problem."


And this:

"I have resolved the issue. Here is what I had to do.

I reinstalled Dell Control Point Security Drivers

I reinstalled Dell Control Security Manager Software (including Wave)

I configured Wave software for preboot management including enrolling
fingerprints.

I then removed fingerprints previously enrolled.

I removed BIOS system password

I uninstalled Dell Security Manager Software.

Setting up BIOS system password results in password request at
boot/restart and no sign of Biometric security. "

Wow.
  #8  
Old August 23rd 17, 04:53 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,alt.windows7.general
micky
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 439
Default Driver update for Latitude E4300

In alt.windows7.general, on Tue, 22 Aug 2017 20:48:58 +0100, "J. P.
Gilliver (John)" wrote:

In message , Wolf K
writes:
[]
Before you do anything else, make an image of C: on a bootable disk or
USB stick first. Search for "making USB bootable windows 7" for
instructions. If the machine has an optical drive, you can make a
bootable disk. Use Macrium or similar.


Seconded, other than the image itself doesn't have to be bootable; you
just need _something_ bootable that can restore (from) an image.
(Including being able to _access_ where you _put_ the image.) I image to
an external (USB) hard disc, and Macrium 5 as the bootable restorer (and
saver - I feel happier making an image of Windows from a _not_ running
Windows); my Macrium fits on a mini-CD, and can access the external HDD.


Well, I made what Macrium calls a rescue disk.

Going to back up the whole partition soon, but right now it's just
vanilla 7. Barely any changes.

Good luck.

+1

Remember to make that bootable image!

Or non-bootable, but with _something_ that is.


  #9  
Old August 23rd 17, 08:07 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 31
Default Driver update for Latitude E4300

In message , micky
writes:
[]
Well, I made what Macrium calls a rescue disk.


Have you checked that the computer will boot from it?

Going to back up the whole partition soon, but right now it's just
vanilla 7. Barely any changes.


Still worth doing - restoring an image from it is quicker (and can be
left unattended) than installing Windows.
[]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

If you believe in telekinesis, raise my right hand
  #10  
Old August 26th 17, 07:12 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,alt.windows7.general
micky
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 439
Default Driver update for Latitude E4300

In alt.windows7.general, on Tue, 22 Aug 2017 14:44:43 -0400, micky
wrote:


**This machine weighs 3.75 pounds and my old acer netbook weighs 3
pounds.


Finally weighed them with a mechancial postage scale that has only been
calibrated to set zero at zero, and is says the Acer Netbook that came
with XP weights 2 lb. 14 oz, and the Dell Latitude E4300 weights 3 lb 12
oz. (Even though the spec says it weighs 3.3 pounds??) So it's 14
oz. more than the netbook

I don't carry it that much, but when I use it I often lift it up with
one hand holding the front.

But the Dell has a bigger screen, a cd/dvd drive, louder speakers (still
not adquate for much, but maybe for a phone conversation (see Skype
installation below). Usually I use clip on USB speakers)


I was hoping for 2 pounds but this old thing was a lot cheaper
and after I bought it, the vendor said it was more sturdy than the Acer.
Not sure why she said that.


As to what drivers need updating, I've been installing Skype in Win7 for
57 minutes an d it's not done yet -- it's still dl'iing, not even
extracting, etc. -- even though Resource Monitor says it's been dl'ing
steadily the whole time. Onlly 700KBS much of the time, most of which
is skype (as little as 130KBS, but my working win10 computer was slow at
the saem time; however not this slow. .) (1% network utilization, but I
don't know if that is because I need a better driver for the
downloading, or because Verizon DSL is having normal problems up, or
because they are trying to drive me out of DSL. (The phone broke a
couple days ago, and it was very important to the repair guy to say that
if they came out, they would install FIOS, (and maybe I'd reather have
Comcast cable and VOIP phone.)

Even the green progress bar in the Skype installation window has slwoed
down a lot. I didnt' know it would ever do that. What does it mean?
 




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