Windows 7 having problems with installing windows 32 on 64 bit machine

[sameh83]

I have a toshiba satelite c655 s5212 64 bit system. It came with a factory 64 bit OS, but i reinstalled windows 7 with the 32 bit Operating system and now i cant find the LAN driver, WLAN driver,. Can someone help me with so answers ?

 

[Mike]

To find drivers for the network interface cards on the system, you should visit Toshiba's website: Link Removed due to 404 Error

Also, the use of BooZet Freeware | Double Driver - backup and restore installed drivers (freeware) will allow you to backup your drivers before doing a clean install in the future. This can be useful for clean installs and you may want to consider using a utility such as this once your situation has been made completely stable.

In addition to this, if Toshiba does not supply official driver support for this device, this is a major failure on their part as a manufacturer. If you happen to run into this problem, you may want to try utilities that give you a summary of the hardware on your system, most notably the AIDA64 trial software or another utility. You can then search by manufacturer of the NIC manually to find the drivers you need.

Why aren't the drivers supplied with Windows 7?

If the hardware is manufactured after Windows 7, the chances of the drivers being supplied with Windows 7 decrease significantly, while the chance of compatibility drivers being installed increases. As Windows 7 matures as an operating system, the burden will fall more on system and device manufacturers to supply timely updates for their hardware than it will on Microsoft to supply them on the disc. Since the bits on the disc do not change, this is why you may not be seeing native driver support for your hardware. When Windows 7 is released by the manufacturer on your laptop/notebook, they install compatibility drivers with sysprep utilities and roll this out to all systems under the same model.

 

[sameh83]

Can you please help me find the drivers for either the LAN or WLAN for for this model but with the exception of the newly installed 32 bit version of windows 7 ? I am at a loss for these drivers, and i need some help ASAP. I have did everything i can with the limited knowledge that i possess about this laptop.

 

[Saltgrass]

Do the Link Removed due to 404 Error work for the Wireless Lan? Since the link seems to only take you to the information page, select downloads and then make sure you have Windows 7 32 bit selected for the OS.

 

[Trouble]

Not sure what the issue is, both Mike and Saltgrass have provided links to the Toshiba Support page where you can download the drivers you need. I have also downloaded both, zipped them up and uploaded them to my public folder on my sky drive. Feel free to use those if you would like.
The confusion may have to do with the wired driver, you need to select 64 bit windows 7 to get it, and that driver will work for both 32 and 64 bit Windows 7 if I am interpreting the readme file correctly

Readme File for AR813x/AR815x setup package
Supporting: Atheros AR813x/AR815x Gigabit/Fast Ethernet Controller

Operation Systems:
Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
Windows XP x64, Windows Server 2003 x64
Windows Vista, Windows Vista x64
Windows 7, Windows 7 x64

The larger of the two files tc00346200e is the wireless driver (32bit), the other tc50087600c is the wired driver and should work for both 32 and 64 bit Windows 7.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Randy