Hi Anono24,

Welcome to Dell Community Forum.

After installing the chipset driver, did you re-boot the computer? Where do you see it mentioned that the currently installed driver was not recognized?

Run hardware diagnostics on your computer. Click on this link:  http://dell.to/Ohu88J

Keep us posted on the results for further assistance, if required.

Thanks and regards.
Babita S
#iworkfordell

To know more about Dell Product Support, Drivers & Downloads, Order & Dispatch status -> choose your region US Customers; UK Customers; India Customers. For Dell support videos click Here.

• I did reboot after attempted chipset installation (several attempts and reboots actually)
• since i do not know where to verify which chipset driver is actually installed I am only going off what I said above.  After I go through the auto detect driver update procedure above all looks ok.  If I go back through the process again the dell site still recommends installing this chipset driver.  The website tool doesn't seem to recognize that this driver is installed, or I am not installing it.
• i am running the suggested diagnostics but something seems wrong.  I got to the "memory test activity"  portion and it just keeps cycling through these bar graph looking graphics for each of the 8 CPUs.  The percent complete hasn't moved past 5% and it's been running for 30 minutes.  should I abort or let it run?

I don't trust Dell System Detect. Likely its broke somehow.

R236961 has probably installed however you may install the latest version of Intel Chipset Device Software from Intel which is far more up to date than R236961:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&keyword=intel%20chipset%20Software%20Installation%20Utility

@Natakuc4, I followed the link you suggest and found the following quote:

"Your computer manufacturer may have altered the features, incorporated customizations, or made other changes to your driver. Intel recommends you contact your computer manufacturer for the latest system specific updates and technical support information."

Do you think that whatever dell has altered with the driver is irrelevant or that the benefit of having the latest driver outweighs the risk of losing any custom system alterations dell may have done?

@DELL-Babita S

I ran the diagnostics (it took forever) and it reported that everything was fine.  Any ideas about how to determine which version of the driver is actually installed or how to install the current one?

Hi Anono24,

Greetings.

Use the following steps to check your current driver version:

1. Click Start, then right-click My Computer (or Computer) and click Manage.
2. In the Computer Management window, on the left, click Device Manager.
3. Click the + sign in front of the device category you want to check.
4. Double-click the device for which you need to know the driver version.
5. Select the Driver tab. The current installed driver version will be displayed on this page.

Intel provides generic versions of drivers for general purposes and it is recommended that you update drivers from the Dell Support website only unless you deem it necessary.

Please reply if you have further queries.

Thanks and regards.
Babita S
#iworkfordell

To know more about Dell Product Support, Drivers & Downloads, Order & Dispatch status -> choose your region US Customers; UK Customers; India Customers. For Dell support videos click Here.

Thank you, I can navigate to this location and see what you are talking about however I am not sure which device I should be looking at.  Would it be the processors?  This is all a bit over my knowledge level so I'm kind of stumbling through.  Your help is very much appreciated.

I looked in the device manager and checked through everything since no one could offer advice about which device to look at.  I checked the driver for everything that had "chipset" in the name.  All of the drivers had dates of 2006 or 2009.  I am assuming the chipset in question would show the date of the updated version.

None of these driver versions were higher than 7 and this chipset is 9.  Does this prove that in fact this updated driver is not installing? 

If so, back to the original question.  How can I get this install to work?

here are the driver details of the one in question

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=44T9C&fileId=2731110348&osCode=&productCode=studio-1747&languageCode=&categoryId=CS

Hi Anono24,

In this case you will have to restore the system to factory settings and then install the chipset driver.

This is the standard instructions for performing a factory restore using the restore partition on your PC (Windows 7).

Note: Restoring your computer to the factory settings will remove all files and programs except those it came with. You will lose all personal files, including photos, emails and programs, if you do not back up your files and data.

1    Turn on the computer.

2   As the computer starts, press on the keyboard until the  Advanced Boot Options menu appears on the screen.

3    Press the on the keyboard to select  Repair Your Computer on the  Advanced Boot Options menu , and then press .

4    Specify the language settings that you want, and then click Next.

5    Log in as a user who has administrative credentials, and then click OK.

6    Click Dell Factory Image Restore.

7    In the Dell Factory Image Restore window, click Next.

8    Click to select the Yes, reformat hard drive and restore system software to factory condition check box.

9    Click Next. 
The computer is restored to the default factory configuration.

10    When the restore operation is completed, click Finish to restart the computer.

The software is now installed as it was when the computer was first received.

If above steps are not helping you then use this link http://dell.to/1qym3Kd to restore the system to factory restore.

Please reply if you have further queries.

thank you for the information Mohammed,

I do know how to do a fresh install and really want to avoid it.  I generally do a fresh install of my system every year or so to eliminate bloat and make the system run faster.  But the process takes me a couple of days to get back to where I want to be and it's pretty disruptive.

Right now I am only getting the occasional freeze and it seems to be related to something with firefox so I'm not inclined to wipe the system for a chipset dirver that I'm not convinced I completely need. 

However I am still interested in installing it in case anyone else has any ideas about how I might be able to pull it off.

thanks to all who have contributed