Need help Installing windows drivers with ndiswrapper.

[kanqkhaos]

Whats good Linux community?

I apologize if this is being posted in the wrong section I tried searching the forums first for advice but didn't really find what I was looking for. I'm having a little difficulty updating some seriously outdated drivers on my toshiba satellite laptop which is probably the main reason why Linux Lite isn't running as smoothly as it should be. I do know that my laptop is about 10 years old, but with an Intel duo core processor and 2gb of ram I'd think it'd still be hangin in there. Did a tab bit of research, and found out that updating my drivers,and bios, would probably help out alot. I figured when I use install updates/drivers application on linux that I was already up to date with the latest drivers so I eliminated that as an option.. at first.

Out of curiosity I tinkered around with terminal and found out that my drivers and bios are seriously outdated.. as if the previous owner of this laptop didn't care or know how to install updates back when the OS was windows vista. All of the drivers are factory versions, and this is a 2007-2008 windows vista home premium laptop. So then I go to the toshiba site and find out there's been updates all the way to 2016.. I'm thinkin WOW, no wonder why pc locks up on me just for being on facebook and a chat site at the same time. Long story short since I feel like I'm rambling, I stumbled across a app called ndiswrapper. Most people say this is a pretty efficient way to install windows drivers so that's what I'm trying to do now, give my laptop a serious updating.

Problem I'm having is, not all of the drivers are just as simple as extracting the .exe and finding the .inf files. Some have autorun.inf files. so I open the autorun.inf files with text editor only for the autorun to point towards setup.exe or install.exe. So then I open setup.exe with archive manager and theres no .inf files to be found.. just a bunch of folders leading to some files that show up as unknown file type.

Yeah so here's where I'm stuck at, if anyone could help I'd greatly appreciate it. =D

[Valtam]

There is a completely different approach to 'drivers' in linux than there is in windows.

If all of your hardware is working, here is no need to get any drivers in linux. If any of your hardware is not working in linux, you need to tell us exactly which one/s aren't. Thanks.

[kanqkhaos]

My webcam, sometimes my screen turns pinkish-purpleish-greenish, sometimes my screen goes blank for a second or two at intervals of every hour to every 10 minutes, only two of my usb ports work. My processor definitely starts slowing down when I only have google chrome running two tabs, not even doing anything real intensive...that's about all I can think of. so what youre telling me is, I don't need to update regardless of how outdated my system is.. if i'm able to run Linux than I'm good to go? Interesting. Maybe this laptop is just too busted lol, Linux put new life into it, but maybe it's too far gone even for a new OS. Maybe I should mention the battery is completely shot i can't use the laptop unless it's plugged in. Well, thanks for the help Jerry.

[bitsnpcs]

Hello kanqkhaos,

if you open the battery and remove each cells discover which one/s are faulty using the digital multimeter, and then replace these with same rating 18650 protected, it will work again. Only use protected batteries otherwise you will get fire.

If you usb is not driver related but is hardware faulty, like port, joints, it can be fixed joint or replace port.  Ports are a common/routine repair done for laptops and phones.