Intel DG41RQ: Where are the drivers?

[Feliciano-42]

The official Intel website does not have drivers for this board, which is very bad.

I got the drivers from driverscollection.com and driverscape.com but the LAN driver is not working correctly. The connection will go off randomly after 10 or 30 minutes of use and, for it to work again, I have to reinstall the LAN driver, I have done this multiple times at this point. Is there anything else I can do for this to work?

This is an old computer I'm fixing to give as a gift to kids who need it.

Thank you guys

[AlHill]

What OS? 

Opinion:  Giving a computer that is going to be a maintainence nightmare to kids who need a computer may not be the right thing to do.

Also, Please do yourself a favor and NOT use 3rd party driver sites.  You never know what information from your machine they are uploading (and to what country it is going), and you never know what payload is in the packages they are downloading.

Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[Maybe Windows 12 will be better]

[Feliciano-42]

"maintenance nightmare" is very strong language and it does not represent the current situation.

[n_scott_pearson]

I have to disagree (though I might say that 'security nightmare' is a better description). You are talking about an OS that has been discontinued and is no longer receiving security updates. For kids, you want the best security possible - they are not security-savvy and, as they say, curiosity killed the cat. You are not going to get it with Windows 7. Not now anyway.

Just saying,

...S

[n_scott_pearson]

Two comments...

1. Have you tried running Windows 10 on this box? Every driver that you will need is built into Windows 10 and will install automatically. The only thing is you really need to be using an add-in graphics card. Intel chose to not support chipset-based graphics with Windows 10 and the compatibility driver supplied by Microsoft is pretty old and has compatibility issues with a lot of more-modern software and games.
2. Did you know that you can do a from-scratch install of Windows 10 using that old Windows 7 License key? Microsoft still supports  the use of Windows 7 license keys, but only if you do a from-scratch install (i.e., no upgrading).

Hope this helps,

...S

[Feliciano-42]

I actually tried Win 10 but this is a 2009 machine and win 10 just runs slowly. I found Win 7 to be way faster and usable to do all sorts of things, even though Microsoft doesn't support it anymore. Thank you for the suggestions!

[Feliciano-42]

Update:

The connection loss issue now seems to be resolved.

I installed LAN drivers from Realtek's website, also from other off brand drivers websites and even got the Windows Update Realtek driver version... Frankly, I don't know which one worked, but the issue went away. xD

Thank you guys for the replies.

The build is looking great!

[AlHill]

Well, it is a 2008 machine and, as you can know, W7 is not supported, Intel has removed all support files, and you are having trouble finding drivers.  That is a "Maintenance Nightmare" and is very much the CURRENT situation.

If it is for kids to use, install W10 and be done with it.  I do not buy the "runs slowly" excuse.  Using the proper processor and memory, and an SSD for the boot drive, and you will be fine.

Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[Maybe Windows 12 will be better]