I recently encountered a problem where a Dell Inspiron 6400 displayed three base system devices after installing Windows XP onto the machine. It originally had Vista installed, so I only had Vista drivers, which didn’t work with Window XP.
About a year ago, someone I know purchased an Inspiron 6400 laptop from Dell and tried to get XP installed on it instead of Vista. They had no luck and ended up with Vista. Recently, they have decided to remove Vista and install XP on that same laptop, and asked me to do it. No problem, at least until I ended up with three devices that weren’t recognized by XP.
If you have an Inspiron 6400 and have noticed three base system devices in the device manager, then I will explain how to correct that issue in this post.
Hardware and Windows XP
As I mentioned above, I recently was tasked with installing Windows XP on a Dell Inspiron 6400 that once had Vista installed. The one problem I encountered was that all the hardware installed was new, so XP didn’t have any drivers included.
I went onto the Dell support Web site and downloaded the drivers to the local hard drive. I installed the chipset, video, sound, network adapter and wireless drivers without any issues. After I rebooted I noticed that I still had three unknown devices in the device manager.
Unknown devices in the device manager means that I still need to install some drivers. Unfortunately, the devices were listed as a “Base System Device”, so it wasn’t very descriptive to help determine what I was missing.
After a quick search on the Internet, I read that there was an additional set of drivers for the card reader that was included in the laptop.
I went to the Dell support site once again and expanded the “Chipset” drivers. One of the items in the list was called “Ricoh – Driver”, which I promptly downloaded and installed. After installing the drivers I checked the device manager and noticed that the three unknown devices were now gone. I also had three new card reader devices installed, which were the three unknown devices.
As a side note the Dell Inspiron 6400 is also known as the E1505.
Summary
After installing XP on a Dell Inspiron 6400 I noticed that there were three unknown “Base System Device” entries in the device manager. After some quick research I learned that these devices were the Ricoh card readers. I downloaded the driver from the Dell support Web site and the three unknown devices disappeared and were replaced by the actual devices.
Tags: dell inspiron 6400, install windows, memory card reader, unknown base system devices
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on July 31, 2008 at 7:03 am
It worked for me like magic.
Thanks man n do kip it up!!!
on August 6, 2008 at 8:28 am
Thanks, it worked !
on August 19, 2008 at 10:28 am
hi all sorry my languge not very good but i thinks i can help you for ( base system device ) go to this link
http://ftp.us.dell.com/chipset/R105921.EXE
iam amjad from jordan . stargate_737@hotmail.com
on September 9, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Thanks !!…it worked as well for me….keep it up…to help others…it will come around…regards
on September 10, 2008 at 11:35 am
Thansk so much!!!! Was getting frustrated and so appreciate your fix.
Blessings and more,
on September 16, 2008 at 1:13 am
Dear Sir
it doesn’t work.
i download it and install it, but final message was failled.
thanks
on September 17, 2008 at 10:59 am
Thank You for this nice and valuable post.
i got the driver and install it quickly.
the direct link for the Ricoh – Driver as follows :
ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/chipset/R141246.EXE
on September 23, 2008 at 6:01 am
THANX A LOT!
on September 30, 2008 at 10:07 am
Thanks, merci, danke! Many hours full of frustration until I stumbled over your website. One minute! My problem has vanished….
on October 27, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Just redid my Inspiron and noticed that the OS CD that came with it only had 3 drivers (Audio, LAN and Chipset) so I had to download the rest.
I installed everything I could find but for the past 2 weeks I’ve been struggling with those 3 Base System Devices to the point where I almost threw my laptop out.
Then I found you… thanks for introducing me to Ricoh.
You Sir, are a godsend…
on October 29, 2008 at 2:26 am
Great info. avoided me hours of troubleshooting.
Thanks a lot
on November 16, 2008 at 11:57 am
i was struggling for last 2 days to remove those annoying icons from my system properties and when i tried above solution it worked like a magic,
Thanks
on November 25, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Hi my friend
this is the best link for download driver
on December 7, 2008 at 9:35 am
you rrrrrrrrrock)
on December 15, 2008 at 7:51 am
Thanks for the help. i appreciate ppl that take the time to post these solutions
on December 15, 2008 at 9:39 am
No problem. It took me a few days to figure out the issue, so I thought I’d pass it on.
on January 10, 2009 at 11:17 am
want to get update of base system device
on January 10, 2009 at 11:27 am
want an update of base device system
on February 14, 2009 at 2:00 pm
i thank you for your kindness. you are not a chava man (person who hide info), receive my appreciations
on February 24, 2009 at 9:49 pm
hey thanks alot for driver keep up the good work…
on April 17, 2009 at 2:58 pm
well done!!
nice sharing…
on April 24, 2009 at 2:37 pm
this worked for me. thanks a lot
on May 9, 2009 at 12:16 pm
this was a godsend.. thank you .. finally got the yellow out of my device manager..
on May 13, 2009 at 8:01 am
I had the exact same issue, now I know how to solve it, thanks,
on June 9, 2009 at 3:10 am
God bless u man.
on June 9, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Perfect!
This was driving me nuts for months!
on June 10, 2009 at 8:55 am
Didn’t work for me. I have a Dell Precision M6300. I’ve installed the Ricoh drivers with no luck. Still showing the Base System Device question marks in device manager.
on June 22, 2009 at 2:24 am
it works!
shotshotshot!
muah!
on June 29, 2009 at 9:21 am
Wow! its wonderful…Its working fine
U r de gr8…
Thanx my friend..
direct link:
ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/chipset/R141246.EXE
http://driverscollection.com/?file_id=32540
on July 21, 2009 at 11:36 pm
It works,
I’ve just downloaded and installed and I do not have the yellow ?.
Thank you very much
Alfredo
on August 26, 2009 at 2:11 am
This worked perfectly for me. Thank you very much.
on September 3, 2009 at 6:09 pm
that was the ticket! got the driver here
http://download.cnet.com/Chip-Set-Ricoh-R5C832-R5C843-Driver-Version-A00/3000-2122_4-108138.html?tag=mncol
on September 6, 2009 at 8:25 am
Brilliant, easy fix, many thanks
Just leaves you wondering why the hell does the Dell install process / CDs not do this, pretty okay with Dell in general, but this is poor, cheers
on September 8, 2009 at 9:57 am
I tried the CDs but they contained only the Vista drivers, and they weren’t very well laid out so finding any useful information on the CDs was a waste of time. It was much easier to go online, enter the service tag and get the XP drivers.
on September 24, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Thanks very nice….. Its yes worked
on October 14, 2009 at 7:38 am
thanx man that was really helpful i was going crazy cause if this problem
thanx again
on October 27, 2009 at 12:39 pm
thumbs up!!! very helpful…thanks a lot
on November 2, 2009 at 11:11 am
Nice!!That was a big headache fix..Thanks
on November 22, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Great work dude! Exactly what I needed!
on November 27, 2009 at 8:29 pm
thanks!!! My hard drive died so I had to buy a new one and start from scratch. I had to download all the drivers but I kept getting those 3 missing “base system device”.
Followed your directions and there it was on the dell website:
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&appIndex=dellspct&os=WW1&osl=en&servicetag=259Z9C1
Thanks again!! It’s all fixed!
on November 27, 2009 at 8:31 pm
that’s my service tag up there but it was an easy find under drives & downloads.
on December 5, 2009 at 7:44 am
Thank you!
on December 15, 2009 at 1:45 pm
thank you!
on January 21, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Thanks. It worked@@@
on February 3, 2010 at 7:24 am
thank you very much, it worked
on February 5, 2010 at 11:30 am
leave it to dell…….lol. thank you for your poast ! worked like a charm.
on February 9, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Thank you! you’re the man!
on March 29, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Hi man, thank you so much. !
on April 29, 2010 at 1:51 pm
You saved me hours of work! Thanks a million!
on May 21, 2010 at 7:32 am
Click on this link, download and this will solve your problem. This is a chipset driver
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R141246&SystemID=InspironI6400/E1505&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=9707&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=2&catid=27&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=27&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=188377
on May 23, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Thank you so much….
on July 2, 2010 at 11:58 am
Thank you
on July 5, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Thank you!!
on July 16, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Thank you!! That fixed for me too.
on July 16, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Good to hear.
on November 1, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Thanks a lot… it worked for me also…
on July 22, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Thank-you so very much for sharing this.
It was a big help. You are so kind to do this.
Sincerely, David.
on July 22, 2010 at 2:09 pm
I’m glad I could help.
on July 22, 2010 at 11:42 pm
thank god i stumble across this website and forum where my problems had been sorted almost immediately. to solve this problems had been on my head for a few weeks now.
i got to agree with some of you say dell should really provide with the solution in the utilities disc.
learn something new again today
all the best
on August 10, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Thank you very much for sharing this! GOD BLESS!
on August 10, 2010 at 9:53 pm
No problem.
on September 14, 2010 at 2:18 am
Nice work. You don’t happen to have a solution for the ‘screen flicker/screen goes very dark when disconnecting the A/C and switching to battery power issue’ as well do you…?
on September 14, 2010 at 8:10 am
That would probably be the power management options of your laptop. It is common for the screen to darken when switch to battery power. I wrote a post about it with regards to Microsoft Vista here: Vista Power Saving Settings – Increase Laptop Battery Life.
If you can’t control the screen brightness while on battery power, it could be a hardware issue.
on September 14, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Yeah, I’m thinking its hardware. Machine runs fine on A/C but as soon as you pull it, the screen just goes really dark i.e. you can just make out the desktop contents. I’ve set brightness through BIOS and the only way to get the screen back is to plug it back in then close and reopen the lid. Battery management says that the battery is fine but might see if I can find a spare and test it. If its not the battery and all the software settings appear right then it would have to be hardware – just noticed that there’s a buzzing sound coming from it too which can’t be good. Just odd that if its a screen issue then why is it only doing it whilst on battery power? :S Thanks for the reply btw.
on September 15, 2010 at 3:30 pm
wow cheers!
thanks for saving me a lot of time!!
on September 15, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Turns out it was the battery… swapped it with another machine and its fine.
on September 15, 2010 at 7:24 pm
That makes sense. The LCD is the largest drain on your battery. Since you battery had an issue, it probably couldn’t provide enough power to your LCD. I’m glad you were able to find the problem.
on September 18, 2010 at 1:22 pm
splendid.. the ricoh driver for windows vista did the trick.. thanks!
on September 22, 2010 at 10:38 am
I’m glad I could help with your driver situation.
on October 13, 2010 at 10:11 am
At last a helpful piece of support information on the Internet and at the top of the Google search contents. Thanks!
on October 13, 2010 at 1:13 pm
You’re welcome.
on October 13, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Thanks a million, I was pulling my hair out until I read your post. It worked great.
Thanks again,
Mikw
on October 13, 2010 at 1:12 pm
No problem. Glad I could help.
on January 9, 2011 at 11:56 pm
THANK YOU. IT WORKED FOR ME.
on February 16, 2011 at 10:58 pm
Excellent! My Dell Inspiron 6400 is good as new again!
PS Its designed for Windows XP so all the drivers are on the Dell Website.
The learning here is to install ALL the drivers!
on May 5, 2011 at 5:15 am
Worked for me on a Vostro 1700. Cheers.
on July 30, 2011 at 7:05 am
This was really helpful to me. I have Inspiron 640m and I had the same problem.
Thank you so much!!
on August 22, 2011 at 3:50 pm
The above article has helped me to solve the same problem. I get the problem a month ago and now, it is resolved. Thanks.
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