Missing drivers are always a trouble after installing an operating system. On this page you can choose between four methods to install drivers: Windows Update, Manually, Ma-Config or DriverAgent. Basically all Windows 7 and Vista drivers should work on Windows Server 2008 R2, however some hardware manufacturers do a check in the installer whether the PC is running Windows 7 or Vista and errors if any other operating system is running like Windows Server 2008 [R2]. These methods also work for installing drivers in other Windows versions.
Method 1: Windows Update
Method 2: Manually download and install them
1. To find out what the real names of the devices are first go to download and install the tool Lavalys Everest from the Lavalys website or download.com.
2. Run Everest. Now you can look for two things: the exact type of your motherboard (2a), and the the devices that are not installed yet (2b). The best is to install the drivers for your motherboard first.
3. After you downloaded the drivers you can install the drivers either Automatically or Manually.
3a. Automatically:
You can install the drivers automatically by just following the instructions and installation files in the driver package. If it refuses to install using the installation wizard, try to install them manually.
3b. Manually:
1. Sometimes manually installing the drivers just don’t work because the installer is not packed in a compression that is decompressable by for example 7-Zip (http://www.7-zip.org/), but if it *is* possible, extract the driver package by right clicking on the file you downloaded, then choosing 7-Zip -> extract to name subfolder.
3. Choose Browse my computer for driver software if you are asked how to search for driver software.
4. Click Browse and select the driver folder in the folder you extracted in step 1 in where the .inf (Setup Information) files reside.
Method 3: Ma-Config.com
The website in this method is partially french, but that won’t be a problem if you just click the right links/buttons! 
1. Start Microsoft Internet Explorer, go to the url http://ma-config.com/ and click Start the Detection.
2. Click Run the detection, install the plugin and follow the steps on the screen. If the driver detection crashes, try to use this url in stead of the url in step 1 to get it working.
Method 4: DriverAgent.com
If the three other methods didn’t work or if you just don’t want to try them, visit the website http://www.driveragent.com/, click the Start Download Now button and install the little application. Your computer hardware will now be examined to check if there are drivers available for your specific operating system/architecture. The disadvantage is that, if drivers are found, you need to pay for an account in order to download the drivers.
More Help
If none of these methods worked to get your devices working you can ask someone at the Win2008[r2]workstation Forum for help. There are lots of experts out there that are willing to help! 
Continue to get Windows Server 2008 R2 in your own language. If you want to keep it English, continue to change the Computer Name…
20 comments so far...
Hi I have windows 2008 r2 and atri radeon 2600pro.
Have problems installing the drivers and setting up multi monitors. your help is appreciated.
Regards
What about Standby/Sleep?
I asked myself why the standby option was missing and kept updating drivers and thinking.
But Standby is working, I just can’t figure out how to make it a “GUI option”.
If you want to manually enter standby mode (Power management is transparently working), you can directly make an API call using “rundll32″.
I don’t know the exact syntax, but with “AutoHotKey” (http://www.autohotkey.com) you can use the following script:
DllCall(“PowrProfSetSuspendState”, “int”, 0, “int”, 0, “int”, 0)
You can then create a shortcut/link and put it in a convenient place (StartMenu etc.).
@Anonymous
1. Right click on an empty area on your desktop.
2. Select New>Shortcut.
3. In the first box of the Create Shortcut Wizard, type “%windir%System32rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Standby” (without quotes). Click Next.
4. Call the shortcut something like “Standby” (without quotes) and click Finish.
5. To add the finishing touch, right click on this new icon, select Properties, click the Change Icon button and select an appropriate icon.
Just in case you wanted to know here are some other shortcuts:
Shutdown: %windir%System32shutdown.exe -s
Reboot: %windir%System32shutdown.exe -r
Logoff: %windir%System32shutdown.exe -l
Standby: %windir%System32rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Standby
Hibernate: %windir%System32rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Hibernate
Just replace what is in quotes in line 3
Just in case: if the “Standby” switch doesn’t work for Standby try the “Sleep” switch. It depends on the bios config of S3 and on your system config of sleep/hybrid sleep/hibernation. Check the power options for more. I think hibernation is disabled by default (not available at all as an option), but it is supported.
To Enable/Disable Hibernate open a Elevated Command Prompt.
A) Enable: In the elevated command prompt, type powercfg -h on and press Enter.
B) Disable: In the elevated command prompt, type powercfg -h off and press Enter.
Thank you for the rundll32 syntax; I didn’t know because rundll32.exe has no command line help (/?).
Hibernate is not supported on systems with more than 4GB RAM. There was a boot option “/MAXMEM=4096″ which might be still supported for 2008 R2, but I think that’s a disadvantage overall ….
Have the same problem:
Win2k8 R2 with ATI Radeon 3850 card. Drivers for Win7 won’t install.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Arris: Why won’t they install? Which error do you get? Have you tried to manually install the drivers?
Try “NeoSmart Technologies – EasyBCD”,
.
Google to download the latest version 1.7.2 as I wrote down this message.
Always install this under Local-Admin account! (Elevate install)
Execute the binary program, discard the stupid warning of UAC, because it runs very well and safely on Windows32/64 Vista/Seven and WS2008(R2)!
Go to the left-paned-button; Advanced Options (At first: make from all settings, under all groups a “Save” and “Backup” first, so when you “Cancel” the total Operation (by pressing “Apply Settings”, nothing changes!!)
Set here:
“Allow unsigned driver installation of Vista x64″,
and:
“DEP: Allways Off”,
ATI litterly ‘executes unsigned drivers’ – stupid as that might be…. at my place this works, but first still try without the “DEP: Allways Off” option, just because it could lead to an unstable system, and I am stupid, and I think I know what I am doing.., after 14 years of IT
Good luck, e-mail me, I will answer by posting here, so its handy for anybody, okay?
Here’s a bizarre one…
I have a EVGA, Nvidia GeForce 7300GT card with one VGA and one DVI connected to one Dell 2408WFP and one 2407WFP running through a dual monitor KVM. I was previously running Server 2008 on this machine without the only video problem being that every time I booted, the DVI monitor (2407) would reduce resolution – an easy fix.
Now with 2008r2, and the latest driver (11/20/09), when I switch back to this machine after a little while away (20 minutes?), the VGA monitor isn’t recognized. Everything drops back to a single monitor. Even more odd, if I go to “Control PanelAppearanceDisplayScreen Resolution” and click on the “Detect” button, the second monitor is “seen” only 10-20% of the time. I can get a second monitor after a minute or so of futzing, but that is extremely annoying.
If this were all a new setup, I wouldn’t hesitate to blame the KVM or video card, but like I said it all worked before with 2008. Does anyone here have any suggestions?
Cam anyone point me to the right thread / post on how to get Nvidia driver’s to install? I’ve got dual GTX295 and the seem happy – but no Nvidia drivers yet – so I can’t enable SLI.
Help? And thanks.
Dave G
Arris: The Windows 7 x64 drivers should work fine. You can download them from here. If installing them using the installer doesn’t work, try to install them via the Device Manager manually. Note: In the latest version of 7-zip you might have to extract the executable first and then you will have to extract the [0] file too. If you still can’t get it working, I invite you to ask your question at the forum!
Thanks, Arris. My hold up is that the there is no “Display” node in the device manager – so I’m not sure how to handle the update. Poking around – if this rings a bell let me know.
Thanks again.
Dave G
Arris: Hm, they should be in the Display adapters section of the Device Manager. What if you change to Devices by connection in the view menu and navigate to COMPUTERACPI x64-based PCMicrosoft ACPI-Compliant SystemPCI busPCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge? Another possibility is to look in one of the Devices views of Lavalys Everest as can be seen here. Also, have you installed your motherboard drivers? Your motherboard is the link between your OS and the graphics card(s). Good luck and thanks for your support (
)!
If you want, I’ll put this in the forum, but here’s where I’m at…
The Display Adapter appeared in Device Manager only after I re-enabled the motherboard display adapter in BIOS. Unfortunately, what showed up was the plain vanilla vga adapter.
Your PCI to PCI bridge clue is probably spot on, as a the single “complaint” from Device Manager is (one of) the PCI to PCI bride items. I learned from Tyan this morning that Nvidia is not supporting the Nforce Pro 2200 chipset on R2. So… now I suspect we’ve found the nut of the problem.
Ever remembering anyone have trouble with NForce chipset(s) on R2?
Any help appreciatd – and I’m happy to donate more if I can get this working.
Thanks,
Dave (feel free to email)
?
The specs are:
Tyan S4985G3NR-E Motherboard
4 Hexacore Opterons
Arris: At the NVIDIA website there are no Windows 7 drivers for the NForce Pro 2000 series, so you should try the Vista x64 drivers and hope these work. Looks like you would have the same problem if you would have used Windows 7, or did it work for you in Windows 7? If that is the case you could extract the drivers from Windows 7 using for example Driver Genius and install them into Windows Server 2008 R2. Anyway, you ‘d better post your topic with all info you provider/received so far at the forum so more experts can think about this problem.
More info from a post elsewhere…
I’ve tried just about everything. It seems there is a conflict between the mb and the graphics card. If I add the card, I see a problem “PCI to PCI-bridge” entry in the device manager. So, basically, the card, or part of it, is only being seen by ‘08r2 as a PCI to PCI bridge. I found a related entry out on the web, but the registry fix that claimed to fix the problem was to a dead link.
I tried updating the driver for the pci to pci bridge entry to the card (a GTX 295) but that hasn’t worked…
Anybody think of anything clever…?
System is:
Tyan MB with 4 socket, hexa-core CPUs (Nvidia 2200 nForce Pro Chipset)
GTX 295 Video card (THE PROBLEM)
LSI Raid
Card does not even appear under Display Adapters… When I disable the unused motherboard graphics adapter in BIOS, the “Display Adapters” section goes away altogether under Device Manager.
Everything works except seeing/using the GTX and the only clue is the PCI to PCI bridge entry…
Arrgg…
Help?
Just an update… Nvidia (and apparently other) drivers don’t work well with Hypervisor. So, I’ve made progress (but not a solution) by disabling hypervisor.
[...] Download drivers [...]
To Mark Peter:
What do you mean about the stupidity of UAC? It’s purpose is NOT to know if software is safe or not.
Instead it makes sure that no software makes changes to the system without users knowing it by prompting UAC window where user must click OK or in some cases give administrative credentials (UAC prompt behaviour can be changed with group policies).
“Execute the binary program, discard the stupid warning of UAC, because it runs very well and safely on Windows32/64 Vista/Seven and WS2008(R2)!”
So commenting about something running well on OS or not does not relate to UAC or it’s prompting anyhow.
It prompts on safe and working programs nad it is planned to do so without making difference between programs or their safety.
It’s all about making sure that there would not be unintentional changes to machine.
To anyone.
I installed Windows Server 2008 R2 on a Dell Inspiron 1521 Laptop.
I got everything to work except the Video Card.
Its a ATI RS690M Video Adapter.
I downloaded the Vista 64 Version but no luck.
Thanks for the reply.
I found the solution already for my Windows Server 2008 R2 Display Graphics.
Here is the link for the drivers.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.13&lang=English
They are Windows Vista x64 Drivers.
I didnt install the Catalyst Program, just the display driver.
Model: Dell Inspiron 1521 Laptop.
Windows Aero works perfect.
I downloaded the rest of the drivers for this model useing Slim Drivers program. Its a free windows driver detect and download freeware.
Drivers for the wifi card that comes built in, comes in the Windows 2008 OS installation. Out Of Box.
You will need to download additional drivers for your system using the program Slim Drivers.
It would be good if the was a special page with a list of all the Laptops and PCs with there drivers posted that work well with Windows Server 2008 R2.
But for these drivers did me good. This is my first Server experience.
Now my goal is to learn how to use the OS inside out.
Hopefully someone finds this info usefull.
Any solution?
I install Windows Server 2008 R2 on my Sony Vaio laptop – VPCEE34FX. Everything seems fine, the graphics card driver for windows 7 installs fine. But it is not as smooth as in windows 7. Looks like the monitor refresh rate is low, but then, it works fine in windows 7 with that refresh rate (60 Hertz). My graphics card is ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250. Any help would be much appreciated.
[...] Windows Server 2008 R2 – Drivers # Windows Server 2008 – [...]
[...] be compatible with windows server 2008 r2 , or do I hav to downlad a seperate dirver for it ? Convert your Windows Server 2008 R2 to a Workstation! – Drivers Experience is earned. Quote + Reply to Thread « Previous [...]
One easy way, if you have installed in a multiboot/dual-boot config. Direct all “conflicting drivers” in the Device Manager to Update Drivers looking in the original Windows system32 directory.
Arris: That’s smart, thanks for this tip!
leave a reply