Can you copy drivers off an old laptop?

I have an old USB GPS unit which I haven’t used for years and I need the drivers for it.

It was very accurate and stable.

The original company no longer exists and the company that took them over does offer any support and have not replied to my emails.

I’m sure I must have an old laptop with the drivers installed.

Before i start digging around for PSU’s and messing with half dead laptops, is it possible to just copy drivers across via a USB stick? Or do you need an installer?

Yes.. it’s possible but you’ll need to install software to do it easily

http://www.drivermax.com or double driver or driver backup or driver collector

This is a massive “it depends.”

Out of the gate, how old is “old”?  What is it?  What OS is the old laptop running?

Make , model.

They are out there somewhere 🙂

@Cougar – The GPS unit is from about 2010.

I think the last laptop I used it with was W7.

The reason I want to see if I can get it going again as it was a professional grade device with a Trimble GPS unit.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/Trimble%20GPS%20drivers

@redthunder – It’s called an “AntennaPlus”. It has no model or serial number on the outside.

The more I think about it, I guess the drivers must be for the Serial to USB convertor part of it?

It’s a well sealed unit with no screws etc. so it’s likely I can open it to identify a chipset.

You are lucky your GPS unit works? I ask because I had a gps device from that era which was a great device Holux data logger but due to a change in the way the satellites sent their info the unit didn’t work. Something to do with the chip set in the device from that era. I think?

@retrorick – I have a Holux M-241 data logger from that time and it still works as far as I know.

They maybe an issue with the Holux software not running on Windows 10?

Mine was a Holux GPS 245? I think?

The Holux software on the pc might have been the problem as well as I think the data points were taken from the device and then displayed on the PC via the Holux software which might have lost their Google maps licence?

Either way the device stopped working and I’m pretty sure the GPS chips were the problem as they couldn’t display the correct time and therefore unable to find their location?

So, OK.  This is my thinking.

If it is a serial device piggybacked onto USB then there is a chance that the drivers are 16-bit, in which case you’re bollocksed on a modern system.  You can “thunk” (genuine technical term, I’m not making this up) 16-bit drivers on a 32-bit system, and 32-bit drivers on a 64-bit system, but 16 on 64 is right out.

If the modern PC identifies it as a USB device you can go to its Properties in Device Manager, pick the Details tab and change the property view to Hardware ID.  This will give you a bunch of strings with increasing detail.  You’re looking for something like USB\ROOT_HUB&VIDxxxx&PIDxxxx – google that string.

Thanks for that.

I think it could well be a 16 bit device. I’ll check later.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060501000000*/http://www.antennaplus.com/

As for the ‘copying’ question,

A basic driver consists of an .inf file and a .sys file.  These are copy-able.  Whether they will work and whether they require supporting files or other software is another matter entirely.

Oh, and,

http://www.drivermax.com or double driver or driver backup or driver collector

This may just be me, but I am deeply sceptical about anything that pertains to being a driver manager.  If you take this route I would advise caution, I can’t offhand think of any third-party software which does what Windows already does that wasn’t utter garbage and/or required your credit card details.

Ditto

Oh, and,

http://www.drivermax.com or double driver or driver backup or driver collector

This may just be me, but I am deeply sceptical about anything that pertains to being a driver manager.  If you take this route I would advise caution, I can’t offhand think of any third-party software which does what Windows already does that wasn’t utter garbage and/or required your credit card details.

Oh, and,

http://www.drivermax.com or double driver or driver backup or driver collector

This may just be me, but I am deeply sceptical about anything that pertains to being a driver manager.  If you take this route I would advise caution, I can’t offhand think of any third-party software which does what Windows already does that wasn’t utter garbage and/or required your credit card details.

@Cougar – It shows up under “Other devices” in Device Manager and is correctly named as “Antenna Plus GPS”.

The Hardware ID’s are USB\VID_10C4&PID_8116&REV_0100 and USB\VID_10C4&PID_8116.

I googled both and got nothing.

I’m going to dig out and old laptop and see if I can I get further info.