Just a start at the order drivers should be installed in.  IMO they should be installed from the most basic drivers (CPU/chipset) outwards - with external devices (such as printers, MP3 players, etc) being last.

Here's 2 links to start with:

http://www.geocities.com/extremetech_linksmaster/driverorder.htm
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?&docid=1A0C0937D62A8739E0401E0A55174744

Here's the order:
- Media Boot stuff (for those funny buttons on Dell, HP and other laptops.  Requires special partitioning of the hard drive.
- The OS - muy importante! (as you can tell, I'd don't habla espanol!)
- OS Service Packs
- Motherboard/chipset/controller drivers
- Video drivers
- Communications drivers (NIC, WiFi, Modem) - you may want to install the NIC first if you need the web to get drivers.
- Input devices (mouse, keyboard, fingerprint reader, etc)
- Audio drivers
- Other hardware drivers
- Antivirus (resident)
- Patches
- Utilities
- Applications