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rogelio · Mon Jun 14, 2004 11:46 pm

I'm going to purchase a Dell laptop with Windows XP Home preinstalled. I figure I might just wipe off the OS and do a clean install of either XP Pro or 2000... (I don't like XP Home, don't want to pay extra $ for Pro, and don't want any of the crap software that will most likely come preinstalled)

How easy is the reinstall process of Windows an a Dell laptop?
Do most of the drivers apply fine off install?
How many of the drivers did you have to get specifically through Dell's site?

Alex · Tue Jun 15, 2004 12:00 am

You should get a CD (or series of CDs) that includes every driver needed (basically everything installed when you get it). You should also get your own copy of Windows XP with it.

I have reinstalled XP on several laptops, and it has been a breeze. Normally, it is as easy as a desktop setup (if you have done it before, it should be no problem). Just throw the Windows CD in the optical drive, get into your BIOS, select your optical drive as the primary boot device, and your off to the races. :wink:

rogelio · Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:17 pm

You should get a CD (or series of CDs) that includes every driver needed (basically everything installed when you get it).

Has anbody been able to acquire such a CD with the purchase of their Dell notebook?

the_silver_bullet24 · Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:25 pm

rogelio wrote:
Has anbody been able to acquire such a CD with the purchase of their Dell notebook?

It should come with the laptop. Installing Windows XP again shouldn't be much different than your typical desktop install.

Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:27 pm

Why dont you like xp home? only thing Pro has is extra cpu support & some more networking options...i mean this is a laptop...also all those preinstalled programs can be uninstalled "VERY" easy since alot of the time you need to start them once before they put there hands all over the system.

rogelio wrote:
How many of the drivers did you have to get specifically through Dell's site?

anyway if you choose to still install pro (dont see why) you should get them from dell, they are the most current and its easy.

ciRCuSSIdeSHOw · Thu Jun 17, 2004 11:25 pm

^^ Indeed. XP Home is 500 times faster than XP Pro for some unknown reason... And if you aren't going to be joining a domain any time soon or having multiple processors, then use home.

rogelio · Wed Jun 23, 2004 6:57 pm

XP Home is 500 times faster than XP Pro for some unknown reason

Hmmm.... I don't know about that one.
In my experience, Win2K seems to be faster at most things than XP (except for bootup that is).

Sargent Duck · Wed Jun 23, 2004 7:23 pm

I'm not too sure of this, but by formatting the drive, and installing your own version of xp (or any os for that matter) wouldn't you be voiding the warrantly? I think some companies will only honor the warrantly if you have not made any changes to the OS.

Usacomp2k3 · Wed Jun 23, 2004 7:23 pm

you don't even really need the latest drivers
I got my dell laptop w/ home and the second it came out of the box, i threw in the xp pro cd I got from my university account and reformatted... didn't even need any drivers, I don't think (except my wireless card which I added later) i updated the video drivers w/ omega's but other than that, XP is good to go

rogelio · Thu Jun 24, 2004 6:51 pm

I only plan on getting the limited 1 year labor/parts service warranty. I don't believe any of the warranties cover software, so I should be free to reinstall whatever I want.

Some Dell packages for Windows 2000 preinstalled even include a free Windows XP Retail serial with the packages, so if ever I care to change the OS, I'm free to do so.

Usacomp2k3 · Thu Jun 24, 2004 6:54 pm

rogelio wrote:
I only plan on getting the limited 1 year labor/parts service warranty. I don't believe any of the warranties cover software, so I should be free to reinstall whatever I want.

yeah that's what I got as well... expired last week... oh well
and you are correct in that it doesn't cover software, but then again, software never really comes under warranty.... the only thing I can think of that you mean is like antivirus that has a year subscription to updates or something like that, but software has nothing to do w/ warranties

Thu Jun 24, 2004 7:23 pm

Usacomp2k3 wrote:
you don't even really need the latest drivers
I got my dell laptop w/ home and the second it came out of the box, i threw in the xp pro cd I got from my university account and reformatted... didn't even need any drivers, I don't think (except my wireless card which I added later) i updated the video drivers w/ omega's but other than that, XP is good to go

That is a VERY bad idea, xp has stock drivers that are ok if you can not find new (or old) ones but you are missing, ide, modem,nic,touchpad, and pretty much every other driver you could use that is going to make the laptop 50% more responsive. Just loading xp onto a laptop is something you do with an older laptop because you *think* it is not going to matter one way or the other because it is slow to begin with. *Not* with current laptops, not only do you lose about 50% of its speed, but also a lot of shortcuts. Also that little bit more of power you get from that omega driver.. does it let you power down (clock down) the videocard to save battery life?

Usacomp2k3 · Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:22 pm

OK guys...rescind what I said... not b/c of Nelliesboo, but these newest Omega driver's hosed my laptop....it woulnd't recognize the lcd display..so yeah.. reformatted and it started working....until, i tried to install the omega's...did that and poof...using an external monitor, unistalled and installed the ones from dell, and no-go...so now i'm reinstalling for the 2nd time..and will just stick with Dell's drivers
I8500, btw w/ radeon 9000

LicketySplit · Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:37 pm

If youre going to go pro...just order it from Dell...afaik..most oem lappies and desktops dont come with a xp disc per se...they are usually recovery discs which will get your drive back to factory settings...its not a standalone disc...each mfgr adds drivers and other "goodies" (read junk) to the disc..i agree that home is more than enuf for your needs...you sure as heck arent going to be running 2 cpu's in it and it should have more than enough for you networking needs.....back to the recovery disc...some dont even send that anymore...its embedded into your os files...another way to save money and rip off the consumer :roll:

I dont know if you can get credit for ordering w/o and os installed..that way you can put whatever you want on it.

Usacomp2k3 · Wed Jul 28, 2004 6:46 pm

AAAHHH.....weird
whenever I install the drivers for my video card here on my laptop it wigs out and refuses to use the lcd panel.....I installed the omega's earlier today and wigged out and I figured it was just somethign with those omega's...this time I got the ones from Dell and it didn't work either...luckily I thought to boot into 'last know good configuration' and got the ATI's unistalled...however I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place...any suggestions????

LicketySplit · Wed Jul 28, 2004 6:59 pm

Have you tried F10? its a reinstall...but at least it should get it back to factory spec? Or...maybe even sys restore?

Usacomp2k3 · Wed Jul 28, 2004 7:01 pm

well i can get it to restore...it's just that w/o driver's, i'm pretty much useless...
maybe i'll try the new omega's...i think i was using an old versino

*crosses fingers*

Usacomp2k3 · Wed Jul 28, 2004 7:09 pm

ok no dice...
the odd thing is that as long as I boot in VGA mode, it works fine...or boot without driver's, it's good...it's just that you know after the loading windows... bar goes across, and then at one point, it blinks out, changes resolutions, usually, and then brings up the logon screen, it's at that change point, that it goes blank.

it works fine with an external monitor, and it's almost as if it assumes that that is what's going on...

it's weird b/c it just started doing this not too long ago...*sigh*

Usacomp2k3 · Thu Jul 29, 2004 9:22 am

yay!.. ok guys what I did was download the 4.7 catalyst drivers and mod them into letting them be used on the mobility series and voila..it works

zgirl · Thu Jul 29, 2004 9:56 am

the_silver_bullet24 wrote:
It should come with the laptop.

Nope. Most OEMs (might be some smaller ones that still do) no longer give you a windows CD. They only give you a restore disk that will place the same load on the HD that orginally came shipped with the unit.

Sorry try again.

Usacomp2k3 · Mon Aug 09, 2004 10:55 pm

Usacomp2k3 wrote:
yay!.. ok guys what I did was download the 4.7 catalyst drivers and mod them into letting them be used on the mobility series and voila..it works

ok I feel really stupid, I noticed that the screen didn't go off after I closed my laptop. So then I looked at the little button that pushes down when the screen closes and *ding* the light went on. It acted as though the panel wasn't there, b/c it thought that it was closed, and thus not really there...So i take off that piece, and sure enough the metal springing thing was bent into always pushing down, so i just cut it off and now it works

...of course now I can't use the close lid function, but hey, i have my 1280x800 back

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