1700 Vostro with XP

[3 of 7]

If you need help slipstreaming your XP disc, give me a shout and I'll try and walk you through it as best as I can or get one to you.

[Gorganzola]

Great to hear you had a good experience with technical support. I have a guy that is on my team that I support and is completly blind, he uses JAWS to do his job, and he does an excellent job at that.

I wasn't clear on the slow performance on the system, sounds like it may well be worth swapping it out none-the-less. If you have next business day service, rather than return to depot, it might have been worth trying to send out a collection of parts to resolve the issue quicker. Something to consider.

Originally Posted by Magoo2006

Hi again. The Dell technical support were actually very good. I explained that I am registered blind and the guy talked me through doing some simple things, like removing the memory stick on the back of the PC and then disabling the flash cache mode and also changing the sata setting to ata. Also we run a full system diagnostic using the built in programme, but this revealed no problems. The system, I think, was not runnning ok from the get go; considering it is a relitively high spec machine and running what is supposed to be Microsoft's best operating system yet it was running very slow and was taking ages even starting up! Also I have some specialised software that I use to help me access a PC and this is not compatible with Vista, only XP. There's no way I'm paying nearly £1,000 to upgrade my speech software and magnification software, I'm sure you can appreciate this is very costly.

Eh, thanks for taking time to help though, I do really appreciate every bit of help that comes my way, thank you. I will certainly see if I can get you the service tag number off the machine, hopefully tomorrow. I will also see if I can find the receipt from Dell, that will give you all the information you need. Oh, the PC is in my wifes name, she bought it for me through her business.

[Magoo2006]

Hi again,

Yeah, would be great if you could talk me through the process, I've never actually done this kind of thing before. I do have a legal XP disk and service pack II, but not familiar with the software that you talk about. I am pritty good on the PC and guess I'm a kind of advanced user; I build them and repair them in my spare time, when I say I am not familiar with PC's I mean in respect of software. I do have some residual vision and make use of magnifiers etc. If you could help that would be great. I don't think that it would be that easy for you to get a disk to me, as I think you are stateside and I am in the UK. Would be grateful for your help though; many thanks.

[Magoo2006]

Hi, thanks for getting back. Yeah, the next day business thing I have, they sent an engineer out who fitted a new motherboard, memory and hard drive. It loaded Vista ok, but after he went I started up the PC and again got the stop error screen message! I also use Jaws for Windows and also use a programme called Zoomtext 8, though they are on version 9 now. I am going to hang on for a couple of days to see Dell get back in touch and I will give them a call. The service guys we have seem to be in India, I thought it might have been the US or even Ireland, but no, India. All the same, the guys where very good and helful, oh, and ladies too!

[3 of 7]

OK. First thing is to download and install nilte
nLite - Deployment Tool for the bootable Unattended Windows installation - Download
Then your going to copy all the files from your XP disk to a directory on your hard drive, you'll need to tell nlite where they are ( you can do it right from the disk, but it's hella slow that way)

You also need the extracted sata driver files on hand I've zipped the ones you need and attached them..Unzip them into a folder where you'll be able to find them.

When Nlite asks what ones to use , you want to use the icha8m

The nlite program also gives you the option of making a bootable iso that you can later burn to a cd for your install.

[SRTDodge05]

3 of 7 where did you find the sata drivers for xp? Im looking xp pro on a hp laptop and hp doesnt have the drivers on there site for anything to do with xp.

[3 of 7]

I used the ones they had on the Dell site... They even worked!
I'm wondering if you have an intel Mobo if these ones would work?

[SRTDodge05]

Intel motherboard with the 965 chipset.

[3 of 7]

My Vostro has the PM965 chipset with Intel (R) 8280 1HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller

[SRTDodge05]

Mines 82801HBM (ICH8-ME)

[SRTDodge05]

Making a nlite cd now.

[3 of 7]

Everest reports the chipset as Intel Crestline GL960/GM965/PM965

[SRTDodge05]

That sata driver pack you posted had the right drivers in it for my hp. So far its working fine.

[3 of 7]

Kewl!

[SRTDodge05]

The things you have to do to make the parents happy. This is the the third and final laptop im reloading, remove vista and put xp pro.