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8600 owners... reinstall OS or no? - Page 2

post #21 of 38
1/21/04 at 10:48pm
I also remind you these dics require a dell laptop particularly your model for it to work and will most likely not function in anything else
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post #22 of 38
1/22/04 at 1:09pm
I just blew away the computer and started over from scratch. It worked wonderfully and my computer is running much better than it did out of the box. It's nice that the copy of XP that comes with it neither requires you to input the product key nor activate it. I suppose if there's Dell-only copy protection on it, they need not go through all the hassle. Just sometihng I enjoyed!

Tim
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post #23 of 38
1/22/04 at 9:38pm
Quick question, the one thing I feel that I'm missing since I formatted is the little indicator that tells me how bright the display or how loud the volume is on screen. Is that part of the Dell Media thing? If so, it's no big loss. Is there another program out there that can just give me an onscreen indication of these two things, or at least the volume?

Thanks!
Tim
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post #24 of 38
1/22/04 at 9:53pm
Its part of the Dell quickset software found on your drivers cd.
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post #25 of 38
1/22/04 at 11:56pm
I am cursed with a disease and can't leave well enough alone. I think that I am going to wipe my computer clean of Dells 'extras' and reinstall my OS this weekend. Before I do so, I downloaded all the drivers from dells website, but is there any special processes for wiping a laptop. I am an old pro when it comes to desktops but never messed with a laptop. Would appreciate the input.
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post #26 of 38
1/23/04 at 12:05pm
Thread Starter 
There is not really any special consideration - as long as you put all the drivers back... on my sager laptop (and others too) they recommend you intstall the drivers in a specific order. I'm not sure what the point of this is but this does not seem to be the case on the dell.

Good Luck - worse that can happen is you have to do it again... and again... and again hehehe
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post #27 of 38
1/23/04 at 4:48pm
Alright, got it formatted and reinstalled WinXP. I went through and installed all the drivers but have one problem. I still have one 'Other devices' maked with the yellow exclamation. It says 'Universal Serial Bus(USB) Controller'. The funny thing is, my USB ports work and there is a USB controller installed in device manager. I reinstalled the chipset drivers to no avail. I am wondering if this controller is for USB2.0. Anyone know of any driver that I could have missed?
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post #28 of 38
1/23/04 at 5:12pm
Looks like I may have jumped the gun asking for help. Just deleted from Device Manager and reboot. Recognized automatically as the USB2.0 controller and now all is well. Definitly worth the effort to clean install.
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post #29 of 38
1/27/04 at 2:21pm
Ok..Noob question.

I would like to do a clean install of XP, but I've never done this before. Could someone list the steps for me. People are talking about drivers and such so I want to make sure I don't screw it up. Please remember I'm a complete newbie...Thanks!
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post #30 of 38
1/27/04 at 2:34pm
Thread Starter 
Put the XP CD in your CD drive
Hit F12 (or whatever it says to hit on the Dell boot up screen to get to boot order)
Select Boot from CD from the option list

XP install will lead you through several screens... the important one is to do a clean install (format your drive and install a clean image over it)

I would recommend formatting your disk as NTFS instead of Fat32 - it gives you more security at the file level but that is a matter of preference...

Once you re-format your drive and go through all the menus you wait for XP to finish installing. Then it will boot you into windows...

This is what we mean by installing drivers... you will notice your screen looks funny and you can't access your network card (among other things)

This is because you have not installed the drivers for these devices.

You will need to insert the cd that came with your computer that says "device drivers" on it. It has a graphical window that pops up and guides you through choosing the correct drivers for you laptop type and OS (which is windows XP in your case)

You will need to install drivers for your sound card, wireless network, wired or ethernet network, video card, touchpad, and some intel chipset drivers

Overall it is a pretty easy process and much of the way is explained in easy steps by the setup programs. It is a good exercise but be warned that if not done correctly your system may do odd things later so it might be best to get someone who has done it before or research a little more till you are confident that you are doing it correctly.

Also be warned that you are formatting your hard drive and will lose ALL data on it so if there is something you want to keep, BACK IT UP FIRST!

hope that helps
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post #31 of 38
1/27/04 at 4:03pm
Thanks for taking the time to help me, draklava!

I also found this page for info on reinstalling XP:

http://www.djdenham.com/Install%20Pr...es.htm#Install
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post #32 of 38
1/27/04 at 4:16pm
Thread Starter 
cool - good luck!
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post #33 of 38
1/31/04 at 4:55am
So that Dell WinXP cd won't work on any other computer? Crap.

I get XP Pro for free from my college (yay for engineering) and so like other's have said, I booted it up, and when I made sure everything worked, formatted and repartitioned everything (gotta throw Linux on there ya know). I was hoping then to use the XP cd to put it on my parents computer when I visit home, but I guess I won't be able to do that.
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post #34 of 38
2/19/04 at 8:37pm
Hi peeps! and esp. rykwon97

My first post here, and *calling for help*

After reinstalling WinXP Pro (i got the Home Edition from Dell but i already had Pro (without SP1) at home) on my 8600, this USB Controller problem also comes up. When i delete the device from the device manager and reboot, the problem appears again..

Any thoughts??
Thanks!
Tim (The Netherlands)

Quote:
Originally Posted by rykwon97
Alright, got it formatted and reinstalled WinXP. I went through and installed all the drivers but have one problem. I still have one 'Other devices' maked with the yellow exclamation. It says 'Universal Serial Bus(USB) Controller'. The funny thing is, my USB ports work and there is a USB controller installed in device manager. I reinstalled the chipset drivers to no avail. I am wondering if this controller is for USB2.0. Anyone know of any driver that I could have missed?
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post #35 of 38
2/19/04 at 10:55pm
My first post here, and *calling for help*

After reinstalling WinXP Pro (i got the Home Edition from Dell but i already had Pro (without SP1) at home) on my 8600, this USB Controller problem also comes up. When i delete the device from the device manager and reboot, the problem appears again..

Have you updated XP Pro?? Do that first and try again.
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post #36 of 38
2/19/04 at 11:37pm
Installing service pack 1 will fix the USB prob.
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post #37 of 38
2/20/04 at 12:36am
I think the others have the right idea. If I am not mistaken, SP1 introduced support for USB 2.0. Once you install the service pack, you might then try do delete the device and reboot. Should fix your problem.
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post #38 of 38
2/20/04 at 12:08pm
After installing SP1 (after the reboot) the drivers were directly found by xp.

Thanks everyone!
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