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Reformatting an Inspiron 5100

post #1 of 6
7/8/07 at 5:17pm
Thread Starter 
How do you reformat an Inspiron 5100?

I tried "booting from the XP CD" by starting up with the CD in the drive, pressing F12 when the dell logo came up, and selecting CD-ROM drive, but after doing that it simply proceeded to start up windows again.

I also tried inserting the XP re-installation CD when Windows was already booted up, and it brought up some choices. I picked 'Install Windows XP.' However, it did not work because it said that the "Windows XP version currently installed is newer than the version on the CD."

Help is appreciated, thanks for reading.
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post #2 of 6
7/9/07 at 1:48am
Oh, F12 and selecting the CD drive should definately get you on the path (assuming of course the XP CD is in there ). Try another tack. Press F2 on boot to get into the BIOS, and navigate to the screen where you can change the boot order. Shift CD drive to the top, and see if that gets you going.

If not, I guess that your CD could be corrupt? If you have a different one or can borrow one, try it with that and see what happens. If that looks happy then I would try contacting microsoft or dell to get a replacement OEM disc, should be able to so long as you provide the code on the bottom of your laptop.

Stu
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post #3 of 6
7/9/07 at 10:31pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the answer.

I tried putting the CD drive booting up "first" by changing the boot order, but it didn't work.

I'll probably call Dell when I have time.
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post #4 of 6
7/10/07 at 1:23am
Thread Starter 
Somehow I messed around with a LOT of options and got it to work.

However, the wireless card is not sensing. I installed the driver, but it said that it "could not start up (Code 10)" or something. Any suggests?
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post #5 of 6
7/11/07 at 12:25am
Try pressing Fn + F2? That is the key combo to turn the wi-fi on and off. Also check BIOS.
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post #6 of 6
7/11/07 at 5:04pm
Thread Starter 
I installed "newer" drivers over the stock drivers, and it worked. I guess the stock drivers were corrupt or something.
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