Reinstalling on Optiplex GX280

It is possible to put Windows 7 on it but the mucking around isn't worth it as the licence will be for a full version anyway (Vista?/XP?)

OEM disks can be easily bought on Ebay and cheaply - the versions with COA's sell for full price but you will have your licence key on the main unit so you just buy a disk set with no COA (around 15 dollars sometimes less) and install. There is a dealer in Brisbane that lists GX280s on there a lot - if you have trouble getting a set of disks cheap (which I doubt) you could get in contact with him and hit him up :)

Hope it helps

Danny

That's a great help

Thanx

Once you reformat the disk you should be good to go, also check the ram, it also causes a lot of video errors.

If the school is running dell machines it is possible that they can ghost it to run with the other dells that they have depending on the machines and the drivers that are set up  in the ghost. Schools for most part will not use one odd machine, unless they have others to go with it, because they have to load it separately, when there is a problem.  (Not only the os, but all of their specific programs.

I still have a bunch of them.

Kris7501

It is possible to put windows 7 on the machine.  If its not a tower then video cards will be unlikely.

However you would need a good video card and the onboard audio would not be recognized.  Radeon 4650 PCI-E would be a recommendation.

You would need to install Vista Drivers for the onboard audio.

Getting a Dell XP restore CD should be possible via Ebay.

http://ftp.us.dell.com/chipset/R79695.EXE

http://support.dell.com/support/download…

To KRIS7501 - This is the only Dell that I am aware of in the school - donated by a parent - strange they should give away such a good machine. Perhaps they were having problems with it too? What do you mean by 'once you reformat the disk...?' Don't I need the install disks I am looking for to achieve this?

Re RAM - There is 1 gig of RAM (which I will increase once I know I can do something with this machine), and it has the PCI Expressl X16 video card with DVI and S video connectors. 

Sorry - I am a little confused by your comments - are your comments general ones referring to getting the computer up and running or are they directed to the question about Windows 7?

Thanks for taking the time to answer

Cheers and thanks

Thanks Speedstep. It is the clamshell opening type Desktop with an additional PCI Express X16 video card. I am not after great graphics for gaming or anything so will this do?

There seems to be people selling Windows 7 Driver Disks with all the drivers needed for this model, on eBay? Can these be trusted?

Sorry to ask lots of questions but does a generic Dell Windows 7 restore disk work on any Dell or does it need to be specific to the model - like the driver disk?

Thanks for taking the time to reply

Cheers and thanks

A Dell OS disk will work on any DELL - but you will need a license key - or other activation method for it to work properly - I did forget to mention though that many DELL 's have their OS in a recovery partition usually D:{RECOVERY} . If that is the case you can boot into the recovery mode from startup and reset to factory without disks.

Is the Win7 disk on Ebay a OS media disk or just a disk full of drivers? - make sure of what you are buying before you do.

Thanks for the reply. As far as I have been able to find out, Optiplex models don't have the recovery partition - would have saved some money and trouble and I think with what has been attempted on this computer, it would have gone anyway! There is a Dell/Windows XP licence key on the side of the computer which I presume will work with any Dell XP restore disk but not a Dell Windows 7 disk? The disks on eBay look like a genuine Dell Windows 7 disk. Not sure if they come with a COA though. Cheers and thanks again 

Don't buy Ebay Dell windows 7 disks.  They will not install anyway without a COA.

Most of the Drivers for that model are built into windows 7 with the exception of the Video and Audio.

There are no WIN7onboard video drivers for the GX280 or the onboard sound.

If you Upgrade to vista from xp with with all the drivers working then upgrading from Vista to WIN7 will work.

IMHO this system is not worth upgrading to win7 since for $300 you can get a new computer with WIN7 installed.

An OEM copy of WIN7 home premium will be $109 and WIN7 Pro will be $149 and WIN7 Ultimate will be $179.

Retail copies are even more expensive.

Microcenter carries that kind with windows XP installed from Red Rabbit for $99.

Dell Optiplex GX270 Desktop Computer Off Lease Refurbished

Dell OptiPlex GX520 Desktop Computer Off Lease Refurbished

Used computers have become really cheap, sometimes making it easier to buy that to repair. We have not upgraded to the Win 7, we are still running XP. It is hard to change when you have a lot of them and it just works very well, Vista would have required purchasing new machines.

I would not upgrade it to Win 7.  I may have been confused when I read your post thinking that the hard drive may need to be reformatted, because of having a problem rebooting, but then I always need to know the exact error.

Good-luck, wish you well.

Thanks for your replies. I was only interested in seeing if I could help out a school getting this machine going, as it seems too good to throw out. I really didn't want to spend too much money on it, so buying other machines don't come into the equation, and our prices here in NZ are way higher than yours. I take your various points about Vista and Windows 7 - I have still stuck with XP but I guess it is the curiousity factor of seeing if I could get it to run Win 7 and the fact that apart from new teacher laptops, you don't get too many machines in a school with Windows 7 which it seemed this one was grunty enough to do.

As far as purchasing Windows 7 or Vista, I have all these disks. In NZ, our Ministry of Education pays a license fee for schools to have copies of current OS and Office, etc software for all school PCs - and teachers can have a copy on their home machines  - you just state how many qualifying machines you have in a school, every three years and the Ministry picks up the tab. They do the same for Apple products as well. Teachers are suppled with new PC or Mac laptops every three years and the school can purchase the laptops for the residual amount to increase their stocks. So if it was any other machine than a Dell, I would be able to use the disks I have to install but....

Thanks again for your help. 

i can send you a copy of an optiplex gx280 dell installation disc, only problem is that you will have problems booting from the cd, it seems to only wanna install from within a faulty xp opera\ting system, ive tried everything to boot from cd and it wont do it