What laptop and why did you need to use the resource CD? Were you performing a clean install?

OMG I love you guys, r guys are so fast. I have a inspiron 5100. I had to rebot my system from the OS software, my next step was to install the drivers so I put in the cd and when it got to the black screen I did not know what command to enter.

I have never had a command prompt window for a Dell Resource CD. It isn't a Media Direct DVD is it?

Finally did you boot from the CD/DVD by pressing F12 or did you follow the same procedure as the Windows Disc?

For best results follow my wiki A Clean Install of Windows XP. You first need to boot from the Windows disc by powering down your computer and pressing F12 at the Dell BIOs screen as you power up. Once Windows XP is installed you should install the standalone Service Packs to get to Service Pack 3. Then you should install the drivers.

I would suggest that you download the Service Packs and Drivers  to a USB stick and install them as they are likely to be updated from the restore disc. Use another computer to download them and then install them in order on the Windows XP Desktop. 

• Windows XP Standalone Service Pack 2

• Windows XP Standalone Service Pack 3

• Internet Explorer 8

• Windows Media Player 11 

• .Net 2.0 

• R96945 Dell Notebook Software 

• R50830 Intel Chipset 

• R66756 ATI Video Driver, R65563 ATI Video HTML 

• R64747, R63944, R72240 Conexant Modem*

• R58028 Broadcom Modem*

• R53654, R53638, R50310 PCTel Modem*

• R54631, R54627 Broadcom Ethernet

• Tp2ua14i Touchpad, R45857 Touchpad HTML 

• Wireless Card**

• R90698 Sigmatel Driver 

• R97343 Dell Quickset 

* These are variants, enter Service Tag on the drivers and downloads page to find out which ones.
** there are a large number of variants here, again enter the Service Tag to find the correct one.

The resource CD can be used opposed to downloading the drivers, just put it in and install the drivers while on the Windows Desktop but downloading the later versions and installing the Service Packs before the drivers as mentioned in my wiki generally leads to better results.

It is the cd that came with my system. I followed ur instructions and the laptop looks good except for when I go into the device manager to see if there are no errors and I get a yellow ! by the Network Adapter Broadcam 440x. I had a little trouble with a couple of the drivers download. this is the only error I can tell so far.

What other drivers did you have problems with?

For the Broadcom Modem the driver setup may be designed for an earlier version of Internet Explorer. So you will need to install it a different manner.

The setup should now run. 

It will then say performing driver options and a black command prompt box should show. The driver completion should then go to 100 % (it was too fast for me to take a screenshot on my virtual machine).

In your case likely the last part didn't install correctly.

Press the [Pause|Break] and [Windows] button together or right click My Computer and select properties.

Select Hardware and Device Manager

Go to your Network Adaptor (or unknown device marked with a yellow ? or warning sign). Right click it and select update driver...

Select no not this time as we are going to specify the driver then next.

Select install from a specific location (advanced).

Uncheck search removable media and specify include the folder C:\Dell\Drivers\R54631\Drivers\WinXP\v3.51 then press next, next finish.

Attempt to repeat this for other drivers that failed to install for their respective devices however if you have no errors then likely you won't need to for them.