Last week I installed Win2003 EE on D800 (w/o BT) with basic drivers, no Intel Chipset drivers (not available for Win2003) and no Dell Notebook System Software.  It seems to run fine.  Dell USB floppy drive works fine also.  Btw, there seems to be no 'hibernation' function, maybe it's removed by MS, although it's available on Win2000 Server.

Thanks for your input.

I just completed it and in fact it was very straightforward.

Anyone else who reads this and is looking to do the same thing, read on...

The Dell resource CD is the key to it all. Once Win2K3 install is complete, you're left with a bunch of devices for which there are no drivers. Simply run the utility on the resource cd which lists all the hardware on the system, then one by one install the xp drivers. A couple require reboots.

There is only one problem, as you say with the Intel Pro 2100 wireless nic. The install program moans about the os and terminates. However, if you go into Device Manager and select "update drivers" for the nic, choose the option where you specify the location of the drivers, then navigate directly to the folder on the cd containing the xp drivers, you're sorted.

Even the bluetooth works (at least the bt card is detected, I haven't been daring enough to try connecting it to the phone yet!)

Now all I need to do is work out why I can't yet join this server to my existing Win2K domain. More reading...