Vista to xp on an Inspiron 1721

Aislin, it looks like your bluetooth card is not completely installed. Try the XP drivers for the Latitude D531. It is file R167661.exe and is 28MB.

>> I will mark your post as the resolution and float this one for a while. Hopefully enough users will find the content.

Bill B - What I wonder is if Dell will get the message and offer XP on more computers.  Vista is not a well received or popular OS.  I'm sure M$ is pressuring Dell, perhaps even paying them, to stop installing XP ASAP, but Dell should - if they really care about their customers - resist this pressure and offer XP on more computers than they are now.  Last I looked, the list of computers on which you could get XP was miniscule.

Last I looked, the list of computers on which you could get XP was miniscule.

In the Consumer space alone:

XPS 720, XPS 720 H2C, XPS 630, XPS 210, XPS M1730, Inspiron 530, Inspiron 530s. While not a comprehensive list, I think it is bigger than our competitors, even the ones with more total models than us. I understand your frustration, but I think we have a pretty good offering of XP systems. I know it would be better if we had other 17" laptops, a 14" and a 15" on the list, but unfortunately, we don't.

The problem is that most of these are XPS machines.  I don't believe this is a computer that many business people choose for their laptop.  Inspirons are more likely to be business machines than an XPS, but Latitudes and Vostros are your "real" business machines and there's not a single one of those on the list.  I got the Inspiron 1720 because of its 17" screen and use it for business.  I had to wipe the drive to get rid of Vista and install XP.  Dell is in bed the M$ on this issue and your customers suffer for it.

The problem is that most of these are XPS machines.  I don't believe this is a computer that many business people choose for their laptop...but Latitudes and Vostros are your "real" business machines and there's not a single one of those on the list...

The url is www.dell.com, and you are welcome to do some fact checking at any point.

In the Small and Medium Business space, systems with XP offered:

Vostro 1000, Vostro 1400, Vostro 1500, Vostro 1700 (that's a business system with a 17" screen), Latitude D430, Latitude D530, Latitude D630, Latitude D830 (another business system with a 17" screen), Latitude D531, Latitude ATG D630, Latitude XT (XP Tablet Edition), Latitude XFR D630, Precision M2300, Precision M4300, Precision M6300 (another business system with a 17" screen).

As for desktops with XP: all Vostros, Optiplexes, and Precision Workstations.

Basically, if it's offered in the Business space, it's hard to find one that does not have XP as an option. So I guess I wonder why, if you wanted a system for business, you looked at consumer laptops.

Last I looked, the list of computers on which you could get XP was miniscule.

That's like 30-something by my count.

Didn't mean to sound snotty, but I was wondering.

I guess there is more than one reason a Vostro costs more than an Inspiron. In this case, one of the reasons may be that the 17" Vostro was validated for 2 operating systems. Paying someone to validate a system for an o/s is an expense that is reflected in the sales price. In essence, you have chosen not to pay that price, buy a system that was only validated for one o/s, and then seek help from other Forum users on how to get XP working on your  non-validated system.

The XP offerings in the Business space have changed little, if any at all, since Vista RTM. Not sure why you could not find them when you said the number of XP offerings was "miniscule."

Ok, look at this page:

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/winxp_inspnnb?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml

It certainly has a different list than what you supplied.  Granted, I got to this via Home and Home Office, but it's still much less of a list than what you gave me (even just the consumer list).  Are we not supposed to believe what the Dell web site tells us?  I guess that was my mistake - I looked at this list back in November and it was very short and so I figured "Dell has almost zero interest in offering XP."  It appears your web site was effectively lying to me.

And these divisions you put in your site are simply artificial divisions that may sometimes be useful, but are also a hinderance.  The computers that will work for me span all your divisions and I'd like to see them all and not be limited by what you consider to be my "space."  My needs can't just be button-holed as Dell wants to for their convenience.

OK, I read this entire thread. I have one of the SATA drives for my 1721 and would like to install XP, but the XP Pro disk was not recognizing the drive during a clean install.

Will the BIOS update allow the XP install disk to see the SATA now? I'm wondering before I need to go buy a floppy drive. Has anyone had luck with the SATA drivers on a floppy? Are they the ones in the drivers section?

Thank you kindly for your help. 

Once I get the drive recognized, the rest is easy thatnks to the drivers posted here. A huge help! 

Per Bill the Dell guy . . .

"I guess there is more than one reason a Vostro costs more than an Inspiron. In this case, one of the reasons may be that the 17" Vostro was validated for 2 operating systems. Paying someone to validate a system for an o/s is an expense that is reflected in the sales price."

The business machines are not cheaper.

Regarding Bill's statement that the Inspiron 530 is offered with either Vista or XP, that was not my experience when I ordered one about 3 weeks ago online.  Checking again today I see that the Inspiron 530's are only offered with Vista.

So far I have few complaints about the hardware itself

1. weird multicoloured text instead of pure black

2. DVD buttons that are covered by the flip-down door when open

 

But Vista has given me a lot of headaches already, after a week of use:

1. Can't run Office XP, in particular Outlook

2. Can't open backup (.bkf) files from my old computer

3. Can't use Outlook Web Access through I.E. 7 in Vista (Firefox helped that one)

4. Windows Mail doesn't recognize common Microsoft mail formats like .pst's from Outlook 2002 (XP) so importing old messages, contacts, calendar entries is difficult.  In other words, Microsoft is forcing you to upgrade all your existing software too. I just wanted a new computer because my old one broke down; one would think Dell would want customers in my situation.

5. Can't grab a screen or window image with (alt-) PrtScrn

6. Vista only see's 3.25 of the installed 4GB RAM.

 

If Bill is saying I can have XP instead, please tell me how.

Thanks.

I don't think you can get XP now.  Too late.  You have to wipe the drive and install XP yourself, then get all the drivers (usually available from Dell even if they didn't offer XP on the machine).

The interesting thing to me was that Bill was saying "you can get XP on all these machines...", yet when I showed him a Dell web site page that showed only a single machine with XP in the consumer space, he stopped replying.  Basically, their web site itself seems to indicate something very different from what he said.  When I saw that page while researching what I would buy, I assumed (and why wouldn't I?) that Dell was not serious about offering XP on machines anymore.  Perhaps that's not accurate, but when their web site page that is designed to show you the machines that have XP on them is not accurate, is the customer supposed to know that and just look at every machine to see if XP is offered?  Sorry, I expect them to be able to produce an accurate web site, but they didn't do that.

UPDATE:  I see that link I posted further back in the thread is now updated and it shows two computers now instead of the one it showed at the time.