XP install on new hard drive - Driver problems

Question

Hi guys and gals on the Dell forum,

I am new to computer forums and somewhat computer illiterate. I have an 8 year old Dell dimension 8100 desktop in which I installed a new Maxtor 100Gig hard drive. The old hard drive took a dump and I was unable to salvage anything from it. I had no problems installing my XP Pro operating system to the new hard drive but I cannot access the internet to install or upgrade drivers. I can only assume that the ethernet driver also needs to be installed. My machine may not recognize any upgrades for programs newer than Windows NT because I tried to install drivers from my Resource CD but they would not work. I also tried to get drivers from Dell support but the drivers listed for the 8100 do not include those for XP.

Now the questions, how can I get updated XP drivers, do I need to also update BIOS (version 02 is what I have now)?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dave

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

DS55,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

You can download bios version A09 by clicking below. Dell does not have any WinXP drivers for this system.What newtwork card do you have installed in your computer?

Bios A09

jackshack · Answer

If you will forgive me, I think a small correction is needed. Dell once posted drivers for the Dimension 8100, and with regard to the BIOS update, recommended that this file be used instead of A09 if you were running Windows XP: BD81XPP2.exe (Diskette Creator version). The same flash file is available as unpackaged: D81XPXP2.exe (Unpackaged). If you read the additional information that is available in that folder you will find the following:

This version of BIOS (XP2) is recommended for systems with Microsoft XP.
For other operating systems, please use version A09, file name
8100_A09.EXE or B8100_09.exe.

You will find the drivers for Windows 2000 still listed on the D8100 support page here: Win2K drivers for D8100. If you check out the compatibility for each driver you require, you may discover that many of them already indicate compatibility with Windows XP. Even those that do not may still work due to the similarity of the two operating systems.

DS55 · Answer

Jesse,

I think the network card is the 3com 3c905c, does that sound right?

As I said I am not real computer literate, just an old grease monkey trying to get the Dell back on the internet highway.

Dave

DS55 · Answer

Jack, Thanks for the information.  I will give them a try and see if they will fly. Thanks again, Dave

Windows General

XP install on new hard drive - Driver problems

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