Click on SUPPORT at the top of this page and choose Drivers and Downloads. Then enter the Service Tag for your laptop. You will get a concise list of drivers for your specific laptop and information on the correct order of installation.

i see the list of drivers, however i do not see the order of drivers....

total list out to be 13 drivers to install. are all of them necessary?

For the driver install order click the link "Driver install order for desktops and laptops" on the Dell Drivers and Downloads page for the Inspiron E1505.

Yes, you should install all the 13 drivers in the correct order. It might be necessary to reformat and reinstall at this stage.

thanks for the help. i found it really helpful :D

however, after entering service tag, under each category theres multiple drivers....if i install all of them, wouldn't they conflict with each other? how do i know which ones apply to my own laptop?

also, i have several drivers on a CD but not all of them. Even if it conflicts with the order that Dell Support site suggested, can I still install the Wireless network card driver first to get on internet, then further download and install other drivers?

on the side, my windows xp apparently isn't genuine..i had no idea about this until i reinstalled and reformatted. I am getting a new laptop at the end of this year, so few questions...

first of all, will the fact that my microsoft xp isn't genuine affect the drivers installation?

second, would you suggest to get a license from Microsoft right away or should I just keep using the counterfeit version till i get another laptop? I am just a student and finance is limited....  :/

thanks for your patience!

If you are in the United States you can order a set of backup discs HERE.

Please give examples of multiple drivers for Video and for Communications. (Keep in mind that multiple drivers are appropriate for some areas and will not conflict).

You should install both the drivers for the CD/DVD category. If you click on the link "TSST - Firmware" for each driver and expand the detail for Important Information by clicking on the + you will see that these drivers have different purposes.

The rating in the Importance column relates to the need to upgrade an existing installed driver and does not indicate whether the driver is necessary or not. All the drivers in the list need to be installed, however some of them may be later versions than the drivers that were originally installed on your laptop.

The drivers must be installed in the order listed. You can download drivers on another computer and save them to a disk or flash drive (best to put them in a folder with an appropriate name for later identification). The drivers can then be installed from the storage medium.

These are the drivers you need

Notebook system software

Intel Chipset drivers

Video drivers either Intel, ATI , or Nvidia depending on which graphics card you have.

Broadcom network card driver

Wireless network card driver specific to wireless network card you have in your computer

Sound

Touchpad

Modem

Ricoh which is your card reader

You must install Notebook System Software first then Intel Chipset drivers before install all other drivers, then video and then the rest.

The reinstallation will have erased all data on the hard drive. Therefore Dell PC Restore by Symantec is no longer available. I can only repeat my earlier suggestion that you apply to Dell for replacement disks by using the link that I already posted.

I suggest you see if you can get the Windows XP Media Centre Edition and Dell Media Direct CD from your father.

Or use a friends if they have the same computer as you (this is quite a popular model).

Or use the link to get a replacement set or call Dell support (as tedious as it may be to request a backup set - these should be free or much cheaper then buying a license from Microsoft).

If not ordering some from Dell. Here is the full install instructions for the inspiron 6400 with XP. I do not recommend upgrading or installing andy CD/DVD firmware as someone has suggested, the drive will work fine without that. In fact upgrading the firmware on my old Dell laptop lost the drives ability to read CDs and the drive had to be replaced.

Note you may do this with your XP disc if you don't have a media direct CD but media direct will not work and you should not press the media direct button when the system is powered off (second power button to the left - it will come up with a boot error), note you will need to install a dvd program unless using MCE XP as you won't have the Dell Media Direct Program.

Inspiron 6400/E1505 Guide (Other systems should be similar)

XP:

Back up all data on an external harddrive or usb flash drive or both before proceeding, external harddrive recommended you may also want to download the drivers onto a USB Flash drive or external harddrive before proceeding, this will wipe all data on your system.

Insert media direct disc and switch off your 6400 press and hold F12 whilst powering up and select selection 1 or 2 (1 is recommended unless you want to create another partition)

Now when the discs finished and prompts you to change for your XP disc do so and as it reboots hold down F12 and start reinstalling windows:

Meanwhile... Download the following onto another machine and copy to a CD/DVD flash drive or external hard drive (recommended):

Copy the following to a CD or DVD or external hard drive. (External Harddrive recommended) 

i.e. in a folder called Dell Drivers and then in that folder make a folder Saying 1. XP Service Pack, and save the Service Pack in it then the Dell Notebook Software in a folder called 2. Dell Notebook Software

1. Download XP Service Pack 3:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5b33b5a8-5e76-401f-be08-1e1555d4f3d4&DisplayLang=en

Note Service Pack 2 required before Service Pack 3 can be installed should be included on XP Media Centre Edition Discs.

Download the following drivers from here :

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=gen&ServiceTag=&SystemID=INSPIRONI6400/E1505&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=

 Add service tag for more specifity (Do not post service tag on the forum)

2. Dell System Notebook Software Under System Utilities

3. Both the Chipset drivers (both of them Intel One First)

4. Then the Intel Video Driver (or ATI or NVIDEA depending what you have) 

5. Then the two Conexant Drivers Under Communications

6. Then the two Broadcom Drivers Under Network

7. Then depending what you have Dell Wireless Card or Intel PROSET Wireless under Network

8. Then the Sigmatel Driver under Audio (Only this don't bother with the Creative Labs Audio Trial Application)

9. Then the Synaptics Touchpad under Input Devices

10. Then the Dell Quickset under Applications (Note May want to install the Roxio patch but install at the very end and install only after installing Roxio from the CD supplied with your system, if you don't have Roxio forget about the Roxio patch)

11. Bluetooth Driver under network if you have Bluetooth, will be a Blue Light if switched on if you have a bluetooth card. Note there are 2 types of Bluetooth cards need to pick appropriate one or trial and error. You may have one or neither, they will fail to install if it applies to your system.

12. Install the two Dell Diagnostic Drivers

13. Go here: http://www.istartedsomething.com/20061029/royale-noir/ and you can download a Black XP and XP Media Centre Edition Colours.

14. Download and install windows media player 11

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1d224714-e238-4e45-8668-5166114010ca&DisplayLang=en

15. Also recommend you download and install Adobe Reader 9 and PDF Creator here in order to read and print PDFs:

http://www.adobe.com/

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57796

Ok now install all the drivers in the order I specified. (13. - 15. Optional) Restart and load up windows, now insert you dell media direct disc and it should prompt you to install if not go to my computer and double click the disc to install note install while on the windows desktop or you'll format your harddrive again.

Once thats done press the dell media direct button, note do not do so before this stage. Set it up for configuration and go to update note you will have to go to update 2 - 3 times to get the latest version which I believe is 4.7. Once thats done power down your computer and press the media direct button and smile since it should be working.

Then go to xp and install all other such as antivirus and office programs copy music and documents over etc. Be sure to go to windows update to get internet explorer 7 aswell.

Note these drivers on the Dell Website supercede the ones on your disc as they are later revisions, there may not be much difference between them however I recommend the ones on the website and only the ones I have mentioned.