I have an E510 which is identical to the 5150. 

First, did you try reinstalling with the Dell recovery partition on the hard drive? (if it hasn't been deleted or corrupted).  CTRL/F11 at initial boot up will access this partition and allow you to completely restore the PC to the original factory condition and without discs. If you still have the recovery partition, use this to restore your PC. 

If you do not have the Recovery then you must do a manual install.  You should have two Dell discs, the Windows XP disc and a "Drivers and Utilties' disc that has all the needed drivers on it.  If not you can download whatever you need  HERE   Access the drivers via your Service Tag number as it will then only list applicable drivers to your PC.  DO NOT use the Dell Download manager, ONLY download each needed driver by clicking on the Blue "Download" button.

On a new/reinstall the correct and required install sequence is (1) Install Windows (2) Install Intel Chipset Drivers (3) Install Device Drivers such as Sound, Video, Ethernet, etc.  DO NOT skip the chipset drivers or many devices including the sound and ethernet will not work. 

If you need to download, download them to your son's PC and then burn a "data" CD of the drivers and use that to install on your PC. 

OK I downloaded the above to a disk and now have the short cut on my desk top.

when I click on them nothing happens, when I right click it wants to know what program I want to open them with.

Do I need to copy them to a certain place or what.

I wasn't kidding when I said I was new at this

Gail

These are the files you will need to download ... you should be able to simply double-click to run it.

You need to run this one first ... Chipset:  ftp://ftp.dell.com/chipset/R114566.EXE

This is the one you were originally missing ... Ethernet:  ftp://ftp.dell.com/network/R105478.EXE

You can download other drivers for it here ... http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&os=WNET&osl=en&catid=&impid=&SystemID=DIMENSION%205150/E510

double clicking does not work neither does right clicking and hitting open.

Where does it go, What program opens it?

Gail

Hmm ... I think I get it.  All the program does is unzip files to a folder in C:\Dell\drivers\R114566.  In there is a setup.exe that you need to run.  When you double-click it, does it ask for a location to unzip files to?  Or does it do absolutely nothing?  Do you have a C:\Dell\drivers folder?  The file you download can be discarded after you extract/unzip the files and it doesn't matter where it is.  If when you run the file you downloaded it does nothing or tells you it doesn't know what program to use to open it, I would run it on another computer, then copy the files (using USB key or whatever you have) to your XP computer.  You can then run the setup.exe.  If it is not running EXE's though, you may have other problems, even if you get around it this way.

You are right there is not "set up exe

In fact There is nothing that says "DELL"

Gail

Gail ... then I would extract the files on another machine and copy the entire folder it creates to the machine you are working on and try the setup.exe at that point.  But, even if it runs, the fact that it won't run that file may indicate a bigger problem.  Does XP has any Service Pack on it, or is it the original pre-SP XP?

Good!

flash,

 Thanks a ton. Up and running now. I'm not sure what worked. But it's back !

Thanks again for all your help!

:emotion-2:

Gail