Windows 2000 Not Compatible with Optiplex 755

Question

We have a LARGE customer base that uses Windows 2000 on older Optiplex's 745 and all the way down to the GX50. Now when one of their computers breaks and is out of warranty they frequently buy a new one through us. This will now cause a problem if someone buys a machine from us to replace a 2000 box we have to send it out with XP and it causes network permissions/users issues. If anyone has any suggestions to get this to work let me know. One of the drivers that doesn't work at all is the audio driver Followed by a slew of PCI devices (no add-in cards are installed) so it must be related to motherboard devices.

Dev Mgr · Answer

If it's just the audio driver, have you asked your salesrep if Dell offers a soundcard that has Windows 2000 support?

Alternatively, consider just using XP as a stand-alone OS on the PC and then use VMware server or Microsoft's Virtual PC and run Windows 2000 in a virtual machine. This is very elaborate, but running an 8 year old OS on brand new hardware might require this.

meryl_streep · Answer

I'm currently deploying several hundred Optiplex 755s with Windows 2000 it's working OK for us.   I did have an audio driver issue that was causing the system to shutdown unexpectedly but after we loaded the A04 release of the ADI 198x driver it resolved the issue.   let me know if you need specific info on anything.

meryl_streep · Answer

Even though the website doesn't say it when you download the XP drivers and look at the release notes most (if not all) will say that they're 2000 compliant.

I had the same issue trying to load the Intel mass storage drivers during 2000 setup so finally I had to abandon AHCI mode and just go with plain old ATA.

Go into the bios under SATA Operation and change the mode to RAID/ATA. After that you won't need to load 3rd party drivers during 2K setup.

TBone2K · Answer

I can't even get past the install. After choosing to format the drive, Windows 2000 setup returns and says it can't format the drive. I tried checking Dell's website for a SATA driver, but they don't have one for 2000, only XP and vista.

CyberTek · Answer

Hi, I just bought a few dell 755 and I need to install Windows 2000 ont hem Where can I get the Sound & Graphics Drivers for them Meryl_streep - I would be very greatful if you can help. Cheers

meryl_streep · Answer

These are the links to the files I've been using.

Audio: http://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R164899.EXE

Intel Integrated Video: http://ftp.us.dell.com/video/R160238.EXE

If you're not using the standard Intel graphics then there are other places you'll have to look for drivers

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Windows 2000 Not Compatible with Optiplex 755

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