Help! New to Laptop...

Question

I'd like to consult on you guys. I bought a 2nd hand laptop here in the philippines which happens to be the dell latitude A series.  It's a perfect choice that i choose dell among others.  Im kinda liking it.  Its a pentium 2 with a clock speed of 400 mhz with 128 mb of ram.  Id like to ask if how will i format this one to have a clean XP OS?  Also, the laptop that i bought does not have any recovery cd's.  Does XP detect all the hardwares in this laptop or i have to download the drivers at dell?  Im scared to format it without knowing some facts because there is no support of Dell here in the philippines.  If i have to download it, what particular devices in this laptop should i download?  I know the majors are the video card and the sound card.  Do i have to download drivers also for the touch pad, infrared, etc.?  Thanks for helping me guys.  I would surely appreciate if all my questions are answered specifically.

GreyMack · Answer

There may be some information in the menu behind the Product Support tab at the top of these pages. I'm not certain of your model, so I couldn't check. If there is, or if you can identify a similar model, you'll find Owner's and Service Manuals, Reinstall Guides, etc.

For a notebook of that vintage, you may need to check if XP has or supports drivers for the hardware. Look in the Upgrades section under the Product Support tab for information about Upgrading Your Operating System. It will walk you through the process of determining whether that is a viable option.

The on-line Product Support documentation and the user-to-user forum here provide the best support, unless you have an actual hardware failure and you're still under warranty.

The XP CD can be used to format your hard drive, but you will need to get your other questions answered before you begin. I appreciate your hesitance to start this process without seeking help! Again, in the Product Support - Downloads section you can enter your model and OS information and get specific answers to which drivers and utilities files are necessary to download and install. If drivers and utilities downloads for XP on your model are listed, I would presume that the information in the previous section regarding "Upgrading Your Operating System" were also positive.

Check those out, post back with your model number and let us know what you've found out or if you need some assistance in deciphering what it indicated.

GM

P.S. - If you find that XP is not compatible with your system, or it just doesnt run well with that OS (even after adding more RAM), I wouldn't be too disappointed. I have W95, 98/ME an XP systems on my network and they work fine. If I ever get some spare time I'll try adding a Linux installation.

Message Edited by GreyMack on 08-24-2004 11:40 AM

ryanderamos · Answer

Thanks GreyMack! The exact model of my Dell is Dell Latitude CPI A400XT with a Bios of A15. Please help me with this. I know it will run in xp because the os thats installed right now is a windows XP Pro. I just want to reformat it because i want to clean up all the files that are stocked there since it is a second hand laptop. Hope you guys can help. Thanks....

PS.

If there are threads about this one, I would gladly appreciate if you would place it here. Thanks..

GreyMack · Answer

Are you able to access to the on-line Product Support area for the User's Guide, Service Manual, Reinstall Guide, Downloads, etc? I can get everything except the Reinstall Guide for XP on that system. It's giving me a "Page not found" error.

In the on-line Downloads section for XP on the CPi A series I see a full list of items. Some will not be applicable to your system, but you will need ... well, you may not need much here. There are driver enhancements listed for the Synaptics Touchpad, two different drivers for 3Com Ethernet PC Card (diagnostics), Dell Suspend Utilities, and some drivers for Hitachi hard drives (to reduce DVD stutter when used on the same IDE channel as the hard drive). You should be able to download what you need of those and save them to CD or download them later. Looks like nothing critical for immediate reinstallation. I don't know how the notebook "Suspend to disk" feature will operate until you download that utility. You can probably avoid using it until you get that download, or try it and see.

Do you have a full retail version of the XP CD for reinstallation? You'll need something like that, and you'll need to have your COA number to activte it if you want it to run for more than 30 days.

Windows Critical Updates will be a lot of downloading unless you order the free SP2 CD and wait for it to arrive. I saw a link for ordering it from M$, but I can't locate it now. Use Google to search for it. www.google.com

Your notebook probably came with anti-virus and maybe CD-RW and/or DVD software, but it's not available from Dell as a download.

There is a set of instructions for reinstalling Windows XP around here somewhere. I think it was a link in a reply from Denny Denham to someone who asked how to reinstall XP. I just don't remember which site it was. I'll check for it.

GM

ryanderamos · Answer

Thanks again GreyMack.  I have a full xp pro here and i dont know whats the COA number.  Will i enounter any problem if i reinstall xp on it again?  where can i get the drivers of my latitude laptop.  If i format the Hard Disk, will it affect the bios settings?  The bios i have now is A15.  Will the bios be changed if  i format my Hard Drive?  Can you give me a guide on what to do whit this.  Thanks a lot Grey Mack.  Your a big help.

GreyMack · Answer

Maybe it's not called the COA number, but it's a 25 digit product key or serial number for the XP CD, and each one is different. It may be on a COA sticker on the bottom of the notebook. It may have come with the CD, on the envelope the CD came in. After installing XP, you can "activate" automatically on-line. There will be a special button in the Start Menu, just like there is for Windows Updates. Without activation, XP will stop working after a few weeks.

For the drivers, find the Product Support tab at the top of this page, and either hover or click on it. Select Downloads from the next page, and select your model on the following page. Then select all downloads, XP, and choose your language. Then a page showing all available downloads for your system will come up.

BIOS won't change from reloading the hard drive. BIOS is stored on a programmable chip on the motherboard. Sometimes the BIOS needs to be updated, but you have the latest one.

Without a valid XP CD "key" or serial number, you won't be successful in trying to reinstall XP.

Here is a procedure to use - http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppro/installxpcdnewhdd/index.htm

Note on part 5 where you need to enter the 25 digit product key.

GM

ryanderamos · Answer

Thanks for the help GreyMack.  I tried to download drivers here at dell.  There is no drivers for my device in windows XP OS.  All the latest downloads are for Windows 2000 only.  But i am wondering how did the seller of my lapotop convert it to XP.  He said to me he brought it to a laptop store and converted it to XP.  Is it possible that XP has all the device drivers of my laptop?  Thanks for the help.

GreyMack · Answer

I find the downloads on this page for Latitude CPi A running XP. I was hoping you could find the same page by going through the Product Support tab. http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=LAT_PNT_MOB_CPi_A&category=0&os=WW1&osl=EN

Is this the site you are using? http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums
Explore the items in the Product Support area.

Of the items listed, none are critical for operation. So yes, XP contains drivers to operate your notebook. You can read the release notes and decide if you need to add anything from Dell. I would recommend you consider the Dell Suspend Utilities, the Synaptics Touchpad driver, and the Hitachi hard drive firmware update (if you have a DVD drive with DVD play problems and a Hitachi hard drive).

GM

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