Inspiron 9300 & windows 10

I have upgraded my 9300 video to NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 and get the same message as you, here's hoping they come up with windows 10 copatable drivers or we are stuck in windows 7 mode.

Hello Annsie,

I got the same problem, on trying to upgrade my  Inspiron 9300 from Windows 7 to Windows 10, giving the  message that the ATI mobility raedon X300 isn't compatible.  Did you find a solution that worked?  Please let me know. 

Best, Ingo

I'm still looking Ingo, I promise to report back if I'm successful

I have been using my Dell Inspiron 9300 with Windows 10 for some time.  I have only just stumbled onto this thread. 

The x300 driver you need [that works successfully with Windows 10] is in the Windows Update catalog

Log in to your computer as an Admin first, use IE not another browser - both of these steps are essential

Go to the site, search for ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300  In the list that appears you can click on a driver name to see its details:-

Description: ATI Technologies Inc. Display software update released in December, 2008
Architecture: X86
Classification: Drivers
Supported products: Windows 7
Supported languages: English
Company: ATI Technologies, ULC
Driver Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Driver Class: Other Hardware
Driver Model: ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300
Driver Provider: ATI Technologies Inc.
Version: 8.561.0.0
Version Date: 12/1/2008

[By the way, the driver is 10.5MB]

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I also loaded these drivers

Audio - SIGMATEL STAC 975X AC97 - Dell driver R99254.EXE

Alps touchpad - [also from the Microsoft update catalog] - I chose the fourth on the search results list v7.4.102.104 [a windows 7 driver], I extracted the files from the cab using winZip then ran DPInst.exe as Admin

WiFi - Intel ProWireless 2200 802.1b-g - Intel PRO-Wireless Drivers - Vista - I chose the zip version not the exe [as the latter did not do anything as far as I could tell] - I extracted the file using WinZip then ran isetup.exe as Admin [three folders down in the extracted folders - Disk, Vista, Drivers].

[Dell QuickSet - I was unable to find a version of this that would work in Windows 10 but do not suffer without it as my Fn-WiFi key & the multimedia keys work without this utility anyway.]

Other then that, all the drivers Windows 10 installed have been okay.  If you need drivers for any other hardware then refer to Where to get hardware drivers. 

Keep copies of all these drivers to hand as Windows 10 updates can overwrite them.  There is a procedure for preventing this - see para 5.1-2 of Managing data usage.  There is an alternative, an MSKB utility for disabling updates to specific hardware devices but its reliability & continuing validity is not yet clear - How to hide or block Windows Updates or driver updates in Windows 10 Insider Preview  I have not experimented with that alternative as I disabled all hardware updates instead.

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The only problems I have had using the Inspiron 9300 with Windows 10 are:

1  The Intel Pro 2200 WiFi card cannot connect to a "hosted" WiFi network established directly by my other computer.  It connects to all other WiFi networks without any problems.  [The 9300 also connects to my Ethernet network without any problems]

2  Windows 10 Task scheduler is unable to wake this computer from sleep or hibernation despite all the correct settings having been made.  This shortcoming afflicted several other computers during the Windows 10 Preview Build phase but many of those are now okay.  It is possible that the 9300 chipset is slightly incompatible with Windows 10.  A future Windows 10 update might solve this problem but don't assume this.

3  PowerCfg -batteryreport does not work.  I would hazard the guess that this is also related to the chipset.  PowerCfg -energy can report the last charged state of the battery & hence allow you to monitor battery health - the relevant entries are near the end of the very long report that is created.

Thank you very much for this. Our grandson has the laptop with him on a visit to family at the other end of the country atm but we'll follow your advice as soon as he comes back. Thank you again

Dear Trytrytryagain,

Thank you for the directions.  I have the up to date ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300 driver version 8.561.0.0 installed.  Also ran the Intel Pro Wireless Vista onto my Dell Ins piron 9300 running Windows 7 Home premium.  I did not load the Sigmatel Audio and Alps Touchpad drivers because they come in cabinet files and I don't know how to install such.

Anyway, the "Get Windows 10" icon on my taskbar ran newly to tell me that my ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300 is not compatible with Windows 10.  Same message as before.

Any further advice?  Did you load Windows 10 with the Beta version, or final release?  Did you download the ISO file to make your own upgrade disc, or were you able to upgrade online?

I have the high resolution screen 1920x1200, in case that makes any difference?

Thanks for your care.

Ingo

1  Do consider waiting a few months to upgrade.  Many users have been having problems since upgrading and their experiences should help to ensure that the OS is improved.  Take advantage of their difficulties by delaying your own upgrade.  I have Windows 10 in dual-boot arrangements on both my computers [Dell Inspiron 9300 with WinXP & Dell Inspiron 1545 with Windows 7] and am not upgrading my other computer's Windows 7 installation until late November.  We have until 29th July 2016 to do the upgrade so there's no rush.  In addition, please do consider the three shortcomings I listed in my previous post and decide if they are limitations that would hinder your own work - have a look at my para 8 below as well. 

2  I have been using the Windows 10 Preview version on both my computers and have run its updates through to the released version.  I am still licensed as a Preview user - I never bothered to upgrade my Inspiron 9300 WinXP to Windows 7 so I can now either stay as a Preview user or I can pay for a licence.  Personally, I do not think Windows 10 would be worth paying for, even though I am happy with it overall, because I have to accept that my 9300 is ten years old and might only last another year or so for all I know.

3  If you do eventually do the Windows 10 upgrade, please let me know if you also experience the same three shortcomings as I did because your additional experiences & observations might help me to progress.  I appreciate that you might never have occasion to test a "hosted" WiFi network so you would not be able to tell me anything about that.  A  "hosted" WiFi network is, in brief, a way of setting up a computer to act as a local WiFi Access Point so I can establish a local WiFi network without using a router.  The Inspiron 9300 cannot "host" one itself because the WiFi card does not have that capability.  My problem is that my Inspiron 9300 cannot connect to one "hosted" by my other computer even though it ought to recognise it as just a WiFi network like any other - it has so far proved impossible to identify whether the other "hosting" computer is to blame or the 9300.

4.1  Display driver - I have the same version as you and mine is also the 1920x1200 version.  If the Get Windows 10 app objects to your driver then try waiting a few months to see if it calms down & agrees to cooperate [the upgrade program is being spread over a considerable period so there is no telling when the upgrade will be available for any given computer anyway].  My other, Windows 7, computer does not yet have the upgrade available, which suits me fine.  If you really get fed up waiting then you can make a Windows 10 installation disk using Download Windows 10 - but you must run it using "In-Place upgrade" [aka "Repair install"] procedures* and, if you do not, you might never be able to recover from the situation that would be created [a reportedly unlicensed Windows 10 installation that does not revert successfully to its licensed Windows 7 predecessor].

4.2  * "In-Place upgrade" [aka "Repair install"] procedures - these instructions were written for Windows 7.  It is essentially the same process but you will see Windows 7 control end and Windows 10 installation begin during para 3.4.  Don't enter a Product Key when prompted to do so, just skip that step.  When Windows 10 installation takes over the process, it will display a clock-like % progress display and it might seem to hang several times but you will just have to be patient [I have seen it take a couple of hours to complete sometimes and I have seen reports of users thinking it had failed partway only to discover when they repeated the process that it was merely agonisingly slow].  When installation has finished, connect to the internet and it should automatically recognise the prior activation status - see Start menu, Settings, Update & security, Activation.  It will take its own sweet time about this so you can use this dialog to make it do it straightaway but still don't put in the Product Key because it will fail - your free upgrade Windows 10 licence depends absolutely on its activation process recognising that you had a properly installed & licensed Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 installation on the computer beforehand.  Note that this limitation does not affect any subsequent reinstallations because part of the successful initial Windows 10 activation process registers your hardware on Microsoft servers so subsequent reinstallations will check those servers rather than the previous OS.  Whatever you do, do not skip the preparations I list in para 3.3 of the link as those are the most reliable tools for helping you recover your computer from any mishaps that occur during the upgrade.

5  WiFi driver - I think you have had no problems with this as you did not mention any.  Whilst you need to keep a copy of the file you used to install this, there should not be any problems during the Windows 10 upgrade.

6  Audio driver - Cab files are just like zip files, you can extract them into a folder and then install whatever is inside.  The Dell driver that I used came as a self-extracting installation file - R99254.exe.  It is identified in Device manager as Sigmatel v5.10.0.4255 dated 11 March 2005.  Please let me know the version number & date of the driver you obtained as a cab file & its download source - I will compare them for you and, if the driver is better in Windows 10 then Dell's R99254.exe, I will post the procedure I used to install it for you to follow through in the same way.

7  Touchpad driver - Again, this is just a cab file.  I installed from it in the manner I posted before.  Whilst you need to keep a copy of the file you used to install this, there should not be any problems during the Windows 10 upgrade.

8  Just a few additional notes about some things that also seem worth pointing out because they have given a new lease of life to my Dell Inspiron 9300 [I can once again regard it as the best computer I have ever used]. It has become interchangeable with my newer computer for many tasks.  It is far superior to my other computer for some tasks such as working on large spreadsheets & video editing.

8.1  I invested the massive sum of £7.50 on a "SATA HDD to IDE caddy" that replaced my DVD drive and that holds a 320GB SATA HDD left over from upgrading another computer.  This massive increase in storage capacity has allowed me to have all my files, including my ever increasing audio file collection, directly on the 9300 and that is extremely convenient.  I had to lift out the keyboard [procedure described in the 9300 manual] to be able to guide the caddy into its connection properly.  The bios recognised it straight away and so did Windows both WinXP & Windows 10 [Windows sees its full 320GB capacity even though the bios reports it as just 137GB].  I have to accept that moving around such a significantly larger disk than the 9300 was designed for is difficult for it but it manages to do it without seeming to be at all slow.

8.2  The Windows 10 installation regained safe use of the internet for me [I had not connected it since WinXP support ended] and this has also added to the range of tasks that I can do on it.

8.3  The WinXP display driver could only send full HD resolution [1920x1080] to my TV in 2nd monitor-only mode.  With Windows 10, the display driver discussed in para 4 above allows me to choose either that or Extended desktop mode at full HD resolution.  I connect to the TV from the 9300's DVI output using a simple DVI-HDMI cable; no adapter is required as DVI output is already a digital output although I do need to use a separate audio cable to get the sound onto the TV.  This flexibility in using the second monitor is handy - some jobs are best done in 2nd monitor only, some are best done in Extended desktop mode.

 8.4  Windows 10, like Windows 7, supports use of ReadyBoost.  I bought an 8GB SD card for £2 and set it up to be a dedicated ReadyBoost drive.  This gets used heavily during, for example, system image creation and editing out the adverts in my TV recordings - my ten year old 9300 is consequently significantly faster at both these tasks than my five year old 1545 [because of the particular mechanics involved in these tasks].

9  We are using these 9300s for far longer than its Dell designers envisaged.  Things can start to break down.  If you ever experience slight flickering of the screen [that looks like you were playing with the screen brightness setting very rapidly or just blinking very rapidly] then do not delay.  It might or might not be accompanied by the power icon flickering rapidly between the AC power icon & the battery icon.  I experienced this on my original 9300 [now, my late original 9300] a couple of years ago but misinterpreted it as a power supply problem.  You would also notice that it only affects the 9300's screen and not a TV screen in 2nd monitor only mode.  I have recently experienced it on my second-hand replacement 9300 and have managed to fix it.  The cable that feeds through to the monitor [near the left-hand hinge] rubs against the screen's metal casing and gradually wears away the reinforced outer insulation causing a short [that is intermittent at first but gets worse & is eventually fatal].  I lifted off the panel covering the hinges & the outer screen casing [also described in the 9300 manual] to get at the cable and [without needing to disconnect the cable] I slipped a short length of the outer insulation from an aerial cable around it & used insulating tape just to stop it slipping off [insulating tape is not a good enough insulator to fix the short on its own, I was just using it as an adhesive tape].  The display is now fine once again and copes with the vibrations of travelling around on my rucksack without complaint.  Now that the cheap piece of aerial insulation is the thing wearing away instead, I can just check it every few months and replace it to continue protecting the display cable itself for as long as my 9300 lasts.

8.1  I invested the massive sum of £7.50 on a "SATA HDD to IDE caddy" that replaced my DVD drive and that holds a 320MB SATA HDD left over from upgrading another computer. 

should read

8.1  I invested the massive sum of £7.50 on a "SATA HDD to IDE caddy" that replaced my DVD drive and that holds a 320GB SATA HDD left over from upgrading another computer. 

[I don't know how to edit posts in this forum]

Good news.  I was able to install Windows 10 on my Dell Inspiron 9300 in spite of the incompatibility message on the ATI Radeon Mobility graphics card, and it works great.

Simply download the Windows 10 installation file directly from Microsoft, under their option to download it if one wants to install it on multiple computers.  I chose the regular Windows 10 for 32 bit system and downloaded the ISO file - 2.8GB size.  Then left clicked the downloaded file to write it onto a DVD.  Then ran the DVD and it went through the entire upgrade without any complication.

I'm pleased to hear your good news.

Please tell me if you do or do not experience the problems I mentioned in case your results can steer me towards resolving them:

1  The Intel Pro 2200 WiFi card cannot connect to a "hosted" WiFi network established directly by my other computer.  It connects to all other WiFi networks without any problems.  [The 9300 also connects to my Ethernet network without any problems]

2  Windows 10 Task scheduler is unable to wake this computer from sleep or hibernation despite all the correct settings having been made.  This shortcoming afflicted several other computers during the Windows 10 Preview Build phase but many of those are now okay.  It is possible that the 9300 chipset is slightly incompatible with Windows 10.  A future Windows 10 update might solve this problem but don't assume this.

3  PowerCfg -batteryreport does not work**.  I would hazard the guess that this is also related to the chipset.  PowerCfg -energy can report the last charged state of the battery & hence allow you to monitor battery health - the relevant entries are near the end of the very long report that is created.

** In response to the command 

powercfg /batteryreport /output d:\desktop\batteryreport.html /duration 1

it returns

Unable to perform operation.  An unexpected error (0x10d2) has occurred:  The library, drive, or media pool is empty.

I don't know about the points you are making,  but I am disappointed to find that my Windows 10 runs extraordinary slow on trying to play a game or watch a movie, which went fine with XP,  Vista and Win 7 over the years on my Inspiron 9300.   So I guess the issue of the Radeon graphics card being incompatible might well be true.  Fortunately I have a 320gb Western Blue hard drive with several partitions,  so I can reinstall Windows 7 on the 2nd partition.  This way I have a well working Windows 7, and the option of using Windows 10 features if I like to.

I play movies on mine without any problems.

Mine runs at a decent pace as well.  For most tasks it is the same or only a bit slower than the XP [I still have that on another partition so I can switch between them if necessary].  For some tasks it is a lot quicker.  Overall, it is not as fast as my other computer [Inspiron 1545] but, again, for some tasks it is quicker.

I only had to install the drivers that I mentioned in my first post as the ones Windows 10 installed seemed to be OK for the rest of the hardware.  Whilst the problem might be related to drivers, I cannot think of any useful tests to help determine that absolutely.

I have an original 120GB hard drive from Dell and I added [what a coincidence] a WD 320GB Western Blue SATA hard drive - mine is in a caddy that replaced my DVD drive.  It is on that drive that my videos are stored so our computers are both similar in that respect.  I have used both Windows media player and Cyberlink PowerDVD 8 to play videos and both applications perform well.

I have 1.5GB RAM.  I have added an 8GB SDCard as a ReadyBoost drive and I know that it gets used heavily during video playback.

If there are any comparison checks I can do that would help you then please just let me know.

It does occur to me that RAM might be an issue. 

Windows 10 demands a minimum of 1GB RAM so video playback might suffer if that's all you have.  I do not know anything about gaming but I have heard that gaming applications also eat through RAM.

A ReadyBoost drive such as the one I use can assist with a system's responsiveness when, say, loading applications but it is not a substitute for having sufficient RAM. 

Thanks for the suggestion.  RAM does not seem to be the issue. I got 2GB Ram installed, and the moment I try to play Windows 10 Solitaire, or play a movie with DIvX player, per the Task Manager the CPU shoots up from about 10 or 15 % to 100 % and computer gets very lagging in response.  Only around 55% of the memory used.  

The Windows Media Player on My Windows 10 won't play a DVD or DivX movie as it used to on Windows 7.  Only music.

I will be glad to try an SD card as Readyboost drive. Can you tell me how to do this?

I have ordered a 2nd hand Nvidia 6800 256mb graphics card on eBay for £20 - see if that will make a difference.

Anyway next weekend I plan to put Windows 7 back onto the 2nd partition and I will be able to better compare.