Installing MCE on an SATA machine without a floppy drive.

Question

OK, I'm getting even more disappointed with my Inspiron E1705. The factory software install was horrific, it was unreliable and crashed frequently due to all of the extra junk Dell installs (Crashes every 5-10 minutes on a machine just taken out of the box - I thought Dell tested these things before shipping?). I wasn't surprised, I was fully expecting to have to do a full nuke and repave to get a usable system just like with my Inspiron 8200, its preinstall of XP was awful also but a nuke and repave from a clean install fixed that.

Now, here's the problem. I paid the extra $8 for an MCE installation DVD, so I should be good, right?

Well, the install hangs at T minus 34 minutes while "Installing Devices". A Google search reveals that lack of an SATA driver can cause this.

OK, fine. I'll do it again and use F6 to load the SATA driver.

OOOPS. Hello MCE install routine, 2000 called and they want their floppy drives back! Yes, that's correct, MCE *2005* requires a floppy disk (which has been nonstandard on most systems since 2000, and a non-USB FDD unit is not even an option on the E1750.) in order to load third party drivers. It won't load them from a USB memory key or allow you to swap CDs, it *insists* that you put a floppy in the (nonexistent) A: drive?

So, how do I reinstall XP MCE on my machine that has SATA and no floppy drive? Why doesn't this custom Dell-branded disc sold with the Inspiron E1705 have the required SATA driver slipstreamed in?

NemesisDB · Answer

dell slipsteams the sata drivers into their MCE disk, you should not need the F6 floppy.  if you want to use alternative drivers your options are as follows:   1) buy a floppy drive (I've had problems with USB floppy drives and F6 sata drivers so I'd suggest the real thing).   2) slipstream the new drivers onto the MCE DVD -- you'll need a DVD burner and the appropriate software -- the instructions for this are a bit complex

Entropy42 · Answer

I eventually managed to finish the install by rebooting. The install continued past the hang afterwards.

That said, I'm going to be calling Dell for a new unit on Monday. Even post-reinstall, playback of DVDs results in a machine check exception within ten minutes if dual core support is enabled (I went 1.5 hours or more after disabling the second core in BIOS), Dark Age of Camelot freezes the machine within 10-15 minutes if dual core support is enabled (haven't tested with the second core disabled yet), and while previously I though Linux worked flawlessly on this machine, it also randomly freezes within 20 minutes with dual core support enabled. I'm trying a Gentoo install with the second core disabled now to see how it works.

NemesisDB · Answer

press F12 at teh dell screen and run diagnostics

Entropy42 · Answer

Not a single problem encountered, whether with or without the second core disabled.

Total run time for the diagnostics was only 2-3 minutes total anyway - not nearly as stressful on the system or as comprehensive as the memtest86 run I put it through. (Which did not cause it to hang even with dual cores enabled.)

With dual core support disabled in BIOS, the machine had no problem running a set of heavy compile jobs under Linux (100% CPU and significant HD activity for 1-2 hours straight). With dual core support enabled, the system froze solid within 10-15 minutes.

NemesisDB · Answer

just curious but if you boot the utility partition (after pressing F12) and look under custom test or symptom tree there are a lot of tests you can run -- and the memory tests alone will take well over the 2-3 minutes you mention (though they are not as good as memtest86)

Entropy42 · Answer

Very smart of Dell to put all of that on the hard drive instead of a bootable CD, which is where diagnostic utilities SHOULD be (on standard removable media or in BIOS).

But they're too cheap for that.

(Utility partition is gone. In the four years I've owned my Inspiron 8200, I have never had a need for it, and at one point on my 8200 its presence actually did cause problems, so it got nuked when I repartitioned to reinstall XP MCE and install Linux on another partition.)

Edit: I looked around in the Dell downloads and found an ISO for a bootable CD version of the diagnostics. I'm running the "System Freezes" tests from the symptom tree, then when they finish if nothing is found I'm going to run an extended test while I go out to run errands.

Message Edited by Entropy42 on 03-05-2006 08:38 AM

Message Edited by Entropy42 on 03-05-2006 10:38 AM

Dave_Hanson · Answer

I had the same problem with a hang at 34 minutes left on a new Dimension E510. Dell, why are we getting these taletale hangs if the drivers are properly slipstreamed on to the OS DVD?

Windows General

Installing MCE on an SATA machine without a floppy drive.

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