instillation disk for Insperation 1501

Well there are a few discs you could be referring to.

On the base of the laptop:

There should be a sticker and it should give a code of the format  XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX. where the X are numbers and letters, that is your product key:

Anyway this key will be either one of the following:

Windows XP Home

Windows XP Professional

Windows XP Media Centre Edition

Windows Vista Home Basic

Windows Vista Home Premium

Windows Vista Business

Windows Vista Ultimate

Do not state the product key or the service tag on the forum as it will give out personal information about you or your friend and violates the forums rules. Basically a moderator will come along and deelte your post.

You will need to see which one of these it is. If you have a friend with any Dell that has the same version of XP / Vista, you may use thier discs to install your OS.

If you can get a hold of thier disc you can open it up in my computer (or my computer in thier computer) and copy all the contents of the disc on a folder in the desktop. Then using nlite for XP or vlite for vista, unfortunately with vlite they require to download a massive file to get it to work and you will need a blank DVD to install this file.

(to slipstream the latest service packs - DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS WITH XP MEDIA CENTRE EDITION - XP Home and Professional will work fine.

But more importantly, you can change the product key in the unattended setup (I think) to the one you have on the back off your machine. I will give you more detailed instructions once  know what OS you are using and whether nlite or vlite. You use the program to create a bootable .iso file, which you open with Roxio, and then burn to a blank cd/dvd. The CD / DVD created you use to reinstall windows XP or Vista.

Once you have installed XP or Vista, the drivers can be found on the Dell Website:

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=&SystemID=INS_PNT_1501

Where you need to install (for xp switch to vista if need vista)

1. Dell Notebook software under system utilities

2. Chipset

3. Video

4. Conexant under communications

5. 2 Broadcom Driver/Application Under Network

6. The appropriate Wireless Card Under Netowk, if you sdon't know install all the wireless cards in trial and error

7. Touchpad under Input Devices

8. Audio (I don't install in Vista)

9. Dell Quickset under Applications

I do not recommend installing any other driver, CD/DVD firmware can break your CD/DVD drive if installed incorrectly and in most cases changes no functionality. BIOs can break your mainboard killing your computer if it goes wrong and the other Dell Applications are unecessary.

A note if you can use your computer, http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html install this and run it, it will tell you your product key for windows and office (if you have office installed). It will tell you your version of windows and loads and loads of other stuff you may or may not find interesting. This is particularly useful if your sticker is faded and you have difficulty being read. You can print out what it tells you for future reference.