need help downgrading from Vista to XP Pro

You're going to need XP version of drivers for all the hardware components (eg, video card, audio card, etc) installed in or attached to this system. Look on the Drivers and Download page for this model to see if Dell offers XP drivers for it. If not, you'll have to search around on the net to find them.

You can set it up as dual boot on the hard drive which gives you the option of booting in XP or Vista, or you can wipe the hard drive and do a clean install of XP. Either way this assumes you can find all the XP drivers.

Correct install order is:

XP

Dell Desktop System Software (if any required for this model) 

Chipset driver

Video driver

Audio driver

Network driver

etc.

Ron 

The full list of drivers is:

• Dell™ Notebook System Software
• Intel® Mobile Chipset Driver
• Mobile Intel® GMA X3100 Video Controller
• NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS Video Controller
• Ricoh® R5C833 Media Card Controller
• Fingerprint Reader Driver
• Broadcom® 59XX 10/100 Integrated Network Controller
• Wireless driver (if applicable)
• IDT® STAC 9205 Audio Driver
• Modem driver
• Dell Touch Pad Driver
• Bluetooth® driver and stack

The only other driver is the Intel Flash Cache driver, but that only works in Vista (assuming you have a Flash Cache card installed).  If Dell has released XP drivers for the system they will be available on the support website (http://support.dell.com).

Do i just download all the drivers onto a CD?? And How do i take off Vista?

Apologies for not addressing that part.

Yes, the best solution is to download the latest drivers and either burn them to disk or copy them to a memory key.  Once you have the OS installed just run the files from whatever media you have them stored on and they should install just fine.

When you do a Windows installation part of the process is to format the hard drive.  Doing that should remove Vista.  I have not done it myself so I don't know if there are any special steps.  I'm pretty sure others on this board, however, have the knowledge to share if anything "fancy" is required. 

You may have to change the hard drive settings in BIOS before you can install XP. It may be set to "RAID", but you'll need to change that to Auto/ATA (or something similiar).

Ron 

 I am also trying (so far without success) to remove Vista and install XP on an M1330 Laptop. Everytime i try i get partway and then it says it can't find any harddrives. I believe that Vista uses the SATA Hardrive in AHCI mode and XP doesn't support that without a driver but so far i have failed to find one that works. I think that you have to install the driver part way into the XP install when it asks you to press F6 to load any other drivers. If you manage to install XP please post a message so that i can copy your success. Like you i am not that impressed with vistas performance. Dell don't seem to list an XP SATA driver only a Vista one.

                                    Regards

                                            John

have you tried www.nvidia.com ?

Ron 

I have been up on the site. Tried to use the automatic detection but it could not detect it.  Did a manaul lookup and selected the 8 series driver for xp. It downloads a file 175.19_geforce_winxp_32bit_english_whql.exe

When I execute the file it extracts to a directory and runs a setup program. I get a message that says

"The NVDIA setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit."

I even tried to go into device manager and just update the driver, point to the extraction point but it says it cannot find anything. 

Should I be using a different driver other than Nvidia Series *?

All help is appreciated.

I downloaded that driver but it is for vista.  I am looking for the XP driver.

Thanks.

Can you verify in Device Manager that the video card installed is the model number you think it is? There have been times when Dell substituted an equivalent or better (video) card when the one ordered wasn't available. (Happened to me when I got this system.)

And it's always possible they installed the wrong one when your system was assembled. ;)

Ron 

I have 2 models of the xps 1330 1 with an intel graphics card and 1 with the nvidia.  When I look in bios my intel graphics 1330 it shows Intel Crestline Graphics.  When I look at the nvidia machine it show NB8M-GS

If I look at device manager of the nvidia machine it only shows vga compatible.