Yes, I'm afraid so.  You should have gotten a Resource CD with the drivers and diagnostics, but you can also find them on the Dell support page.  Try going here:  Dell Support.  Whatever computer shows up, click on the link "Select a Different Product" and use the various links to select the Dimension E520.  You can also type your service tag number and reach that page.  If you use your service tag you may find that the resulting page only shows the latest updates, so look for a link to "Show All".

The first two drivers files installed need to be the Desktop System Software, followed by the Intel Chipset Driver.  The order of the remaining files is not as important, but Dell recommends that the first two files be followed by:  Video adapter, network interface adapter, and sound adapter.  More detailed information can be found at this link:  Restoring or Reinstalling Windows on a Dell.  Check out the third option on that page.

EDIT:  By the way, as you are reinstalling Media Center, make sure you follow the on-screen instructions as the Media Center disk must create a special directory for Media Center files before installing Windows XP.

Thank you, I have the operating system installed, I went to install the drivers and under the system model my number DIME520 isn't listed, My choices are DimC520, DXC061, DIMDXP0661, DIME521, DM061 and XPS710, Which one do i use? The closest one DIME521

Thank You

Thank you, I have the operating system installed, I went to install the drivers and under the system model my number DIME520 isn't listed, My choices are DimC520, DXC061, DIMDXP0661, DIME521, DM061 and XPS710, Which one do i use? The closest one DIME521 Thank You

Try HERE for your drivers.

DM061 is equivalent to the Dimension E520; Dell was on a kick of giving their computers a sort of motherboard ID.  I would have given you a direct link to the drivers page but Dell has changed the workings of that page so that it is some sort of re-direction.  If I click on Robin's link I get the last computer that I viewed on the downloads page rather than the computer I wish to see.

See if this works better:

Desktop System Software

Intel Chipset Driver

Video Adapter Driver (Intel G965 On-board video)

Network Interface Adapter (On-board Ethernet port)

On-board Sound Adapter

If you need additional drivers and cannot find them, let me know.

It did work,

Hi Robin;

Perhaps things usually work better for you.  If you have another computer available, try this:  Create a link to a support page for a given computer, then use the second one to view the link.  When I do this, one of two things happen.  Either I get a page asking me to type in my service tag or pick a method to select a model, or I get the page from the last support page I viewed on the second computer.  One of the last updates changed the method used to select a given page, and if you click on the link you posted you wind up going to the page determined by a cookie left on your machine.

If you don't find the same thing I would like to know.  There is always the chance I'm doing something that leads to that effect.

Thank you, I have it up and running, I'm having a couple of problems, I'm getting a pop up that says USB Device not found, How do i fix that, And i have been having a difficult time removing indexing, I turned it off and disabled it, It still shows up in my task bar! I went to add/remove componets and removed it and it wont go away, I think thats why my pc died in the first place it sucked up every bit of ram and space i had when there wasn't much on it.. How do i get it removed. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank You,

Makani

With regard to "USB Device Not Found"; do your USB ports work?  This message should only show up if you had a device installed but then removed it without also uninstalling its driver.  It's presence may be annoying but it should cause you no trouble.

If you have already disabled the indexing service via its applet in Computer Management, I'm afraid I have no idea why you are still having trouble with it.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it..Doesn't dell have a Driver Update Utility that scans your pc to see what drivers needs to be updated, I thought i seen one before! but can't find it,  If there isn't one could you please recommend a free one, Thank you.

To reinstall Windows XP follow my wiki A Clean Install of Windows XP. In steps 3-5 use your XP Media Centre Edition Disc (do not try a nlite slipstream as will break MCE).

For drivers download the following onto a USB stick using another machine then insert the USB stick into your machine and install in order.

In step 7, there will be some automatic additional steps as you have the MCE, it will set this up, follow the onscreen instructions. 

Note if your machine cannot read the USB stick then copy the files to a CD or DVD using the other computer and then install in order. The links to drivers Rxxxxxx.exe that I gave should all be direct to the FTP website and should not cause any problems.

Service Pack 3

Internet Explorer 8

Media Player 11 

R149166.exe Dell Desktop Software 

R132539.exe Chipset 

R147015.exe Intel Video or R129368.exe X1300 ATI or R158449.exe nVidea GeForce 7300 (depending on what you have)

R147994.exe ATI TV Tuner or R141377.exe TV Tuner AverMedia (depending on what you have)

R130101.exe Intel LAN 

R130298.exe Intel LAN Diagnostics 

R138111.exe Wireless USB Device (if you have it)

R124105.exe Sigmatel Audio 

Dell Support Centre (Optional)

If you follow this procedure, your system should have peak performance.

This is an area that has some inconsistency.  You may have noticed on the support page that you have the option of searching for your drivers and downloads by entering your service tag number.  My experience with this is that it usually puts up the drivers that have been most recently updated, but you don't necessarily need to install them.

You will likely find others with differing opinions, but mine is that you should leave the drivers alone unless you are experiencing a problem that might be solved with a different driver.  Drivers are updated when experience has shown that a given hardware/software combination doesn't work as designed, or very rarely, to introduce a capability that the original driver did not support.  Driver software is just as likely to have "bugs" as any other software you run on a computer.  If your computer is working as you desire, I see no need to risk introducing a problem simply to have the latest driver on the computer.

Gosh natakuc4 i don't know what i have in that list installed, Some of them i don't know if i have or not, I know i have some of them, I did download R149166.exe Dell Desktop Software that sits in the taskbar last week, i never had that before, What does it suppose to do. Also i never heard that you should never update your drivers, That's all i ever hear from everyone  to make sure you update your drivers! So i don't know what is right or wrong,  I appreciate all the help.

Also all the drivers I mentioned, for the ones with options, the ones that don't apply to your system will fail to install. If you already have them also they usually say so you can just download them all and attempt to install them. This will be your system up to date.