shutdown win2k message

I tried looking up the XPS D300 in Dell Support's list, and didn't find it. Without the specs, my best guess is that neither ACPI nor APM were detected when the Win2K installer set up the machine. If so, the only option is to tell the user to press the power button.

Since I can't find the specs for the machine, I don't know whether the installer missed something. Did the "It's safe..." message start after the fresh installation? What operating system was the machine running before the Win2K install? Did it shut the machine down correctly?

Jim

It sounds like neither XP nor Win2K's installers are detecting that the BIOS contains any power management features. You should check Dell downloads and make sure the installed BIOS is the most recent one available. I did find one suggestion that the "ECSD" (configuration) data in the BIOS be reset before installing Win98. That may also apply to Win2K and XP.

It's possible to force the Win2K installer to use a different HAL from the page that lists the basic installation features. But I'm not sure that's a good idea!

Can you post or send me a private message containing the Service Tag number for that machine? Since I can't find a listing under the Dimension list, I'm having trouble being specific! I think it's an "XPS D___", but I'd like to be sure!

Thanks,

Jim

Thanks for the Service Tag number! Now I'm sure what I'm seeing at Dell Support is relevant to your system!

Judging from the description, A09 sounds like a major upgrade.

I'm a bit worried that since the system shipped with Win95, Dell may never have ironed out all the issues associated with Win2K ACPI support. I looked for a Win2K Reinstall Guide for your system, and didn't find one.

I'd say updating the BIOS is your best chance at getting Win2K shutdown to work correctly. Note that BIOS updates are among the riskier things you can do to a machine. If the update fails and the machine won't boot afterward, you have yourself a doorstop. So you need to decide whether it's worth the risk.

I checked the file size. Dxxx_A09.EXE is 1021720 bytes long, not zero, like the download page says.

(edit) It looks like the machine shipped with only 64 mb of memory. That's *very* skimpy for Win2K!

Jim

Message Edited by jimw on 01-24-2004 01:59 PM

JimW

Service tag is CDZ47 and the bios is A05. Don't you think that upgrading Bios to A09 will fix this problem?.

Thanks for your help.

 

OK, given that the machine's role isn't critical, it's an ideal candidate for a BIOS upgrade!

Please post back with the results. There were enough things changed in A09 that it might just do APCI correctly.

Jim

Thanks for the infos, I will try to upgrade the bios. I have 192MB of ram, but it is very slow. I just play with it when I have spare time.

Thanks again