Windows XP Clean Install Issues

Question

A few months ago, I performed a clean install of XP on my five year old Dell 8300.  Thought it would be nice clean up house after a few years.  I was very pleased with the results and how much smoother XP starts and runs........HOWEVER, I have one gremlin.  After the clean install, I noticed issues with my USB devices.  Several devices which should be plug and play (e.g. Logitech USB headset) were not immediately recognized when plugged in causing the New Hardware Wizard to pop up.  I believe I selected to install drivers automatically and noticed in all cases that a file named ksolay.ax was copied from somewhere else on my hard drive.  I even had issues with my Lacie External DVD drive and some MIDI music devices.  Most USB devices eventually became recognized and fully functional after the ksolay.ax file was installed, however, I have one MIDI music device that still does not work properly. I performed my clean installation using my original SP1 disks that came with my computer and went directly to SP3.  One area where I'm a bit suspicious is the drivers, especially the chipset drivers.  I feel very uncertain about the versions of drivers to use when the ones on the Dell Support page are so old compared to the ones available on the manufacturers' sites.  I followed the order for installing the drivers (i.e. chipset, video, NIC, audio, etc.) as described in this article: http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=179256 Here are my questions: 1) Is it appropriate to use the latest drivers from the manufacturer's website for chipset (Intel), NIC, video(ATI), and sound(Creative)? Or best to use the older drivers posted on the Dell Support website for the 8300? 2) Desktop System Software (DSS) is not relevant to the 8300 is it?  I don't see it on the 8300 driver page. 3) If I do another clean install, could slipstreaming SP3 with my Dell SP1 disk be beneficial? Might that resolve the USB issue? I sincerely appreciate any help and feedback.

mombodog · Answer

1. Yes, I have done this on all my Dells, no issues.   2. Not all models had DSS, if it is not in the downloads for that model, skip it.   3. I would, just for the time savings alone, try it.

holmes13 · Answer

Thanks for the feedback.

Unfortunately, I continue to experience peculiarities. Before reperforming the clean install of XP, I wanted to take an image of my hard disk with Acronis. I notice now that I cannot get my computer to boot Acronis from the CD drive (despite the boot sequence properly being set in BIOS). I feel even more suspicious about the chipset drivers causing issues with my hardware. When I last performed the clean install, I believe I may have tried to upgrade the chipset driver to the latest available from Intel after I had already installed the older chipset driver provided by Dell and the video and sound drivers. Could this have caused the trouble with my CD/DVD drives and my USB devices?

The latest chipset driver available on Intel's site has the following comment:

The Intel Chipset Device Software does not install drivers for AGP or USB. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS UTILITY IF YOUR DEVICE MANUFACTURER IS RECOMMENDING IT TO CORRECT AN "AGP DRIVER," "AGP GART," OR "USB DRIVER" ISSUE; IT WILL NOT CORRECT YOUR ISSUE.

If I use this latest Intel chipset driver for my Dell 8300 with 875P chipset, does it mean I also need to install separate drivers for AGP and USB?

Thanks again for any help!

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