with regards to the BIOS, i saw in another forum that A02 is fine and the ones that followed did not refer to OS at all.  You mean that I should use the OS ID# that is on my tower and not the one on the laptop the CD came with?  I am concerned about SP2 because Micorosft is dropping SP1 support this October.  With regards to slipstream, I downloaded the slipstream software, I hav my original SP1 restore CD and an SP2 upgrade CD from Microsoft.  Those owuld work if the SP2 restore doesn't?

It should work . . if asked, use the Product Code on the side of the tower ( bottom of a laptop) 

Be sure you have the newest BIOS . . many of the Dells need a BIOS patch to work with SP2

 

Rich

HELP!!!!  I used the XP SP2 restore CD and couldn't get passed where I needed to put in the product ID#.  Tried again with the original restore CD and the Microsoft SP2 upgrade CD.  FAtal errors upon first reboot.  It did work twice but after installing Norton Interent Security 2005 the task bar went from blue to tan and it told me that I needed to re-install Norton. Guess what, still no luck.  I am totally down.  Is there something I could do? I just want to put back in the original with SP1 as it was before I started.  It workd well but I was concerned about Microsoft suspending SP! supporet in October.

What does " couldn't get passed where I needed to put in the product ID#" mean? . . what happened . . what did you do? Did it ask for the Product Key ( COA on the side of the pc)? . .

yeah, i put in the Product Code from the side of the tower then click re-try.  it would not accept it.  so i re-formatted and tried this tiem with the original restore CD & an XP SP2 upgrade cd from micorosft.  each time it would give me a fatal error that a component could not be loaded.  or one time it actually did load ok, but when i installed norton internet security 2005 first the task bar went from blue to tan.  then i got errors from norton about having to re-install or run live update to get the lastest stuff.  either way it was no good including going to the symantec website to folow their directgions.  at this point i just want to reload just with sp1 from my original restore cd but that fatal error after the first reboot keeps coming up.

I would download diagnostics from Dell and test the hard drive, the CD drive and memory . . something is not playing nice.

Message Edited by rickmktg on 06-05-200609:36 AM

Good luck . . btw . . if the disc is a Dell Reinstallation Disc . . he was blowing smoke