You don't have a boot from CD choice in your BIOS ????

That is downright odd. Even my 9 year old Dimension 4100 has that option.

First, you can tell if the Dell PC Restore feature is working by observing the boot process on the display.  If PC Restore is active, you will see a blue stripe at the top of the screen immediately after the self test display disappears and just before Windows begins to load.  The blue stripe is visible for two seconds; you need to press CTRL and F11 toward the end of the self test and release both keys at the same time while the stripe is visible.  If you do not have the blue stripe, the Dell Master Boot Record (MBR) has been altered and you can no longer use PC Restore.  Although it is possible to repair PC Restore if you still have the restore image on the hard drive, this often requires as much effort as simply reinstalling the system.  If you would like to learn more, study this page:  Inside the Dell PC Restore Partition by Dan Goodell.

With regard to booting from the reinstallation CD; the Dimension 8300 uses IDE optical drives.  The Dell BIOS normally supports booting only from the drive in the master position on the IDE cable.  If you know which one that is, try that one first.  If you are still unable to boot from that drive, restart the computer and go to system (BIOS) setup, and set your secondary master drive (usually drive 0) to off.  Place the reinstallation CD in what is normally the secondary slave drive and try again.

If the above hasn't helped, restart the computer, go back to system setup, and turn the secondary master back on, and turn off the secondary slave.  Move the CD back to the master drive and try again.  If still no luck, turn off the computer, physically remove the slave connector (the connector in the middle of the cable) from its corresponding drive, start the computer and try booting with only one drive connected.  If that drive refuses to boot, move the master connector to the second optical drive and give it a try.  One last thing you can try is to reset the NVRAM.  Instructions for doing that are in the on-line service manual, found here:  Dimension 8300 Service Manual .  Look under System Setup Program at the bottom; Clearing Passwords.

I ended up over at Microsoft where I downloaded and burned Bootable Floppies for Win xp sp 1.  After a few hit and miss attempts I got 6 good disks and booted my PC from there.  During the process, it offered me the option of PC restore.  I tried that.  It didn't fix my problem so now I'll try reinstall.

I checked during startup for the blue line and couldn't see one so i guess that option isn't there even though it was offered during the setup.

I also get to a point where the CD has to be used and when inserted in the first drive will not respond but luckily it does in the second drive.  For a moment there, I thought I had finally won but then again.

If you do ever have the chance to do a reinstall, I love the part where you have to enter the 25 character code.  First I had to find it.  Luckily it was on the side of the computer I was working on.  And even more luck that I have a 3x head set with the sticker at the bottom of the computer and the character of a gnat size they are tuff to distinguish.

I currently working on the full reinstall.  Any thing special I need to be aware of

The order of installation for the drivers is something to watch out for.  The first must be the Intel chipset driver.  The remaining drivers are not so critical, but due to the resources they require, Dell recommends following the chipset driver with the drivers for the display, network interface, and sound in that order.  Anything else is at your discretion.  Dell normally ships a Drivers and Utilities CD with their computers, but you can also get the drivers here:  Dimension 8300 Drivers.  You should be able to find a driver on that page for any device that Dell originally shipped with the machine.

If your installation CD does not include at least Service Pack 2, you should plan to install one of the later service packs before you install an anti-virus or internet security package.  Microsoft provides downloads for Service Packs 2 and 3 on these pages:

Service Pack 2

Service Pack 3

If you are using a security suite that includes a firewall, don't forget to shut off the firewall provided by Windows that is enabled by default.  Once you have the service pack installed you can install your security suite and go on-line to update it, followed by updating Windows itself.

I seem to have that deer in the headlights look again.  The reinstall has complete.  I have a desktop with a peaceful scene on it and the icon for the recycle bin.  In my hand, I have a pile of CD's that came with my computer

Reinstall cd for windows XPsp1                                                                                                                                                       

Reinstalling telephony data/fax voice modem software Drivers and utilities

Sound blaster live

Dell Dimension recourceCDDevice drivers Diagnostics and utilities and computer information

Cyberlink Power DVD

Color Monitor quick set up

Reinstalling  Antivirus software, support software, Multimedia software and internet software Application

reinstalling Roxio easy CD creator Application

and a box with Microsoft works suite  

I don't seem to find an Intel Chipset driver of any of the others for that matter as everything is worded differently?

Place the Dell Resource CD into the drive and allow it to autorun.  It will ask to install, click OK.  Once the application has installed you should see a list on the left allowing you to select the computer for which you are seeking drivers.  Select your model number, and then look along the top of the window.  You should see a list, one of the selections being Drivers.  Click on that.  You should then be presented with a list of drivers, some of them having checkmarks to the left.  Those are the files that the application has determined are needed.  One of the files so marked should be labeled as the Intel Chipset Installation Utility.  Click, or double click, on that file to begin.  You should get a small window with buttons labled Open and Save (to Disk).  Click Open to start the auto-extractor which will extract and save the driver files to your hard drive.  Once the extractor has finished you should get another small window asking if you want to install the driver.  Click OK or Yes, whichever is available.  The chipset driver will be installed; when complete, you should restart the computer so that the registry will be updated.

When the computer begins to boot up you may be asked to press a key to boot from CD, even if you have been having problems with this up until now.  If you see that, ignore it and allow the computer to boot from the hard drive.  When the computer has completed the boot process, select the next driver you want to install and follow the same procedure as that for the chipset driver.  To start up the application to get to the next driver, just eject the CD and re-insert it so that it will again auto-run.

I notice that you have a Soundblaster Live CD in your collection.  Before you install the driver for your sound card you need to determine if you have an actual Soundblaster card or if this CD is the overlay for the integrated sound.  The easiest way to do this is to look at the rear of the computer.  At the bottom of the tower are the openings for the PCI expansion cards.  If you have a Soundblaster card your speakers should be plugged into a card that shows in one of those openings.  If you are using the overlay for the integrated sound your speakers will be plugged into the connectors that are about half-way toward the top end of the tower.

If you have the actual Soundblaster card, do not install the sound driver that you will find on the Resource CD.  Instead you will need to eject the Resource CD at that point and insert the Soundblaster Live CD instead so that the appropriate driver will be installed.  If you are using the overlay for the integrated sound, go ahead and install the driver from the Resource CD; you will use the Soundblaster CD to install the overlay after you have finished with the Dell drivers.

All is going well.  Inserted the resource CD brought up the drivers, System driver, Intel chipset and Video driver nVidia 64MB GeForce4 are the only two that have checks next to then.  Also listed are

Video drivers          ATI 128MB

                                  ATI 128 MB Pro

                                  ATI Rage 128 Ultra

Network Driver       Broadcom NetXtreme

                                  Intel 10/100

Mouse Driver          Microsoft PS/2

Controller Driver    Promise SATA

Audio Driver            Analog Devices ADI

Before I thought about it too much, I had already clicked on and installed the Network Driver, Broadcom NetXreme.  Now I'm not sure if I should have?

I looked at the back of the computer and my speakers plug into a card at the bottom so I think I have the actual Soundblaster.

I'll wait on the sound blaster install from soundblaster cd until I hear back from you about the other driver installs.

Hey, I really appreciate the help.

Great.  So, other than the ADI driver should I try installing all of the others?  I don't think I'll be using a SATA drive.  I guess that would be if I installed a new hard drive or hard an external for back up?   I was looking for info in my owners manual and came across Identifying Drivers.  I opened the device manager and under Other Devices were items marked as needing drivers installed.  The marked items were

Ethernet Controller

Multimedia Audio Controller

PCI input devide

PCI simple communications comtroller

Are these related to the soundblaster driver?    When I do get all the drivers installed and updated to SP2 I think that is then the time to install protection?.  I plan on using AVG 9 for that.  Any thoughts on that?

You can ignore the ATI video drivers as you have already installed a driver for the nVidia card that the Resource application has detected.  The NetXtreme driver is most likely the on-board controller, and if it installed, you probably needed it.  Most of the drivers will refuse to install if the software doesn't detect the hardware that it was designed to support.

I agree that you have a Soundblaster card, so do not install the ADI driver on your list; that driver is for the on-board sound adapter which you are not using.

I'm not that sure about the mouse driver; I don't see it on the Dell downloads list so I expect that it was intended for another computer model.

You only need to worry about the Promise SATA controller drivers if you should decide to use a SATA drive with your computer.  IDE hard drives do not require these.

It appears you've done well.  All that should be left is to install the Soundblaster driver.

EDIT:  I should mention at this point you still need to perform the update to either Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3.  The easiest way to do that is to download either of the files at one of the links I gave you earlier to a computer that can burn a CD you can use on your 8300.