There may be better advice coming, but from everything I've read here, the chipset drivers need to go on first, then the others. I'm *guessing* you're looking at another reinstall attempt.

Good luck, and hopefully someone more sure of the situation will reply.

It sounds as though you have encountered a virus and tried to correct it by performing a repair.  The 16 bit error may be correctable by using the procedure found at:

http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/16bit_fix.htm

From all you have said, however, I am afraid you may have reached a point that only a clean install will correct.  You will find the installation procedure here:

Hrova is correct; the chipset driver needs to be the first driver installed.  The remaining drivers may be installed in any order, but many suggest that the video driver be second.

If you purchased your D2400 after July, 2004, you have another option for complete restoration.  See this:

This automates the restoration procedure and reduces the amount of work you must do.  It completely wipes the disk, just as a clean install would do, but it returns the computer to the state it was in when it was delivered to you.  If you have done an install since getting the computer, or anything else that modifies the Master Boot Record, this procedure will not be available to you.

Good luck.

Message Edited by JackShack on 01-09-2006 01:32 PM

ShackMan,

Yes I obviously encountered a virus and the fix seemed to work.  However, I discovered the CD drive is not working properly ( I cleaned all of the CD's and they were able to install).  I am working on my assistant's pc. She downloads anything she sees.  Using trojan bomb, I determined she picked up the aprogos worm, which disables your device manager. Got rid of the worm, but still no device manager. Taking your advise, I did a clean reinstall and got error messages about "mmc...etc cannot be copied. I chose to skip these files and guess what - still no device manager.  Instead I get "mmc failed to initialize because it was installed correctly or has been corrupted.  Make sure the file Mmcndmgr.dll if register by running regsvr32%System Root%\system 32\mmcndmgr.dll".  I chose to skip these files during the clean reboot, so chances are they are not in the registry.  I believe this is the aprgos worm surviving the clean reinstall or maybe it's a Dell thing.  I have read many thread regarding empty device managers.  The good news is everything seems to be working with the exception of the device manager. This may have something to do with the 16-bit stuff.  Finally, I did install the chipset first - THIS SEEMS TO BE KEY IN DOING A REINSTALL.  Any thoughts by our experts and moderators might be extremely beneficial to all of us.. 

Jackshack,

Sorry I got your name wrong

Greese15