[Hybr!d]

Nvidia drivers will be on the manufacturers websites, google nvidia.

As for the Dell bits unless they do a driver you are stuck.

Try calling them.

[Seven]

Alright I haven't installed them yet but I found this thread fron CNet helpful in finding the proper drivers...
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_10...59474&start=15

I'm just trying to find the sound card which based on that thread above and some other stuff I've read - might be a total pain to do. I'm gonna keep searching tho.

[Seven]

OK for people who are going to see this thread in the future here's the info...

goto this website ...
http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?...False&~ck=anav

search for the following things and install...

r154493 - for drivers for NIC
r158222 - nvidia 128mb video card
r164255 - wireless network card drivers

still working on the sound card and 355 bluetooth drivers - will update soon

[Onur]

Oh man, to go back from Windows Vista to Windows XP Sp2, first you must insert Windows Vista CD than go by installation until the selecting Partitions, where you merege, format, or delete them, than just delete it and don't format it than Restart Computer and than put the Windows XP Sp2 CD and if you have a SATA HDD try at the start of the setup press F6 and Run from the Floppy or if you have an IDE HDD, just run normaly.

[theUman]

Originally Posted by cicchis0

I got the SATA drivers from Intel - downloaded Intel Matrix Storage Manager and selected 82801HEM/HBM (ICH8M).

Created a Win XP CD complete with SATA drivers using nLite (see http://icrontic.com/printcontent.php?print=r&id=284 for instructions) and away you go.

You need to download XP drivers for pretty much everything, including network adaptors (I transferred files from my operational PC using a USB thumb drive). Dell web site has most of these easily available on the support part of the site, but sound was a bit tricky to find - it's at http://support.us.dell.com/support/d...&fileid=205136

Good Luck,
Soren

Thanks, this helped a lot! I just got a Dell Inspiron 1520 with Vista home premium installed - the graphical interface was neat, but the repeated security authorizations drove me nuts... perhaps needless to say, I wanted to install XP as soon as possible.

Kept getting a blue screen when I tried to install XP, so I used the Vista installation disk and formated the drive, then I got the "Windows cannot find any hard drives..." error, and a bit of searching lead me to this forum.

I couldn't get the installation hybrid cd to work for me, but I was able to borrow an external floppy drive and just press F6 on setup and that worked.

Had a bit of trouble downloading the drivers (for some reason I can't view DVD's anymore - when I played a DVD on Vista (right out of the box) it worked fine, but after the format and reboot it doesn't work... says I'm missing a DVD decoder...??? anybody know how to fix that? this is just using Windows Media Player.)

There is one other error, (BTW, I just went to the DELL support website and downloaded all the drivers for an XP Inspiron 1520) for some reason, I can't open the control panel. When I click on it from the start menu, it says Windows has encountered an error and must close, then explorer.exe ends and the start bar disappears, or it will just freeze and I have to log off by pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL and selecting log off. (CTRL + ALT + DEL still works fine, and I can open the task manager)

I'm at a loss for what to do about the control panel issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have to have this ready for school on Saturday!

Thanks so much!

[Hybr!d]

Originally Posted by theUman

but the repeated security authorizations drove me nuts... perhaps needless to say, I wanted to install XP as soon as possible.

These can all be turned off.

[stugster]

Originally Posted by Dave Hybrid

As for the Dell bits unless they do a driver you are stuck.

Try calling them.

The components from Dell will just be rebranded. So don't worry too much if you can't get help from Dell, there's a good chance the real manufacturer will have drivers.

[Hybr!d]

Originally Posted by stugster

The components from Dell will just be rebranded. So don't worry too much if you can't get help from Dell, there's a good chance the real manufacturer will have drivers.

And how would one find the real manufacturer when all original info is hidden?

[stugster]

By using a tool like UnknownDeviceIdentifier.exe ;)

[gman2415]

For some reason my XP install keeps getting hung up at the installing windows stage. Any help would be great, I used a external floppy to load the SATA drivers and it is still stoping there. Its been trying to install for over 1hr now with no time going down.