WOW!!! Peter... thanks for the answer and the time and care you took in
it!!!!!!
I'm having trouble with the computer hanging just after the install process
starts... it just stops.... and yes... thinking it might be "working" I've
let it sit for (one time anyway) over 2 hours and nothing doing.
Anyway...... I will keep at it and I am sure your post is going to be a
great help.
Thanks.....
Tom Gahagan
Peter said:
Hi,
First, have your XP CD (Home or Pro) on hand.
Boot into BIOS setup and change the boot sequence that CD-rom to be the first boot device.
You may skip this step if the CD-rom has been set to be the first boot device.
How to boot into BIOS setup:
Refer to the Dell User manual.
Or
Power on the PC. During POST, watch the bottom line of the display. When
you see "press XXX key to enter setup" or similar wordings, do so.
In BIOS, click the boot sector tab, highlight the CD-rom and use the + key
(or follow the BIOS instruction) to move up the CD-rom to be the first boot
device. Now, insert the XP CD into the CD-rom, close the tray and then save
and exit BIOS setup.
Watch the display. When the message "press any key to boot from the CD"
appeared at the bottom line of the display, press the Space Bar immediately.
You only have 1 to 2 seconds to do so. If you missed the chance, press
Ctrl+Alt+Del key to restart the PC and then press the Space Bar continuously
until it boot from the XP CD.
After boot from the XP CD, XP started analyse the PC and load setup drivers.
Do not press the R key to go into Recovery Console.
Press the "Enter" key to enter setup.
Press the F8 key to accept the licence agreement.
Follow the on-screen display, select delete all existing partitions.***
Note: do not select repair installation or select to install XP Pro on other partition.
Follow the prompt to format and partition the Hdd (all data would be lost)
You can format the Hdd to NTFS or FAT32 format (by default, XP would
format the Hdd in NTFS with 4KB cluster size)
If your Hdd is bigger than 32GB, I would suggest you to format into NTFS.
If the Hdd is over 40GB, I would suggest you to fromat the C drive to 20GB
in NTFS format. You may format the rest free space on the Hdd by using disk
management after XP Pro installed successfully.
After you have selected the size of the C drive, follow the prompt and let
XP Pro format the drive and install XP Pro.
Do not disturb until you are prompted.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.
After reboot, windows should be successfully loaded.
Now, setup your modem (56K, DSL, ADSL or cable, etc.) to be ready to go on-line.
Turn on the build in Firewall feature.
Start/Connect To/Dsiplay all connections, right click on the modem, click
properties, click the Advanced tab and then check the box to enable
Firewall, click Apply and OK. Reboot the PC.
First, go to Dell website, download and save the latest XP drivers for
chipsets, vedio chips, sound chips of your model and save them to a
specific folder. If the mobo do not have on-board vedio chip/sound chip, go
to the display & sound cards manufacturers' websites to download and save
the latest XP drivers.
Install the chipset drivers first. After reboot, go to device manager to
ensure the drivers are properly loaded.
Then install the sound drivers. After reboot, check to ensure it is
properly loaded and is working properly.
Now, install the display drivers. After reboot, go to device manager to
ensure it is working properly. Change the display settings to your desire.
Now, use the restore feature to create a new restore point with the
discription "Before install SP1 and update patches"
Go to windows update site to install SP1 and update all other critical patches.
Note: Assuming there is no SP1 on your XP Pro CD, If SP1 is already
included in the XP Pro CD, upate the critical patches only.
