| UPDATED! I have included direct links to all the drivers, including a better order to install them in... I figured I'd write a little step-by-step on how to get Windows XP SP2 installed on our new little baby I have nothing against Vista, and it actually is a pretty nice OS when properly tweaked, however, I still think it'll be much better once SP-1 is released... For your info, my machine was ordered on July 4 and received Aug 7 in to Montreal, Canada. I bought it on the 15% off deal and saved $470. It has the following specs: XPS M1330, MATTE BLACK
C2D T7300 (2.0GHZ)
2GB, DDR2, 667 MHZ
LED display with camera
GEFORCE 8400M 128MB
200GB 7200rpm HARD DRIVE
8X DVD+/-RW SLOT DRV
Bluetooth
Dell 1505 Wireless N
(No fingerprint reader)
OK, so now for the Windows XP walkthrough... Step 1... You need a version of Windows XP SP2 with built-in SATA drivers... I personally use LastXP v16.2.2 (feel free to go find this on a torrent site somewhere, you have the option to install one of your own valid XP Pro keys as part of its setup). (The other way is to put SATA drivers on a USB stick and hit F6 during initial Windows setup...) Step 2... Start the computer with the Windows XP disk in the drive, and hit F12 to load the boot menu.... Pick CD/DVD drive... Step 3... Windows setup will now boot (blue screens, etc). Here you will have the option to format your harddrive... Dell likes to partition their drive into 4 partitions... 2 of them hidden partitions... (Boot partition, Recovery partition, OS partition, Mediadirect partition) I deleted them all and started from scratch (I burned the recovery partition to a DVD beforehand anyways, just in case). One of the partitions is for MediaDirect, but this is such a useless program, I would much rather have those 4 GB it eats up... I'd recommend partitioning the harddrive into 2 partitions, one for the OS, and one for everything else... I chose 40 GB for C: and 160 GB for D: (NTFS of course) Ok, now windows installs, (and a whole bunch of programs get silently installed too, thanks to LastXP!). Step 4... DRIVERS! DRIVERS! DRIVERS!
FIRST, I'd recommend installing the Intel Mobile Chipset drivers from the Dell website:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=205326
SECOND, I'd recommend installing the latest nVidia drivers v163.44 from here:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...howtopic=14560
Don't forget to download and copy over the modded file nv4_disp.inf BEFORE running the driver installation! THIRD, you should go download and install the following from the Dell Support website for the m1330 and Windows XP: Ricoh Memory Card Drivers:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=188377 Broadcom 59XX 10100 Ethernet Controller Driver:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=207055 Broadcom 59XX 10100 Ethernet Controller Utility:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=201425 Creative Labs Laptop Integrated Webcam: (only if you have it of course)
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=214676 Dell Touchpad - Pointing Stick:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=207655 UPEK Fingerprint Reader: (only if you have it of course)
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=209514 FOURTH, it gets a little tricky now, because Dell hasn't updated their m1330 drivers site very well... Here are links to working drivers for the following parts: Dell Wireless 1505 Draft 802.11n WLAN Mini-Card:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=202138 Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module (Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR): (only if you have it of course)
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=216131 SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=205136 Dell Quickset Drivers v3.4:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=222116 FIFTH, download and install the latest Directx runtimes:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en VOILA! That's it...you now have a perfectly running XPS m1330 in Windows XP! Of course, this is for my configuration. If you have a different wireless card for example, obviously I'd recommend installing the appropriate driver instead... I've noticed that sometimes Windows won't come out of SLEEP mode properly (I've now disabled SLEEP mode entirely and only use HIBERNATE) Not sure if there is a fix for this yet... This machine flies in Windows XP by they way... I will have to start doing some benchmarking, but a quick test of the harddrive shows my burst speed at over 90 MB/s and an average throughput of over 53 MB /sec! And in case you were wondering, there are no flagged items in Device Manager... Take care, and enjoy your new FASTER toy
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