XP Quest for Vostro 1400

aaeraon, I know it sounds weird, but try installing the Ricoh drivers found under chipset on Dell's driver page for this laptop. That seemed to get the "Base System Devices" working for me. I think this is related to the SD card reader in the front or some nonsense.

 

Nice one, thanks for that idea.

 

I have successfully gotten XP up and running using the guide posted for the 1420 XP install.

However my problems all come with media direct.

1st Install: I just used the C: drive and left all other partitions alone. Worked fine until I pressed the MD button while the computer was off. The MD partition assumed the letter C: and invalidated the OS system partition.

2nd Install: Deleted the Media Direct Partition. Created & Formatted a new partition (C) and installed. After complete. I decided to test this button again. Given that I had completely deleted and reformated the MD partition my expectation was that the button should do nothing when pressed. But I wanted to be sure. I was wrong. The MD button again attempted to load MD, which now did not exist. Totally froze the system... to the point where I could not even load windows from the CD. Just hangs with a blank screen.

3rd Install: Based on a suggestion from ScanR, thankyou, I popped in the media direct CD that came with my system. This disc was able to successfully boot & begin a new installation process for my system. I am in the middle of it now.


Why am I writing all this?

Becuase I cannot live with having an Auto Self Destruct Button 2 inches from my power switch.

I doubt others can either. If you are ignoring this button during XP install. It may cause you problems. At least it has for me.

Does anyone have any insight on how I can stop this madness?

 

I'm putting XP Pro on a vostro 1400 as well. I made the nlite disk outlined in the first post and that works fine. When I get everything installed I still get a ? on all 7 of the USB root hub entries in the device manager.

I've reformatted and tried the intel drivers linked here and the ones from the dell support site and keep getting the same problem. I asked Dell but they said they just don't support XP on the 1400 so no dice.

Anyone?

 

I suspect that these are connected to the media buttons above the keyboard. I can't find any drivers for them either.

Also I used the Vostro 1500 Sigmatel drivers for my audio. I couldn't get the other ones to work.

Edit: Link to Audio Driver I used: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&releaseid=R158235&SystemID=VOS_N_1500&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=8907&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=3&fileid=211297

Edit #2: After installing the Audio driver and restarting the media buttons are now working so I don't know what the usb root hubs are.

 

I have the same problem too. I tried the XP driver for Inspiron 1420, Latitude 630, Vostro 1500 and a few others. I get the following error message everytime (when rebooting after installation):

"The system does not support the driver you are attempting to install."

I had luck with all other drivers except the audio and modem. I reinstalled Windows XP, avoided any automatic upgrade, and only installed the chipset and video driver before the audio driver. Still no luck. I am feeling helpless at this point.

Can any guru please step up?

Thanks,
Feng

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=150033

I used the above link to get Windows XP working perfectly well on my Vostro 1400, I installed Dell Media Direct, used XP slipstreamed with SATA and all the drivers referenced above to make it all work,

for the guy who has problems with the audio follow the instructions in that thread to get it working, since it has a "different" installation. for the drivers that were not referenced above like storage card ricoh driver, dell 1390 wifi, creative webcam driver, bluetooth driver i used 1420's drivers , works like a charm. no questions in the device manager for me ! , xp is blazing fast now

 

Just tried using a usb mouse today and found that the usb ports aren't working. I've got everything else to work but these. Are the drivers suppose to install with the chipset or the card reader drivers?

Edit: Got them working. I just uninstalled all usb devices in device manager then rebooted. Window automatically installed them after.

 

Hey Killer23d,

So the ICH8 drivers are extracted from file name iata75.zip?
I tried slipstreaming the drivers into xp installation cd,
but when I boot the cd, it is still saying the it does not recognize a hardrive.
I probably did not slipstream it right. can you explain how you slipstreamed step by step? Thanks.

 

hey old brown shoe,
did you get it to work?
can you please explain step by step on how you installed media direct.
I thought i was doing it right, but my computer crashed when I pressed the
MD button.
here is what i did.

I booted MD disk and it partitioned C and partitioned one for MD.
Then I booted my XP installation CD.
I left the partitioned for MD alone and repartitioned C again so
now I have partition C and E .. Partition D is for MD.
Then I installed a new copy of XP.
after successful XP installation, I installed MediaDirect.
Then I turned off computer and then I press the MD button.
Then I get ERROR page.