Its OFFICIAL! Windows XP works perfectly on the XPS m1330!

Which Nvidia driver is everyone using?

I've been experiencing a weird problem w/the Dell supplied XP drivers. If I don't properly shutdown the machine (ie, it freezes), then after I reboot it, XP isn't able to enable the Nvidia card.

Anyone else experiecing this?

 

I haven't had any problems with the video drivers that I've been using.

I'm running the 163.71 drivers, and found them to be the fastest and most stable drivers so far.

 

hey, just wondering if anyone tried dual booting win xp and vista?

any guides on this?

im just on the verge of switching to XP on my m1330. im super pissed on the slow file transfers.

 

Any guide describing a Vista / WinXP dual-boot process will work. You do not need to do anything special for your M1330. But I'd recommend that you ditch the dual-boot idea altogether, and just go with WinXP.

People typically dual-boot for one of two reasons:

1) They want to run primarily in one OS, but need a feature available in the other OS. For example, I prefer to do everything in WinXP, but dual-boot to Vista because I occasionally play DX10 games.

2) People want to try out another OS, but are afriad to commit to the change.


I suspect that you fall into category 2. If that is true, then you are already sick of Vista enough to the point that you are willing to make a change. If you dual-boot, you will most likely need to reformat*. Then install 2 OS'es. If you decide to use 1 exclusively, you will again need to reformat*, and install a single OS. That is two formats, three installs to get to the OS you want.

If you just move to XP, you will need to reformat*. Then install 1 OS. If you decide you like XP, you are done. If you want to switch back to Vista, you will need to reformat*, and install a single OS. 1-2 formats, 1-2 OS installs.

If all of the programs you want to run will work fine under WinXP, then just move to WinXP. In the end, you save time by just going with a single OS.


* - Reformatting - There are tools out there that will allow you to repartition your hard drive without having to reformat. These tools can help you move from single-OS to dual-boot and back to single-OS. However, they will take anywhere from 30min to 4+hours to run, and have a chance of corrupting your data to the point where you have to reformat anyway.

It is up to you whether you want to try using these tools to try and save some time. You spend time finding these tools, and spend lots of research time trying to recover from errors if something does go wrong. I find that in the long run you save time by just reformatting... it's choosing the evil you know vs. the evil you don't know.

 

Are those the ones from Dell?

 

No, they are released drivers using a modded INF, so that your mobile GPU chipset is recognized.

Driver pack and modded INF is here:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15113

 

Thanks Kent! I'll give those a try.

 

Having major problems trying to get the sound device recognised and working. Have tried just about every driver and every trick listed here and on the dell community thread without success.

I'm running XP home edition with SP3. All the other hardware seems to function ok. In device manager I have a 'PCI device' with a '!' - I have no device listed under Sound controllers.

With each installation attempt I am greeted with the same error message - system does not support the driver you are attempting to install. I have a European spec machine.

Any help would be huuuuugely appreciated - am just about ready to giveup.

 

The problem is that you are using the wrong driver.

What driver are you using, and what hardware do you think is in your laptop? (SigmaTel Audio, Creative audio, etc)

 

Thanks for a swift reply Kent

As far as I know I have the SigmaTel Audio built in. Have tried about 6 drivers from the Dell website including the so-called XP driver 'R158235' - all without success. Further advice would be very much appreciated...

 

Hi, Kent

I just purchsed a XPS M1330. It has a Intel T9300 cpu and 3 GB memory, 200 SATA hard drive. I try to install windows xp pro following your suggestion. I used a cd coming with my other dell labtop bought three years ago and have changed the bios. But the machine died after the message "setup is inspecting your computer ....". So I actually cannot start the installation. Do you have any suggestion?


PS: I test my cd on other machine. It worked. The windows vista dvd also worked on this new XPS.

 

Just download whatever driver you find in the support section of the 1330. For my computer it was R171789. If you have a European machine it may be that the R158235 is the right driver. Anyways, I had the same problem you did while installing. In my case I get through the install and the sound still doesn't work. I restart and it starts going through the install again and then gives the error message that you mentioned. Here is what I did to resolve that issue.

Go through the install like you did before. After the install has completed but before you restart, go to your device manager. Down towards the bottom there is something that has an error message. I know this isn't very helpful, I can't remember what it's called. Anyways, right click on it and select "update driver". It will ask if you want to search the internet for an updated driver. Say no. It will then ask something along the lines of "do you want windows to search for the driver" or something like that. Say yes.

The problem is that for some reason with the driver installation it only gets halfway through it. You right clicking on that component with the error and saying update driver forces it through the rest of the way.

My guess is that you have already installed multiple drivers and restarted multiple times so from the point you're currently at you should probably just go straight to the device manager and do the right click rather than installing another driver.

If this works, your sound will work as soon as it's done updating the driver. However, when you restart it might try to install again. Go ahead and let it install again and you'll get the same error message again, but your sound will be working. Hope this helps. I wish I could give you more specifics but I don't plan on reinstalling again to help ya out, sorry .

There are many places in this forum and Dell's forum that mention this problem. If you want more specifics do some more searching on the forum....even this specific thread has the answer I'm pretty sure.

 

Hello,

Thx for the excellent howto + driver guide. My XP installation on the m1330 went smooth.
I only have two issues:

When windows starts up, the startup sound hangs. When completly booted, the sound is working normal. Any ideas how to solve this?

When i turn bluetooth off with the widcomm software, the bluetooth light goes out. However, if i reboot the pc, the bluetooth light is on, even tough the widcomm tray icon indicates that bluetooth is disabled. How can i manually disable bluetooth correctly (the hardware wifi switch is no option, since i use it exclusivly for wifi)???

Thanks in advance

 

Where did you get SP3? It's not released yet.

 

Well, there's supposed to be an app that lets you remap the MEDIA DIRECT button. Maybe you can get that to control the BT?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=108496

 

There's a publicly available "patch" that essentially adds a registry key. That registry key allows you to go to Windows Update and download SP3 from there.

 

Folks...

I have been able to install XP on my M1330, just a few hiccups remain. I have done quite a bit of searching before deciding to post here.

There are 3 devices for which the device manager is now showing "?" mark

1. Audio device on high definition audio bus
2. Video controller
3. Video controller (VGA Compatible)

For 2&3 I went to dell and entered the service tag, got the drivers for XP. nvidia installation starts and aborts with error message saying

Any help is much appreciated

 

Kumpooterjooser-

There are two possibilities:

1) You do not have an nVidia 8400M GPU in your laptop... do you specifically remember ordering it? It was an additional cost when ordering the laptop.

2) The video card driver package that you are using does not recognize your 8400M GPU. This is the default behavior of driver packages downloaded from nvidia.com, but the ones from Dell should have a workaround for this.

In any case, if you are CERTAIN that you have an nVidia 8400M GPU in your computer, you might want to try this:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15113

Download the Driver and Modded INF from the top of that post. Unzip the Driver package, and use the Modded INF file to overwrite whatever INF came as part of the driver package. Then run Setup.exe

 

Has anyone had any success with the M1530?

Presumably, it should "Windows XP works perfectly" on the XPS M1530?

Thanks

The performance should be like night & day when switching from Vista to XP(with no graphical themes). Plus with all the software compatibility and driver compatibility that XP has - it simply just makes sense to downgrade.

 

I finally got the machine up and running. The biggest mistake I made was to not list the hardware before wiping Vista out. That led to a wild chase trying to figure out the hardware specs

Anyway, the service tag came up with nvidia drivers on dell website. I bought the laptop from best-buy, so I went to BB site and narrowed down the specs and discovered that it has Intel display drivers. Dell did not have the drivers so had to get them from Intel. This fixed most of my problems and now the machine is running pretty smoothly

Thanks for your input kent1146

 

I can't seem to get the SATA drivers installed. I did an install by modifying the BIOS to use ATA setting - then I tried a guide that was previously posted. However, whenever i chose the driver file downloaded from dell, the system won't boot. Also, when i try installing the app directly from intel, it just says my system does not meet requirements.

Has anyone used the ATA method of install then successfully installed the SATA drivers POST install?

 

Has anyone here installed XP on their 1330, then used Vista on another machine and perhaps had second thoughts? I'm currently running Vista, but am quite tempted to switch to XP when SP3 comes out for the performance boost. And has anyone actually quantified performance boost, aside from measuring services running or start-up time etc?

Thanks!
-Ash

 

I've done the same thing you have, with no success. A much easier way to get XP on this laptop is to integrate the SATA AHCI drivers into your XP cd, using nLite. I've done it and the install was flawless (no need to mess with BIOS settings or drivers during or post install).

Link for latest Intel SATA drivers:
RAID/AHCI Software - Intel® Matrix Storage Manager, version 7.8.0.1012):
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2101&OSFullName=Windows*+XP+Professional&lang=eng&strOSs=44&submit=Go%21
Link for nLite:
http://www.nliteos.com/download.html

There are guides that will take you step by step through the process, which is really painless. There might even be one in this very thread, I haven't looked though. Post back if you require assistance. Good luck.

 

Nice guide. Sure wish there were 64bit drivers for XP Pro 64bit

 

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread.

After reading a couple of guides I got XP installed and working 100%. I did run into some trouble installing XP on my laptop, though. Every guide I read said to install the chipset drivers first then the others. When I did this I had a lot of problems. First my sound wouldn't work. The driver kept telling me it was an unsupported device; the wireless driver was throwing a fit as well.

After about 2 or 3 installs I decided to install the sound first and then wireless. From there it was golden. Everything installed correctly. Lastly I installed the chipset driver then the sata driver. I reinstalled again just to verify and again it installed perfect. So.... If you're having similiar problems.....

Do not install the chipset driver first.

Thanks again guys!

oh.. btw.. my 1330 specs..

T7500 2.2GHZ 4mb L2 cache - 3gb Ram - 160gb 7200rpm - Nvidia 8400 - LED screen (beautiful) - 1026.00 shipped (refurb and working/looks perfect)

 

Thanks for the step by step instructions. I haven't updated the SATA drivers yet but everything seems to be working fine, except for my wireless connection. When I tried to install the wireless driver I get an error message that there is no compatible hardware found. Device Manager lists that my network adapter 'Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter' can't start.

i didn't find any other people posting with this problem. Anybody have any ideas about what could be happening?

I'm installing XP Pro sp2 and i have the wireless 1505n minicard

thanks!

 

I'm using Nlite to slipstream but don't know which to stream for SATA driver, "iaahci or iastor"? What mode do I pick "Regular PNP Driver or Textmode driver"? And do I pick "lCH6M or lCH7MDH"? Thanks

 

help anyone?

 

What's wrong with just going to the dell support site, entering my system tag, changing the operating system option from windows vista to windows xp and just using all the drivers it then gives you?

 

I still can't get sound to work on my m1330. Can anyone give the best driver to use for the non soundblaster sound card and a good description on how to install? This is driving me crazy!!

 

There are no Bluetooth drivers, no Quickset drivers, and no Intel X3100 drivers...

 

I think you need to download UAA driver from microsoft. That's how I solved mine and hopefully it will work for you.

 

ok, does anyone else have this problem?

you can get all the drivers on your computer EXCEPT for the video driver, ive tried every solution for the past couple days and i cant install it.

even the modded inf doesnt work.

 

Do you have the Nvidia card or the Intel graphics?

 

lets pretend i have both because im not quite sure which one i have

 

i think i might have the intel one because every single nvidia one ive tried over the past few days have not worked whatsoever.

 

Right-click your desktop and look at the context menu. If you see
NVIDIA Control Panel
listed, you have the Nvidia card.

You can also click the Start button and type in
Device Manager
When Device Manager opens, click the + next to Display adapters and it will show whether you have the Nvidia card or Intel graphics.

 

well on right click all it says in default monitor on,

there is nothing under display adapters but i remember at one point before there was something and it said, mobile intel 965 express chipset family in the display drivers in device manager, but i uninstalled it because it said it had problems.

does that answer your question/

 

Yes. Sounds like you got the Intel. That's why you can't install the Nvidia drivers. You may as well put your old driver back, or get the one off the Dell website.

 

Because of this thread I am seriously considering going back to XP. Can someone tell me whether they have actually noticed a big increase in performance? I.e. gaming. Also I was using my mates XP laptop on our wireless network at home and it seemed much faster and more responsive than my vista m1330 even though my lappy has far superious specs? Does anyone know why this is?

 

Hey buddy:
Ok, it sounds just easy but can somebody explain me HOW DO I INTEGRATE A .EXE DRIVER INTO A CD USING NLITE?
I mean: yes, it's pretty easy how nlite works but I just can't figure out how that driver with extension .exe will be completely integrated.
Ok, I run that driver and I've got two things: a error messege (I'm under Vista, certainly the system won let me install something incompatible) and a file for... my own vintage floppy disk. And you, as a m1330 user, had noted that there is no floppy on this model, so what do I suppose have to do?
You need to keep in mind I wanna this combo on my system: Vista, Windows XP and Linux.
Last question: what about differences between installing Windows 32 bits and the other one on 64 bits?
Thanks in advance and sorry for my english

 

I haven't checked the rest of this thread, but there's a guide here
http://komku.blogspot.com/2007/11/integrate-driver-into-windows.html

 

Thanks,

First, I run that .exe driver on another PC (I was thinking make the floppy anyway) and I've found the same 8 files included in the original file. So I just copied them into a usb, but under booting with my Windows XP CD, BIOS, I guess, don't read this device (certain people declare it's possible select the right driver on this way).

Sure, your link it's useful. After a while I have been stuck on which .inf will be added into My Own Windows XP but now I see clearly wich one: iaahci.inf.

I've burn so many CD's attempting to install Windows 32 or 64 bits and I think this will be the last one (I always say the same). Finally, just for curiosity, is it possible make a Windows booting USB with m1330 HHD driver instead for burn CD's? I need copy the systems files in there and then the rest?

 

You could just follow my instructions here, and skip nLite.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3337069

 

For all the people asking about performance gains using XP vs Vista, just Google it! There are tons of websites that have already performed head to head benchmarks between the two OS's.

 

Thanks, Kent. I'm reading your post (about "no splitstream cd") and its replies. It seems to be a pretty ingenious idea. Sure, I don't like spend money for a external floppy for just once, noway.
So, if I star Dell Media Direct (a lots of people like me are going to install at least double booting plus DMD as well) with HHD at AHCI mode (required mode for working), follow your instructions (installing XP on ATA mode), everything is going to work?
Sorry if I a little bit out of this thread

 

It should work.

Just be sure to do your WinXP install in one shot while you are in IDE mode. If you switch to DMD or Vista in IDE mode, I think that Vista will redetect your drive controller, and screw things up for you.

 

thx god,thx dell,thx @snowbro

 

Its OFFICIAL, Dell is no longer supporting XP drivers for m1330 on their download site. Mother .....!

 

hey all! i've downgrade my xps m1330 to xp this morning. but i can't stand by/hibernate my laptop. what's wrong with that?

anyone can help me guys?