A Few Questions about my 9300.

I have had no problems with my 9300, but I decided to format anyway to remove all of the extras Dell included.

When I did this, I found a few things that have changed that I would like to, if possible, correct.

The first thing I noticed is that, although I formatted the drive, deleted the separate partitions, created a new partition, and installed XP Professional, I am asked to choose which OS I want to boot everytime I start the computer. I can't find a single trace of XP Media Center Edition, yet it still asks me if I want to boot that OS. I would like to make it so it automatically boots Professional every time.

The second thing I noticed is that My battery level does not display in the system tray anymore. It use to show the battery level and whether or not the ac adapted was plugged in, but not anymore. I would like this back.

The buttons on the front of the laptop work, but they don't prompt the small popup box that displays the volume anymore. This isn't a major deal, but I would prefer to have it.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

To fix the boot problem, you need to edit your boot.ini file. To do that:
right click on my computer --> proprieties-->advanced-->startup and recovery section-->settings-->edit-->delete the line that starts with multi--> save file and exit

You can make it where the battery icon is shown by adjusting the power options. Go to the control panel-->power options-->advance-->check the battery box. You can also make a popup box appear (once you get quickset downloaded) by pressing FN + F3.

To get the popup boxes, you need to install Dell's Quickset. You can download it from Dell's driver's and download site. Enter your information in, and under Applications, you'll find the download.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

SG

 

Thanks, SouthernGirl.

Another thing I noticed is that, although I have removed the Media Center selection from the choice menu, it still takes as long to boot up. It's like it still goes through the process of checking for other OS's before finally loading Professional. There's a blinking cursor in the top left of the screen for about 15 seconds, then it loads XP fine.

Any cure?

 

my computer --> proprieties-->advanced-->startup and recovery section-->settings-->uncheck "time to display OS"

I don't know if that will solve the problem. It could just be the time to load up XP. You might need to change some settings so your system will load up quicker.

We had a thread on this that gives several tips and suggestions so your system will run better: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=5787

I would try some of the suggestions listed like checking MSCONFIG, and services.msc.

SG

 

I found a new problem. The SD slot on my 9300 is no longer working due to the format. I looked on Dell.com for the drivers, but couldn't find one that mentioned the SD slot. Any idea of what driver I need?

 

i can't remember what driver it falls under. I want to say that it is a driver that Windows provides, so you might try updating windows if you haven't already.

 

Sounds like he's in need of the Rioch device drivers so he can read SD cards. Had the same problem when I reformatted my M140. In the downloads section of your support.dell.com page (after entering your service tag) check the Chipset section.

 

wish that would work, but the 9300 doesn't use the ricoh drivers.

Have you checked your device manager to see if you are missing any other drivers?

 

When looking under Device Manager, the only thing that it shows missing drivers is the Other Devices -> PCI Device, which I assume is the SD reader. Everything else is working fine.

 

I was afraid of that. That is the one driver that I had problems with when I reformated. Two things:

1.) did you install Notebook system software. Its on the dell driver page located under system and configurations. It runs one time and will fix any hardware conflicts.

2.) reinstall the chipset driver -- supposedly on the 9300, the chipset has the driver for the SD card. It would probably be best to download it from the web again, and run the .exe file even if you've already done this instead of uninstalling the driver and telling MS to detect it.

Sorry about all of the suggestions.
SG

 

Crap, well I gave it a shot. Good luck with the chipset.

 

I had the same battery problem with my HP. I'm actually a computer technician and it took me awhile to figure out. My first thought was like everyone else to just check the box, but it was already checked. Anyway, after trying several things I found the solution. Get your OS disc(s), boot off of them and go into the Recovery Console. Choose your OS and enter your admin password. Next type "chkdsk /r" (without "") and hit enter. Let that run finish then restart and she should be good to go.