Installing Windows XP on the Dell Inspiron 1420
If you’re like me, you’re not impressed enough by Vista to make the switch just yet. Unfortunately, my old Averatec notebook crapped out on me a few weeks ago and I was in need of a replacement. The best value out there that met my requirements was Dell’s new Inspiron 1420, which replaces their E1405 14.1″ model. Unlike the E1405, the 1420 is only available with Vista. After receiving my machine yesterday I set about wiping it clean and starting fresh with a copy of XP.
What You’ll Need
Before we begin, there are a few things we’ll need.
- Download and install nLite 1.4 beta.
- Download the Intel AHCI drivers for slipstreaming.
- A blank CD-R/RW to burn your ISO.
- A USB thumbdrive, CD-R/RW, or other storage medium to get our network drivers installed.
- Patience.
My Dell’s Specs
Here are the specs on my machine so you can compare them to yours. If you’re running Intel integrated video (the X3100 I believe) or Intel wireless you can easily find drivers on their site.
- Core 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz/4MB cache)
- 160GB 7200RPM HDD
- 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2
- 8400M GS 128MB
- 1440×900 display
- Bluetooth
- Integrated webcam
- Dell 1390 B/G wireless
Installing XP
I inserted my XP disc, selected the optical drive as my first boot device in the BIOS, and was on my way. After XP ran through its usual setup procedures I was greeted by my first obstacle. XP could not find my hard drive. I had heard of this problem arising before. The culprit is the BIOS setting for AHCI or SATA functionality for the hard drive. ACHI is a bit of Intel technology which enables SATAII features like Native Command Queuing. While that’s all well and good, XP by itself, even with SP2, is too old to recognize what’s going on here. To fix this, we have two options:
- The first and easier option is to simply set the hard drive to SATA mode in the BIOS.
- The second option, which I prefer, is to slipstream Intel’s latest AHCI drivers into the XP disc. I have not tried both so I’m not sure if enabling AHCI has any performance advantages, but humor me here.
In case you missed it above, to begin will need a program called nLite, which performs the actual slipstream process for us. Not only can nLite slipstream drivers, but it can also add service packs, hotfixes, and create unattended installs. For more on those features you can check out their manual pages and other guides around the web.
- Extract all the contents of your XP disc into a folder on your hard disk. The folder name is not important.
- Open nLite. The welcome screen will ask you to locate the folder on your hard drive where you dumped XP. Select it, and click next.
- On the next screen we will decide which options we would like to perform to customize our install. For our purposes we will only select Integrate Drivers and Create a Bootable ISO.
- On the next screen we will choose which drivers to integrate. If you haven’t already, Download this package and extract it. Now click Insert, browse to folder, and open the INF file. About a dozen options will appear. Select them all and click continue.
- From the Create a Bootable ISO screen you have a few options. You may burn the image directly, create an image and then burn, or simply create the image for later. You can also change the volume name, disc label, etc. None of these options are consequential to this guide so you can choose whichever is best for you. Personally, however, I find creating the image and then burning to be more stable.
Now if we boot from our newly created XP disc, viola! XP sees our drive. Follow the setup process as normal. If you’ve never installed XP before there are a wealth of guides on the internet.
Driver Installation
In about 20 minutes we are greeted with our familiar XP desktop. Have your USB thumbdrive ready or some other means of transferring files ready.
Chipset
Always a good idea to install these first. You can download them here.
You may notice you have no network connectivity whatsoever. This is the next problem we should remedy.
Broadcom Integrated NIC
The driver provided by Dell’s website works just fine. You can grab it here.
Dell 1390 Wireless B/G
This is slightly more tricky. When I downloaded Dell’s driver package it simply would not detect my wireless card. To solve this, I first extracted the driver package to my hard drive by running it. Make sure you extract to an easy to find location, such as your Desktop. After this, setup runs automatically. Cancel it.
Next, browse to the Device Manager by right clicking My Computer, clicking the Hardware tab and then Device Manager. Scroll down to Unknown Devices, right click Network Controller and click Update Driver.
From here, tell Windows not to search Windows Update for your driver. In the next screen, check install from a list or specific location and click next. Select Don’t search, I will choose the driver to install, next, and finally Have Disk. Browse to the folder where you extracted the driver package. Inside you will find a folder called DRIVERS. You’ll be presented with two .INF files. Select (file name goes here) and open it. Hooray! We now have working wireless.
NVIDIA 8400M GS
NVIDIA constantly releases driver updates for its products. Unfortunately, it leaves mobile graphics support to the individual vendor. Thankfully there is the wonderful website called LaptopVideo2Go to help ease our pain. Browse to the drivers section and download version 162.18 along with the modified INF file. The version is not terribly important, but since I’ve had success with this set with my desktop’s 8800GTX I’ve chosen it for this article.
Once your download has finished, run it to extract the files. Browse to the directory where you’ve extracted and replace the nv4_disp.inf file with your modified version. Run setup.exe and everything should install as normal. After this it would be a good idea to reboot.
The Easy Stuff
These drivers should be as easy as a download and install.
Wrapping Up
That’s it! This concludes my guide to XP on the Insprion 1420. Please leave your comments and additional tips. It is probably possible to slipstream many of these drivers into your XP disc as well, so I may explore those options in a future guide.
Tags: dell, inspiron, windows, xp
August 17th, 2007 at 3:28 am
This is an excellent blog entry - Than you. I had no idea how to fix this issue of installing the SATA drivers and tried a lot of things but it didnt happen. I went this route and it seems to work !!
August 17th, 2007 at 4:22 am
For the Wireless I got the latest Intel Proset from Dell’s website using my service tag number - that worked well. I had to upgrade to use Microsoft’s new installer but that was ok….
Still havent go the driver to work - I have the intel graphics processor and not the nVidia one
August 17th, 2007 at 4:39 am
I downloaded the Intel Graphics Drivers from
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-68008.html
and installed it works really well now. I get the max. resolution i.e. 1440×900
August 18th, 2007 at 10:31 am
I, too, got an Inspiron 1420, hated Vista, and decided to go back to trusty XP. I used Killdisk to wipe my computer, switched from ACHA to ATA in BIOS, then began to install Windows XP.
Everything worked fine until my computer got hung up at “Setup will complete in approximately 39 minutes.” I know very little about computers, but I turned off all the wireless, etc. from BIOS. Still no luck. I have a feeling from reading some posts on different websites that this may be driver-related but have no idea what to do about that. So I’m stuck. Then came across your post. Any ideas about what I might do at this point? I would really, really appreciate any advice.
Thanks!
Angela
August 18th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
@Rohit - thanks for the comments.
@Angela - Not really sure. Maybe it’s a problem with your XP disc? I’ve never seen an installation hang at that point before. Generally if you can get past the file copying and first restart you’re good to go from there.
August 21st, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Thanks a bunch man. I did not want Vista, but I had no idea how to get XP installed.
Great guide.
-Tim
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I love u dude
this helps me a lot
and
VISTA IS SHIT.
August 23rd, 2007 at 4:46 am
Thank for your guide, now i’m able to install Windows XP into my inspiron 1420 machine.
i using turn off ACHI method, if i set it back after install XP, will it affect my machine?
August 23rd, 2007 at 6:45 pm
I can’t seem to work the audio driver. I keep getting the error that i don’t have the specified device. I ordered it with the high resolution audio. I have tried several different drivers. What do you think might be the problem ?. I am just getting default beeps for now
August 24th, 2007 at 10:36 am
@Dickson - I wouldn’t change it. I went through hell trying to first install XP and then get Vista to dual boot with it. During this, I tried changing the ACHI mode to SATA and it completely messed up my XP install. If you’re going to try it I recommend ghosting your entire drive beforehand.
@mo - You can try downloading this Universal Audio Architecture driver and then installing the sound card drivers.
August 28th, 2007 at 2:30 am
how about Quickset i could’t get the right quickset for my laptop!!??
August 29th, 2007 at 1:05 am
The audio driver also not match!!
August 29th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Hi, i have managed to install xp.through the nlite method. Now having problem with my modem and sound.using the dell cd, error massage not modem / audio device were detected…any idea why?tried downloading all type of driver from the dell site.none working..;(
September 1st, 2007 at 10:11 am
I managed to xp stuff and most of the stuff maybe minus the scroll on the touchpad. but does anyone know where i can get the xp version of the SB audigy advanced mb?
September 1st, 2007 at 10:38 pm
I dont understand y we are using nLite here, I can install without it Just turn SATA to ATA in Bios install XP on machine
and u have to download drivers from Dell.com after that u will find some drivers are missing in Device manager you can find with google or on this Blog itself
Cheers!!!
September 2nd, 2007 at 12:49 am
Well the point is we want to install using ACHI to take advantage of features like Native Command Queuing and others. Whether or not it has an effect on performance can be debated, but in every one of my experiences switching to ACHI from SATA mode in the BIOS results in a BSOD or similar.
September 2nd, 2007 at 2:45 am
I still get some Device Driver Missing on Device Manger?
Any Ideas,!!!
1-Modem Device on High Defination Audio Bus
2-SM Bus Controller
September 2nd, 2007 at 10:30 am
Thanks for a great article. I was trying to install XP for couple of days and every time something was not working despite downloaded (mostly from Dell website) drivers. Now all is working INCLUDING scroll functions on touch pad.
One thing is missing - use of Fn key. Do you have a driver for this ?
Thank you
September 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I believe the Fn key functions are hardware based and don’t require a driver, although I could be mistaken. I definitely did not install any drivers or software to get them to function under XP, Vista, or Ubuntu.
September 4th, 2007 at 12:04 am
Fn does require software - QuickSet here it is: Quickset
A47 for XP
It did not work for me until I installed it (just now).
September 4th, 2007 at 8:49 am
In device manager I have ? next to modems. I tried installing R14730 from Dell website, but I don’t think it works.
Does it work for you ?
thanks
September 5th, 2007 at 6:46 am
Thanks for the post.
Really helped me a lot to install xp on my inspiron 1420.
but installing drivers were a nightmare>>especially the audio drivers.
If u have an HD audio controller on ur motherboard u need to install the
controller drivers first before u can install drivers for ur sound device.
the HD controller should show up under System devices in devmgmt.
and the HD controller patch differ for each service pack of xp.
u can try the driver here
install the correct controller driver first and then try the sound driver..
September 5th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Hi, thank so much for helping out with this everything works great for me except the audio driver i get an error say the system does not support the driver you are trying to install. does anyone have and solutions…
thanks so much
chris
September 6th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
i having problem with bluetooth and EVDO GSM simcard
is there anyway to fixed it ?
September 6th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
I had problem with bluetooth. I called Dell and they just sent a new piece. It’s fairly easy to install.
September 7th, 2007 at 2:06 am
i didn’t find driver for bluetooth…………………
plz help me ,where should i get it on net…………..
September 7th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Great blog man, it really helped me out when i was trying to get rid of that Vista crap
i had no problem installing XP and the drivers because it was really well explained
September 8th, 2007 at 2:27 am
Hi,
My Audio driver was not working for a long time. I let windows do a live update and when all of the updates were done (a lot of them !!) it found my audio driver. At this point, I selected the audio device and then installed the specific drivers from dell’s website !
Mo - I hope this helps you !
September 8th, 2007 at 2:29 am
Has anyone found Dell Quickset for the Inspiron 1420 yet ? I cant seem to find it anywhere and contacting dell is hopeless !
September 8th, 2007 at 3:21 am
Hi there, thanks for you lovely guide on how to install xp on my 1420. Everything went smooth for installing xp following your guide, but i have just one problem. The one about the wireless network card driver, you said something like getting to .inf files, but i only saw one and when i tried to use it, it says something like it does not contain my hardware’s configuration.
Hope you can help, cheers.
September 8th, 2007 at 5:02 am
this is the most amaizing article on how to install the xp …and it is just simple just change the drive … i could handle vista at all .. i got a 2 gb ram ,2.0 ghz due 2core , 128 graphics and with all these the device was like a 512 mb ram and a 1.5 pentuim 4 cpu. it was really anoying me ,so i thought the best i would go to the lovly xp sp2 , though i would like to know the difference in the sp2 and the media center????
about the audio drivers for the rest i got it from dell you can just request the cds if you missed them and from there you can install every thing that you need , still not working try the www.dell.com then to drivers
rohit if u found that cotacting the dell is useless which most of the time is i can upload the cd to z share or rapid share and ill give u a link where u can download that ….
September 8th, 2007 at 5:06 am
one thing that i encountered through the vista wich i fear to have on the xp when i install it is the IE (internet explorer) saying at the bottom done but with error on page, i couldnt view google maps and many other website and i try to fix that error any sugestions ?
September 8th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
DELL QUICKSET for Dell Inspiron 1420 (Actually this installer is from vostro series but works 100%)
http://ftp.us.dell.com/app/R165094.EXE
Now… im having trouble installing the bluetooth device… first of all there is not dell driver for 1420 on XP…. in some forum said using this driver (http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R161378&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=216131) should fix the problem … but setup prompts me for activating bluetooth device (Wi-Fi switch or fn+f2 )… and none of them work… i also look at bios settings and it says it’s ok (enabled) …. so… what else can i do ?
September 9th, 2007 at 5:24 am
I found the fix to my problem here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=150033
if anyone else needed it
September 9th, 2007 at 7:18 am
i am not able to install vga driver for notepad of dell, mode no is inspiron 1420 and operating system is windows xp.please i need your support.kindly mail me the details
September 9th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
This guy saved the day.
September 11th, 2007 at 3:01 am
Thank you! Thank you…this is exactly what I was looking for as I ran in to the same issues as you. I was trying to install XP Pro on to a Inspiron 1720 using a second partition so I can dual-boot to XP and Vista and was getting lost on how to install the SATA drivers needed. I did not even know were to go to get the drivers. I am really glad that you had given the links to all the places to get all the drivers needed. This saved me a lot of time. Cheers.
September 11th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Thank, by the steps to install driver to Wireless 1390 dell,
September 11th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
hey, thank you so much for this guide, i didnt do the whole thing i just needed the sigmatel audio driver, i spent countless hours searching for it and i finally found it thanks to you
September 15th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
when I’m in nLite, at the Create a Bootable ISO, I choose Create Image, and Make Iso. Windows vista leave nLite. Why?
September 16th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
i am not able to install vga driver for dell inspiron 1420 and operating system is windows xp. could please give the updated link to install the VGA drivers
September 16th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Thanks for such nice guide.
I want to add:
Intel integrated graphics are here:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/download.aspx?url=/14388/a08/win2k_xp14311.exe&agr=N&ProductID=2800&DwnldId=14388&strOSs=All&OSFullName=All+Operating+Systems&lang=eng
For those of you having trouble installing the Broadcom ethernet Adatper drivers from dell´s website like in my case, use these:
http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/driver-sla.php?driver=570x-XP32
Do not install Media Direct, even If you can use the cd that came with the laptop. There´s a memory leak issue with this software that will make your keyboard response lag or delayed. Took me a while to troubleshoot this one.
September 17th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Iam getting this error to install the above drivers
This computer does not meet the minimum requiremnets for installing the software
set up will exit
September 18th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Very usefull blog. Thanks dude.
I couldn’t get installed wireless drivers.
You helped me a lot. But I still have a problem with a modem.
It says Modem Device on High Defination Audio Bus.
But its not critical.
Thanks!!!
September 18th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
And here is a modem driver web page:
http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R147115&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=195675
September 20th, 2007 at 2:29 am
Thanks David! I had everything else working, except for the sound driver. I knew that I needed the Sigmatel C-Major 92XX HD driver, but I was unable to find the right one on Dell’s site. Your link did the trick.
Also, you saved me the work of doing a blog entry
Thank you!
September 21st, 2007 at 7:33 am
For those with audio issues. This forum explains it.
Finally managed to get my audio working
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=150033
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Make sure you first install the intel chipset drivers available from Dell. Then the video that I listed above If that´s what you have. The audio drivers usually work after you install them twice believe it or not. Then I installed the ricoh chipset drivers for the FW, and media card reader. After that audio. You need to first install the audio drivers and the modem afterwards. I dunno why is this, but windows will not detect the modem drivers but after installing the audio drivers.
Has anybody been succesfull at installing the Media Direct 3.3 software that came with your inspiron succesfully? Having some trouble, but I wish I could make it work. I travel a lot, and the standalone version of media direct (without entering windows) seems like a cool concept to me.
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:49 am
Has anybody been able to install Dell´s own Media Direct 3.3 with success?
September 23rd, 2007 at 6:50 pm
is anyone getting any problems installing the integrated webcam driver, i have the inspiron 1720..but it keeps sayin there was error in installing the driver
September 24th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Thanks for a very useful thread. I wish I’d seen it sooner.
I have a 1720 and I got XP running with the following Dell drivers (I hammered their support staff, used Google and finally this article to assemble this list):
Audio - sigmatel\R158235
Bluetooth 355\R161378
Chipset\Intel\R153997
Chipset\Ricoh\R141246
Modem Conextant\R147115
Network\Broadcom 10-100\R149798
Network\Wireless 4965AGN\R164255
Quickset\R165094
SATA - Intel\Driver\R154200
SATA - Intel\Manager\R154198
Touchpad\R155653
Video\R160738
WebCam\R160323
They can be found by searching for the file names on http://support.dell.com
Turns out most of them are under the XP option on the 1520. It seems Dell did sell that with XP for a time.
To install XP I had to modify the Txtsetup.sif file in the i386 folder of the XP CD to include my USB floppy as a support device in order to load the SATA drivers.
Added the line:
USB\VID_0409&PID_0040 = “usbstor”
next to the similar ones.
I used nLite to ‘reauthor’ the XP CD. I chose to support the floppy instead of the SATA drivers so in the future I can install different SATA drivers on other machines.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916196
Thanks again for a great article.
September 25th, 2007 at 10:06 am
I bought the Dell Inspiron 1420 and i had to downgrade it to windows XP service pack 2 as my school ( for which i use my laptop ) does not support Vista.
They formatted my laptop and installed Windows XP for me. But some drivers they could not install and under device manager there is ‘BCM2045′ which is under ‘Other Devices’. What can i do about that?
Another problem is changing my power plan. Under Vista, there was a place on the bottom right corner near the taskbar which allowed me to change the power as to how i wanted ( like increase the processor speed) or using ‘dell reccomended’ or ‘high performance’. How can i get that back? Pls advice.
Thanks
September 25th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Hi, I tried installing XP but got this error message in the installation window:
Setup couldn’t copy this file:
cmnicfg.xml
ipcfg.xml
osinfo.xml
potscfg.xml
pppcfg.xml
xmlp_bdg.xdr
xmlp_bec.xdr
xmlp_beu.xdr
xmlp_ecp.xdr
xmlp_ecu.xdr
xmlp_fcd.xdr
xmlp_fcw.xdr
xmlp_hlp.xdr
xmlp_loc.xdr
xmlp_mas.xdr
xmlp_mcc.xdr
xmlp_mcu.xdr
xmlp_mpc.xdr
xmlp_mpu.xdr
xmlp_reg.xdr
xmlp_ssd.xdr
xmlp_wiz.xdr
xmlp_wp.xdr
After I skipped these files and entered the Windows installation screen gui, I got a system error message. I was then forced to restart. So, I can’t use my laptop at all. I was wondering if there’s any way to make a bootable iso with the files that didn’t copy. Otherwise, how else can I fix this?
September 25th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Manpreet, BCM2045 is the Bluetooth 355 adapter. Dell download, R161378, has the XP driver for it.
http://support.dell.com/
Keyword Search for: R161378
Power management is in the control panel (Power Options). You can select predefined schemes or make your own. The Power Meter Tab has a check box to show a bettery icon in the system try if you want. The Advanced tab has a check box to always show the power icon in the system tray.
Good luck.
September 25th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Thank you Andrew but the power management does not work. All that i can do is change settings when to turn off the hard disk,monitor and when system will go on stand-by.
Its not like where you can change the processor speed as to how you like.Another problem is that when you use the increase volume button from the keypad,the icon of the volume changing does not come up on the screen. So if i increase,decrease the volume it does not show up on the screen. What can i do about that?
Thanks
September 26th, 2007 at 10:10 am
I believe these are XP vs. Vista things. The media keys on the front of the laptop are being supported natively by the operating system. XP doesn’t show you the volume progress when adjusted. Extra software is required, that I don’t think was even written for Vista as Vista probably handles that automatically now.
A note about Quickset: It’s pretty disappointing - you can’t even configure any of the keys, just turn a couple on or off. I did discover that without Quickset running, that will initiate standby, whereas Quickset only offers Hibernate with .
The same is true for the power I think. I’ve never seen XP offer the level of control you describe. I know the power management was overhauled in Vista, so I again suspect that you just have these options under XP. The BIOS might manage speed-stepping when on battery power, i.e. using only as much processoro power as really needed. They traditionally have for the last several years.
September 26th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
I bought an Inspiron 1720 back in July with Vista Premium pre-installed. I would like to keep Vista, but add XP in a dual boot. Are there any special instructions I should follow that deviates from David’s instructions? All details would save me a lot of time! Thanks for the great article!
September 27th, 2007 at 12:01 am
If you have the Intel video instead of NVIDIA, then you will also need that driver from Intel. I didn’t see that info anywhere, so it took some time to figure it out because Dell doesn’t have the Intel video driver for Win XP on the 1420 drivers page. I assumed that it came with the Intel board chipset driver mentioned in this article, but it didn’t.
Basically, if your “stand by” button is still grayed out and you only have 800×600 and 1024×768 as resolution options, then after installing the chipset driver from above, install the Intel video driver. I have the GM965 chipset, so click on the intel link and get the “graphics driver”. Or if you have a different chipset, search for that on Intel’s site and get the respective graphics driver.
I dunno if you can get it on Dell’s site, anyone else know ?
Great article!
Later,
Lick
September 27th, 2007 at 2:43 am
thanks so much
September 27th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Here are some of my systems specs for the 1720:
- Intel® Core 2 Duo T5450 (1.66GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
- 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
- 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8600M GT
- Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
- High Definition Audio 2.0
- Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
So with those specs, is there anything that would deviate me from the instructions from the article above?
Also, should I set my partition for the dual-boot inside Vista or during the XP install. I’m guessing I have to do it withing Vista, correct?
Thanks mucho everyone!
September 28th, 2007 at 4:03 am
I got MediaDirect 3.3 working so far on my 1420, but it required formatting/reinstalling XP. From looking around on Google, there is possibly a way to do it without formatting, but if you’re on this page, then you are probably formatting anyway.
I am not sure what Berns is talking about regarding the memory leak, but it seems to work so far without any issues. You just have to use the provided MediaDirect disk to “prepare” (repartition) the hard disk before installing XP. My 1420 came with MediaDirect 3.3.2826 cd (P/N CX924 A00). There is a little instruction booklet that came with the MediaDirect disk, so I just followed it. It says the disk is a DVD, but I think it is a CD, though it doesn’t matter.
Here is what I did:
1. Start up the 1420 and do the F12 thing to boot to the MediaDirect CD.
2. Choose either partition size option. The booklet explains each option in more detail. I chose option 2 because I like to have a data partition in addition to my windows partition. I haven’t tried option 1, so let us know if it works also. This will re-partition your drive, so you will loose all your stuff if you don’t back it up, etc.
3. Reboot to Windows XP CD and install XP per directions above. I installed XP, then only the chipset driver. Reboot just in case.
4. Startup windows and insert the MediaDirect CD again. It autoruns the MediaDirect installer, so just follow the setup steps in the installer.
5. Now you should be all done. I installed the rest of the drivers from the directions above and Windows Update, and MediaDirect still works.
I realized that there is an update for MediaDirect after doing all the other updates. I installed the update and now have MediaDirect 3.3.3221 and everything still seems to work.
NOTE: Do NOT delete the C:\dell\MediaDirect directory, even though it looks like a temp directory. Deleting it seemed to screw up the MediaDirect OS, so just leave it there.
September 30th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Great site:
I just got a 1720 with Vista and I am gald a found this site. I was going to simply format and re-partition the drive then install XP. I am guessing from what you guys are saying that this is not doable????
October 1st, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Mark,
If you don’t want the MediaDirect partition, then you can just format everything and install XP like you would anywhere else (but you have to work a bit to get the drivers for XP). Otherwise, if you do want the MediaDirect partition, then you first have to do the extra “prepare” step from Dell’s MediaDirect disk.
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:29 am
everything worked great. had to look around for some 1720 drivers. stupid question - I never updated the SATA drivers - is this a big deal. my BIOS is still set to ATA and not AHCI (default).
also, got everything installed but keep getting an Ethernet driver search loading each time I start up. what is this? I don’t think I installed Bluetooth cause i could not find the driver. is this it? Thanks for the help
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:30 am
Hi, i changed the Bios setting to ATA and the setup is running. Hope everything is ok
Thanks so much for the entry!
October 3rd, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Thank you so much for all this information. I just purchased an Inspiron 1720 and had originally been assured that there would be no driver issues when installing XP. I had a lot of problems. The drivers for video, audio, ethernet, wireless, modem, webcam and bluetooth were all not found. I was able to find only the drivers for the webcam and wireless through Dell support. Everything else, I didn’t even have enough information about the hardware to search for drivers.
I managed to find EVERYTHING else on this page. Thank you!
October 4th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Lick, you are soon going to notice that your keyboard starts to lag in its response. If you do get this issue, run msconfig and untick PCMService (a part of Media Direct) from the start menu. This will get rid of the lag.
I dunno exactly what is the function of this service, I think it has to do with remote capabilities with media direct but I´m not sure.
I´m having an issue with Media direct in standalone mode. I´m getting a message that says something like my harddrive is using bit locker or something. I DID delete the Media Direct folder u mention. Gonna have to check if that is what´s causing this. Thanks for pointing that.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
David, thanks for the really informative article. I just bought a 1420, and given what I’ve heard about Vista, I’m also going to stick with XP. I have a few questions though. Let me preface this by saying I’m not much of a computer guy.
1. XP Home Edition on my current (older) computer is an upgrade from Windows ME/2000, and on the CD it says it will scan your computer, make sure you have ME/2000 (and are therefore eligible for the upgrade), and then let you install XP. So I’m guessing this CD won’t work for installing XP on the 1420. Therefore, I have to buy a new XP set. Will XP Home Edition work, or does it have to be XP Pro? XP Pro is pretty expensive, but I can get XP Home pretty cheaply.
2. What are everybody’s thoughts on MediaDirect? Is it worth it? It seems like there may be memory problems with it (the discussion between Lick and Berns), so maybe it’s better just to format the hard drive, get rid of that partition, install XP, and not worry about MediaDirect at all.
3. Did anybody get the Wi-Fi Catcher to work with XP? I apologize if I missed it in the blog or the replies.
Thanks!
October 5th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
i follow all the steps above to install xp. when install sofware i face the problems for 1.wireless 2.sigmatel audio 3.modem. or can u recommend other sofaware for me to fix the problems above?i use all the sofeware u recommend above but still got the problems above.
October 7th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Hey, the audio was the last driver i needed to complete all the ones i had prior to switching back to xp. Thanks David for this useful info.
October 8th, 2007 at 12:25 am
With regards to my quickset question, i downloaded a quickset programme from the earlier dell laptops. However, it is not really useful and despite having set the power scheme to maximum performance, i need to plug in the power cable to play despite my battery being full. Anyone can help? I’m desperate
October 10th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
This forum has been my lifeline in this jungle of “driver searches!” Thank you so very much. I have a problem, tho. I must use FrameMaker 6.0, and the patch for XP doesn’t work on my Inspiron 1420! How would I go about finding a work-around? Anyone with any ideas PLEASE!!
October 11th, 2007 at 3:11 am
i tried what every one posted for bluetooth but didnt work, it just keeps saying prss fn+f2 or the switch , useless please help
October 11th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Thank David. I too had an averatec and found the 1420 as a replacement. I had no idea that vista would be such a dog. You really saved me (and dell). I would have sent it right back to them. Too bad their customer support doesn’t wise up.
Regards.
October 13th, 2007 at 9:21 am
hai
i brought dell inspiron 1720 with vista home premimum, i want xp with sp2 . so i formated my system by going to BIOS and selecting ATA insted of ACHA and finally i installed xp ,Everything worked fine.but my problem is that i could not install drivers in my system through the cd which i got it from DELL
so please suggest me how could i download and install the following thing
1) cd/dvd
features that releate to my laptop 1720
2) network card
3) monitor
4) AGP card
5) sound
6) chipset
7) dell software for multimedia
October 13th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Hi i have installed win 2003 and want sound driver for inspiron 1420 what to do about rest all the drivers i got it from this site but sound driver and intergrated web cam driver is only the problem please help
October 13th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
please help in install drivers for my system dell inspiron 1720 with xp sp2
October 14th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
This is AWESOME!!!!! I never thought that I will be able to get rid of Win Vista and install xp instead.
You helped a lot!!!
October 14th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Hi, first of all thanks a lot for this blog post since it has been extremely helpful. Vista is really a pain in the *** and it makes the 1420 slower.
For the people who still have trouble with the sound drivers I found this inspiron 1520 sigmatel drivers that worked just fine after I downloaded and installed them:
http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R158235&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=211297
On the other side, the drivers for the modem posted here are for the Conexant D110 version. Here I post the ones for the D330 version which my 1420 had installed.
http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=ar&cs=ardhs1&l=es&s=dhs&releaseid=R147115&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=195675
Now is my turn to ask for some help so here it goes:
I have exactly the same trouble than allam. I got some 355 bluetooth drivers but it keeps asking me to type Fn + F2 to turn on the bluetooth radio on to continue the instalation but nothing happens so I’m stuck with this.
Please if anyone knows how to fix this tell me couse I work a lot synchronizing my laptop with my cellphone.
October 16th, 2007 at 5:59 am
I have changed the BIOS settings SATA to ATA to install the XP. still he process hangs up at 39%. I have restarted the process again and again still problem remains.
Could any one give the complete steps to install XP
October 17th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
I have tried everything, right down to the letter with no success. I have the Dell Vostro 1700 (which we all know is an inspiron) and everytime I boot to the XP cd, it gives me a BSOD pointing to the file pci.sys. I have tried multiple configs in the bios, disabling everything, changed the HD between ata and ahci and nothing works. Any input would be much appreciated. BTW, I am trying to load with my Windows XP corporate SP1. Thanks
October 18th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
I’m thinking about downgrading my 1420 to Windows XP and I was wondering if I can use my XP cd from another laptop or if I am going to have to go out and buy a new XP cd just for my 1420?
October 20th, 2007 at 1:15 am
This did not work for me. Followed your instructions, but… Even though the screen said it was creating a Bootable ISO, there was nothing on the CD when it finished. I tried installing XP from the installation CD and it says it can’t find the hard drive.
October 21st, 2007 at 11:06 pm
I have a 1420 w/ Vista. I was able to use the XP Home disc from another (more) recent Dell purchase (Vostro desktop). The disc booted (no need to change AHCI to SATA), I repartitioned and reformatted, and then installed XP home without it even asking for the Windows Product Key (the “xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx” bit it always asks for). I also didn’t need to activate Windows. I did need to install a few of the drivers, but it was rather painless all in all.
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Hey I tried to install XP on my new 1720 and still have troubles even when i changed the BIOS from AHCI to ATA. After I changed that I tried to run the XP and got part way through the set up and got a blue screen with an error of 0×0000007E. Anyone know what this might be? I would appreciate some help?
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:17 pm
The technical error that I still am getting reads as follows:
*** STOP: 0×0000007E (0xC0000005, 0xF748E0BF, 0xF78DA208, 0xF78D9FF08)
*** pci.sys - Adress F748E0BF base at F7487000, DateStamp 3b7d855c
I have no idea what all this means if anyone can help me i would much appreciate this. I just want to install XP on a extra HD so I can have both. I would rather have XP if i can.
Thanks
October 24th, 2007 at 3:19 am
nice work guys.
It took me a few hours to download the correct drivers but after that everything went fine.
Thanks
October 25th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Thanks to all!! Almost every post help except for the audio driver. I have the 1420 inspiron laptop with the “integrated sound blaster Audigy HD software Edition” and I try every sound driver on this page and few others… but I still can’t find the right one. If someone have the same problem or the solution hopefully, thank’s for the help!!
October 26th, 2007 at 11:00 am
KILL MediaDirect ????
I changed Vista to XP prof using some instructions on this site and it was working for sometime, but all of a sudden instead of XP I’m getting MediaDirect boot - EVERYTIME - no matter what key I use to boot the system.
Is there anyway to load from another partition
Somebody mentioned Partition Magic - any word ???
Or do I indeed need to reformat ….
thanks
October 27th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
@Bill - Same happened to me when I accidentally pressed that MediaDirect key (Windows was in hibernation). Supposedly this hoses your master boot record (MBR). I fixed it by rebooting into Safe Mode (F8 at boot), and then back into regular Windows.
What happens is MediaDirect expects it’s own partition, and if you blew it away when you installed XP, then MediaDirect is looking at the normal XP partition and is confused.
Unfortunately, you cannot disable Media Direct in the BIOS. The simple fix is to remove power & battery, pry off the cover that has the Power, Sound and MediaDirect buttons, and remove the MediaDirect surface mount button from the circuit board.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:46 am
@philoneous …
I start thinking it’s doable now without messing with hardware.
My understanding, currently, is follows (there is some blogs quoting here):
Mediadirect does use hidden pseudo - partition – HPA - Host Protected Area (HPA) about 1.2G
Even if you unhide and kill it, The Dell MBR (Master Boot Record at sector 0) calls special code in LBA sector 3 to re-enable the HPA anytime you boot from the hard disk. After you unhide the HPA, in order for it to stay unhidden you need to either get rid of the Dell MBR (so LBA-3 doesn’t get called) or you need to disable LBA-3 (wipe LBA sector 3).
November 1st, 2007 at 4:59 pm
This note is very helpful. I have a question too
Does it work with dual booting Vista & XP on Dell Inspiron 1420?
Is dual boot harm the MediaDirect capabilitites if XP installed on shriked volume partition within the same hard disk without removing Vista?
Thanks and appreciated your effort.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:29 am
DREMM: I’m having the same problem. No matter what I try, I have no sound. Thanks to this site, everything else is up and running. Isn’t this just a nightmare?!
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:04 am
@Pradeep - dual booting should be possible; look elsewhere for guides — if I recall correctly, XP first then Vista (as Vista will want to “upgrade” XP if already installed).
@Bill - prior to my MediaDirect issues, I had blown away all the partitions and just made one big partition for XP. After the MediaDirect fiasco, the partition structure was unchanged. Physically disabling the button is extreme, but was easy to do.
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:04 pm
@Philoneous . Thanks for your responce.
I am planing to do dual boot Dell Inspiron 1420 with Vista already installed.
Then shrink the volume (C has around 200 GB,make a 100Gb for XP) to create an XP partition and install XP there..
Hope I am not disturbing Media direct partition.
Dual booting would not conflict the Media direct. I would like to keep Media Direct features.
Any thoughts welcome before I do this.
November 4th, 2007 at 12:14 am
I was trying to install/set up a dual boot XP on a pre installed Vista Dell 1420 by shrinking the C volume.
I couldn’t success on formating the shrinked unallocated space to install XP. My Disk config is below. I have now around 100GB in unallocated.
Any suggestion to resolve this ?
DISKPART> list part
Partition ### Type Size Offset
————- —————- ——- ——-
Partition 1 OEM 78 MB 32 KB
Partition 2 Primary 10 GB 79 MB
Partition 3 Primary 123 GB 10 GB
Partition 0 Extended 2560 MB 230 GB
Partition 4 Logical 2559 MB 230 GB
DISKPART> list vol
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
———- — ———– —– ———- ——- ——— ——–
Volume 0 E DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 D RECOVERY NTFS Partition 10 GB Healthy
Volume 2 C OS NTFS Partition 123 GB Healthy System
November 8th, 2007 at 6:25 am
My Audio doesn’t seems to work , prompted me an error stating that the driver i’m about to install does not match my system. could u guys help out. Thanks
November 8th, 2007 at 11:12 am
David,
I just wanted to say ‘thanks’ for this site. I recently purchased an Inspiron 1720 and needed to put XP on it. A couple of notes:
1. I tried to slipstream the drivers and several of them didn’t load for me. However, I found a great website (http://smithii.com/slipstream_xpsp2) that will get all of the cumulative post-SP2 updates and slipstream those. That worked like a champ.
2. Intel 965 chipset driver — if you get the wrong one or an incompatible one, you’ll get the Windows flag screen and then the screen will go blank and just sit there. You have to boot in VGA mode to correct. Go to the Intel site and get the most current one (currently http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=2529&DwnldID=14386&strOSs=44&OSFullName=Windows*%20XP%20Professional&lang=eng).
3. If you get a “PCI device” question mark in Device Manager, it’s probably one of a couple of things missing — the Bluetooth driver, the modem driver or the Audigy driver. Installing those three got rid of the issue.
Thanks again!
November 20th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Thanks a lot David Reed for audio drivers.
Rohit Mordani, thanks a lot for Intel Graphics Drivers.
November 24th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
[…] Links de ayuda: En Español En Ingles […]
November 25th, 2007 at 4:16 am
Thanks for an excellent tutorial. After following your instructions and downloading the required drivers, I’m now running XP instead of Vista on my 1420.
December 7th, 2007 at 4:29 am
hello,
Thanks for providing this information. Iam able to use windows XP now.
But i tried to install linux also, i left some unparition space for that, when i started rebooting with linux CD , its not able to detect that unpartitioned space. so what might be the problem?
can u please mail me about this?
thank you.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:51 am
Looks like there is a new version of the bios out (as of 11/27/07), as well as a few other driver updates.
ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/1420_A03.EXE
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:59 am
[…] http://www.davidreedonline.com/wordpress/2007/08/03/installing-windows-xp-on-the-dell-inspiron-1420/… Posted by jamesob Filed in Uncategorized […]
December 27th, 2007 at 8:13 am
thanks!!! except the video driver (i use the lenovo post in one reply) everything works fine!
thanks a lot
December 29th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
This link will take you to the new dell supported xp drivers for the 1420. Everything is there that could have possibly be put into the computer. Thanks for the temp solution though!
December 29th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
click on sean
January 2nd, 2008 at 3:07 am
Um, I’m not sure if this is just me but there was only 1 inf file in the wireless driver download. Maybe it was because the link on this site goes to dells download page, and if they change something it would affect this page. Anyway I used this driver. And thanks David Reed. You did a great job. Real professional looking and saved me a whole lot of headaches. Thanks
http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R164255&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=220545
January 8th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
AWESOME post, thanks! I’m having trouble with my touchpad, it just refuses to work, everytime i install the driver (both for 1420 and the alternate from Dell Latitude D820s) I get this message:
The application or DLL C:\Windows\system32\WdfCoInstaller01005.dll is not a valid Windows image. Please check this against your installation diskette.
I’m a little lost here, all searches for that path leads me to a trojan, which I don’t have. Anyways, anybody else having this problem?
January 17th, 2008 at 3:36 am
If I had read this blog earlier, I could have saved 24 hrs… :). Nice work!!
January 17th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I finally installed my HD Audio driver. Go to Device Manager, in System Devises, delete the PCI device which shows a yellow mark. Update the device manager by asking it to check for new devices. Allow windows to search drivers online, the recommended options.
Now install the drives suggested by David…
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 am
thanks a lot man.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:57 am
Hi.
I bought Dell Inspiron 1720. I install Nlite,then I download intel_ahci.zip,extract all files and choose iaahci.inf in nlite. I choose all options.Then after I choose “make ISO” button.I inserted a clear CD-RW,but error appeared-not enough disc size!!!It show me 4.5 GB needed disc-place!
Is it normal?????
Thanks a lot.I’ll be grateful for a-prompt reply.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
…and this is screenshot of error: http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/391/79539124qu7.jpg
.Thanks
January 27th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I have everything installed right and I can’t get the headphone jacks to work. Has anybody else had this problem. Does anybody know how to fix it?
January 27th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I have everything installed and the only problem I am having is with the speaker volume. I finally found a driver that would work with the Sigmatel HD Audio and the problem is that the volume level is WAY too high! I can hear the volume out of my headphones the same as though I was listening through the laptop speakers with the headphones sitting on the table. Does anyone know how to solve this problem or have another driver for the audio that would work better?
February 4th, 2008 at 3:40 am
Hello all!! i really need help. Since Vista doesn’t satisfy me, i try many ways to get rid of it. Accidently, at the moment the recovery drive cannot be seen. So i lost 10 Gb for it. I wonder the way to get it back(although with the recovery data or none). Your answer will be really helpful to me.
It’s so sad to get problems with a brand new laptop
You can contact me : keu_daravuth@yahoo.com
Thanks thanks in advance….
February 5th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Hi there, just bought Inspiron 1420. Downgraded to XP Pro SP2, found problem during installation of the modem. It show and error ‘DRIVER INSTALLATION FAILED: Could not find the XXXX device for this driver.’
Anyone… please guide.
Thanks.
February 11th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
I just have one quest, i want to know if installing XP disables multimedia controls? Thanks.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:45 am
oh, thank you people for being there!!! I’ve been fighting this forever.
I hope it works, however when I installed xp on my inspiron 1500, I lost a lot of my devices. I will try your fixes and PRAY !!
March 1st, 2008 at 8:12 pm
first, thank you people for contributing such a great information on the XP installation for this 1420. just an additional information that I resolved it on the bluetooth device (it disappeared from the win xp’s device manage).
for those that encounter problem locating the bluetooth device, you might need to apply the patch from dell to make it ‘appear’ again. after that you would need to run the bluetooth driver installation file. it took me hours to get mine works..
Dell patches: R159805
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=sg&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R159805&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=213714
Dell bluetooth driver: R161378 (thanks to people here who provides this info)
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=sg&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R161378&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=216131
cheers
March 12th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Thanks for this site. I recently purchased an Inspiron 1525 . I went thru the steps mentioned in this site and successfully installed XP on it. I downloaded all the XP drivers for Inspiron “1520″ and it’s perfectly working now. Below is the link for the XP drivers for 1520
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WW1&osl=EN&catid=-1&impid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=INS_PNT_PM_1520&hidos=WLH&hidlang=en
March 14th, 2008 at 9:01 am
David,
I purchased a Dell Inspiron 1730 some 4.5 months ago price was AUD6,200.00, however I took advantage of a then 40% discount, am a subscriber to Technet, and had another notebook using Vista Business (XPS 1330), but wanted to try Ultimate in a working environment.
For the past 3.5 months this machine was effectively gathering dust. Indeed, so much so I bought an Apple Airbook (thought it about time to learn).
But, being a man on a mission was determined to get XP on the Inspiron, geez it has twin 250gb HD’s, Nvidia GT8600, 4gb ram and some other high end hardware, but not a blue ray burner. Yet, other than its boot speed, it has always been sluggish, and that is after tweaking & install of VistaIV & other apps.
What you have provided here has alleviated much frustration.
Thank you very much indeed for your wonderful tute.
Kind regards,
March 15th, 2008 at 12:46 am
Thank you all, especially David. I was able to de-vistarized my Inspiron 1420 without a glitch.
- Girendra
March 15th, 2008 at 11:14 am
i down grade to XP Pro SP2 with your guide,
but now i have problem with my inspiron 1420 audio driver.
i have tried R171789, R153908, R134779 and R108276 audio drivers for sigmatel 9228, but the audio still didn’t work.
this is the error message : “This system does not support the driver you are attempting to install”
Any body can help me ??
and also, how to get the battery indicator show in the tray?
pls help me and THANK YOU …
March 15th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
[…] XP on the 1420 turned out to be a breeze. I have to give credit to David Reed for writing his blog article about doing this, it was thorough and accurate and took all the guess work and difficulty out of […]
March 20th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
many thanks. Before i really giveup about video, modem and bluetooth driver on inspiron 1420 XP.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Bless you!
I have a Dell Vostro with roughly the same configuration as yours, and I ran into the same problem when I tried to replace Vista with XP. I followed your instructions step by step and it worked.
Thank you so much!
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
hey, can anybody help me? i’ve got inspiron 1420 and had to install XP professional SP 2.. vista sucks
and from time to time i’m having this problem… when i start or restart OS and desktop comes up and everything is ready, few moments later OS crashed down and the blue screen shows up with this c000021a 0xc0000005 access violation.. i’ve read somewhere that the cause might be in ram memory…but not ready… i would say they’re working correctly..if i check virtual memory properties there is 2046MB paging file (i think it should be 2048MB…but don’t know if it’s the cause…).. thank you for help…it’s driving me crazy… (i’ve reinstalled and formatted and install XP several times because of that and it still comes up… and i’m loosing my energy 
).. thanks
ps this blog rocks… sooo useful..thank you folks…
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
XP will not install! Is Lo Jack to Blame?
I have done all the suggestions (creating nlite disk with drivers, and changing the BIOS to ATA setting, etc.) After all the drivers load and the XP installation begins, I get a blue screen, dos-like memory error message. I understand that lojack is installed in the BIOS. Can this be my problem?
March 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 am
Thx to David and all those who shared their experiences….
i hve inspiron 1420,intel core2duo T7300 @2.00GHz….i hve downgraded vista to xp and succesfully installed the drivers but in the device manager still i hve some unknown devices i.e
OTHER DEVICES:
1) Base System Device
2) Base System Device
3) Base System Device
i’m unable to figure this out…can any1 help me with this…
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
All,
Sorry if your questions have gone unanswered. I’ve recently graduated school and entered the “real world” so my time for this site has been extremely limited! Hopefully you’ve been able to find your answers elsewhere.
AnilRao,
Have you installed the Intel chipset drivers? How about the drivers for the SD card reader?
March 24th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Hi AnilRao,
The unknown devices “Base System Device” are as mentioned by David related to the SD card reader (or Ricoh Memory Card reader) which you can download from this website.
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=my&cs=mydhs1&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R141246&SystemID=INS_PNT_PM_1420&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=13405&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=27&fileid=188377
Hope this will help.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
I’ve gotten everything to work w/ the Intel Chipset Drivers for Video, the Sigmatel drivers for audio, all the other pointers that David Reed listed have worked well enough, but I still can’t get any drivers for the Windows XP OS to recognize the DVD-RW drive at all. It’s as if it’s not there at all!
I’d love it if anyone could point me in the right direction for the Dell Inspiron 1420 w/ XP SP2, with a Toshiba/Samsung DVD Writer model TS-L632.
Thanks!
March 24th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
You should not need drivers for the DVD-RW drive. Perhaps try removing it from the Device Manager and let Windows re-install it at the next restart.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:24 am
@Keith
ya…i got it..i installed the Ricoh memory card reader..and there are no unknown devices in my device manager…thanks..
one more question: the roxio-dvd and cd burning software which i got with vista is not working…can i get any burining softwae compatible with xp…
March 25th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Nero is what I’ve been using for years. I pretty much just use whatever version comes with my latest burner though.
For a free solution, try CDBurnerXP. It’s the best freeware burning app out there.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
I have Inspiron 1420 with X3100. It is running winxp sp2 and latest X3100 driver from intel. When I look at pictures on the laptop, all colors seem to be “extra white” compare to other LCDs. Do you guys have the same problem?
March 26th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Use R171789 Audio:SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio(5.10.0.5515_RC22-WHQL)
1,
FOR THIS TO WORK FIRST TIME YOU MUST EXTRACT THE FILE MANUALLY WITH WINZIP OR SIMILAR AND NAVIGATE TO THE NEWLY EXTRACTED FOLDER
2,
BEFORE INSTALLING SIGMATEL DRIVER RUN “QFE” FOUND IN THE HDAQFE FOLDER. (THIS IS A QUICKFIX FROM MICROSOFT).
3,
RUN “SUHLP” FROM WDM FOLDER. ENTER DEVICE MANAGER AND SELECT VIEW > DEVICES BY CONNECTION > UNDER THE PCI BUS CATEGORY THER SHOULD BE “MICROSOFT UAA BUS DRIVER FOR HIGH-DEFINITION AUDIO”….SORTED!
March 26th, 2008 at 10:45 am
@siapi - The 1420’s brightness is definitely greater than my desktop’s screens (also Dell monitors), so the good news is your screen isn’t defective. The bad news is that’s just the way it was meant to be.
Generally, laptops don’t use very high quality panels. The contrast ratio (the levels of brightness between white and black) is usually not good, so blacks aren’t very deep. The response time (the time it takes a pixel to turn on and off again) isn’t that low either, so videos and other moving pictures can appear blurry or streaky. To get an idea of what I mean by that, try dragging a window around your desktop.
The most annoying thing about the screen, at least in my opinion, is how much brighter the backlighting is at the bottom of the screen versus the top. However, this problem is not exclusive to the 1420 itself or Dell in general.
The bottom line is this - if you want the best experience get a nice desktop LCD to use if you’re at home at your desk.
March 26th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Hey David, thanks for this amazing guide, im going to follow all the instructions because i didnt enjoy Vista that much, but i have a question, is it possible to put all the updated drivers into de XP disc that you burn with nLite? Thanks!
March 27th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Glad you’ve enjoyed the guide thus far. I hope it proves useful.
As for your question, do you mean integrating them into the Windows install (so they install automatically), or do you simply mean putting the executables in a folder on the disc? If you mean the latter, simply create a folder inside the XP folder before burning/creating the ISO file in nLite, and it will be added. However, since SP2 brings the XP disc close to the 700MB CD limit you should be careful. I’m not 100% positive nLite supports DVD burning if you eclipse the 700MB limit.
If nLite complains about going over 700MB, simply cut/paste the driver folder elsewhere and have nLite only create the ISO file instead of burning. After that, use a program such as ISO Buster to add the drivers folder.
Best of luck!
March 27th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Thanks for the answer, i mean integrating the drivers so Windows install them automatically….is it possible? so i dont have to bother with the individual installation of each driver.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Well I suppose it is possible, but you’d still need to install software for these devices. For example, I prefer the Dell Wireless utility versus the standard Windows wireless management. The driver and software install as one. The same goes for the NVIDIA drivers. As far as integrating this software along with the drivers, I’m not sure how this works. If you want to get by with the drivers only, extract the .exe files from Dell with 7zip, WinRAR, or another archive utility, or run the .exe and cancel the setup. Then integrate the .inf files contained inside the folder into your XP install with nLite.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Hi David
I tried to downgrade vista to xp from Insp 1420 and
it gives me a BSOD pointing to the file pci.sys. I have tried multiple configs in the bios, disabling everything, changed the HD between ata and ahci and nothing works. Any input would be much appreciated. . Thanks
April 4th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Version A07 of the BIOS is out as of 2/26/08 - this might be useful in some of the cases where ppl are having issues with ACHI/SATA.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R178146&SystemID=INS_PNT_PM_1420&servicetag=&os=BIOSA&osl=en&deviceid=12914&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=4&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=1&fileid=242498
April 5th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Thanks for the guide, worked well.
April 6th, 2008 at 6:02 am
Thanks a lot for all. It’s working when i turned off the ACHI.
April 6th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Hi everybody.
I’ve downgrade succesfully to XP and installed all the drivers. But now i cannot access the built-in card reader, nothing happens when a card is inserted. In device manager, it does recognize the SD host controller. I’ve tried redownload and reinstall the driver several times but still cannot fix anything. Any suggestion would be appreciated, thank you.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Hey guys! I finally try to install XP on my Inspiron, i succeeded at it. All drivers are installed and im very pleased with XP, just a thing that is not that important but i want to know if any of you try to Play music from your cell phone via Bluetooth on XP? Cause i tried and it didnt Work, but i did it when i had Vista installed…..any ideas?
April 7th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
@Nguyen: What driver did you install?
April 14th, 2008 at 1:49 am
Hi David, Thanks for the Guide. i am able to install XP with drivers installed.
only thing left is : Wifi catcher
April 15th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Hi David, I was wondering if you could help me out, I did the same as you except I have 1520 but after installing the bluetooth module the computer can’t detect any bluetooth device. I dont have any device to connect to I just wanted to make sure it was up and running, when it was vista it had a menu where I could sync up bluetooth device I dont see any type of menu like that now that I have xp. SO do I get the bluetooth up and running? thx
April 17th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Hello,
I’ve got an inspiron 1420 that i’m trying to install xp on. I’m having a very difficult time with this. It seems that the drivers dell recommends are not cooperating with this laptop. I do not have sound, video drivers are not right, i’m uncertain if my chipset drivers are working correctly, xp says they are, but i am only seeing a 5 gigabyte hard disk, i’ve got two base system devices that i don’t have an idea what they are and the bluetooth. Any suggestions i’d love to know about them, a slip-streamed xp i’d love to get a look at that too.
Thanks.
DAve.
April 19th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Hi David, I was wondering if you could help me out, I did the same as you except I have 1520 but after installing I cannot assign the complete hard drive. I have a 160Gb HD, but on Windows Explorer (& My Documents) I only see the C drive which has 29.2 Gb and D RECOVERY which has 9.99Gb. On Disk Management I see those 2 drives plus a 107.14Gb unassigned drive. I try to create a new partition o assign a letter to the drive from the XP Disk Management tool, but all the options are disabled. Please, how can I assign and use this part of the HD?
Thank u very much!!
JC
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:48 pm
In vista, there is power saving option in the power option which i can have power with my batter up to 4hr. Is there any similar option in Windows XP?
thank you
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
are you still responding to this site David?
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:03 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been beating my head against the wall of “base system device” not installed until I read your blog… and with that, my XP install problems are cured. Now all I have to do is partition my HD and reinstall Vista. Oh, and fix the friggin’ bluetooth
April 24th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Hello,
I’m trying to get sound and video working on my 1420. I’ve tried several sound drivers, one recommended by Dell was r171789.exe, and the one from this blog posting. Both installed fine, but neither worked, i did remove them after, in both cases xp is unable to start the driver, error code 10. As for video, i haven’t been able to make that work at all. In device manager under display adapters i see the intel mobile chipset 965 series, i got a driver from intel, but it won’t install because xp claims it isn’t certified. Any input welcome.
April 27th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Thanks a lot !!
April 28th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Hi,
Thnx.. I’ve installed XP in my Inspiron 1420, which was supplied with “Vista”. I had so many problems with that. Now i feel relaxed after installing “XP” in it. But still i’ve few driver issues in it.
The main ” Intel GM965 Express” Chipset drivers and ” Bluetooth” drivers are not getting installed which are available at Dell website.
Pl help me in getting these drivers and making my laptop full functional.
April 30th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
thanks man!!! awesome work
May 1st, 2008 at 12:01 am
Hi David,
Do all the features of Vista function the same when downgraded to XP in Inspiron 1420 using the installation steps u have mentioned above.The face recognition,voice controlling,Dell/Windows Media Center. Please let know so that i can decide accordingly.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Hello,
I have been going pretty crazy for the last few days because of problems i have had with my dell 1520. I changed the OS from Vista to XP pro SP3 i cant get any sound on the computer? I have tried numerous supposed solutions without success.
The PCI device has a yellow ‘!’ in the device manager. i think its something to do with the siga tel drivers not installing properly………..i got them from dell site but when i try to instal they dont work?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I am seriously thinking about going back to Vista if i cant get a fix!
May 1st, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Back again, i have instaled XP home SP1 and upgraded to SP2…………still not working.
May 1st, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Modem device on high def audio bus driver, anyone know where i can find it??
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:07 am
I have recently changed my Dell Inspiron 1420 from Vista to XP Pro.
The Only problem I have is the GM965 express intell drivers will not install.
I always receive the error “does not meet minimum requirements”
I have tried download from intel recommeded here, I have tried the downloads for the chipset for XP from Dell and always receive the same error. Any help would be appreciated.
This is the last error i have, thanks to this site I have most of the machine running smooth on XP.
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:37 am
For those having issues where the Intel 965 express intel drivers will not install on XP Pro for the 1420, here is what i did.
Fixed my issue above!
I was constantly receiving the message “computer does not meet minumum requirements”
I downloaded the driver from Intel directly because it was a PIA to find on Dell site.
The File is winxp_14331.exe
The link to the Intel site is: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Default.aspx?lang=eng
Hope this helps someone as I have benefited from everone elses posts.
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:40 am
Edit above post: my pasted text did not make it to the last post.
I used SAFE MODE in XP to make this pesky chipset driver install.
Must be a problem with order of driver install where intell chipset was not the firt thing installed after installing XP, SAFE mode fixed the probelm and allowed me to sucesssfully install the driver for 965 Intel chipset.
May 6th, 2008 at 1:34 am
dave from April24th,
I had the same problem as you regarding the 965 chipset driver that won’t install because of an invalid/uncertified driver. Finally got it installed by downloading the zipped version of winxp_14331 from the Intel download center, extracting the files, then manually updating the driver in the XP Device Manager. The driver is located in the “Graphics” folder in the extracted zip. See the readme file in the extracted zip for more detailed instructions.
You might want to first try Jeff’s solution to run winxp_14331.exe in Windows SAFEMODE if you already have winxp_14331.exe on hand. If that doesn’t work give my solution a try.
Hope this helps.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:40 am
can any1 tell me plz what to do about the modem on high device????
May 6th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Thank you for your tips; I am trying to downgrade the Vista Home OS on a Dell XPS M1330 to XP SP2. The nVidia refuses to load, even with the modified .INF . I had completely wiped out the Hardisk and repartitioned using PartitionMagic. The Dell BlueTooth drivers have been installed, and there is an icon on the taskbar. Clicking it gives the message - “No devices found”.
I have now loaded the Intel Graphics driver and Sigmatel Audio, and there seems to be functionality.
I notice that your web site is moving. Please send your new contact url.
Regard.
Sriskantha Joshua.
May 6th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
This is the best solution I have found on the Internet! All the other sites I’ve found describing this problem seem to think we are all computer geniuses!!
So I am truly grateful, because now my Inspiron 1720 works like a charm!
Cheers!
May 7th, 2008 at 6:00 am
[…] http://www.davidreedonline.com/wordpress/2007/08/03/installing-windows-xp-on-the-dell-inspiron-1420/… […]
May 7th, 2008 at 11:46 am
well..i just buy a new dell 1420..i wan to format it and change to xp..i have a disc for dell 1501 “microsoft windown XP Proffesional service pack 2…
i wonder can i use this disc to format it to XP? those sound card , DVD,WEB CAMERA for the dell 1420 can use back o nt?
It is need to download the nlite to format it?
thanks..
vync
May 8th, 2008 at 7:46 am
I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 1525, the new one. My company software is only XP compatible, not Vista, thus i had to get the Vista downgraded to XP. The problem now is that the drivers dont work. I have problems with downloading the following drivers: Base System Device, BCM2045; Network Controller; Video Controller.
Can you suggest how/where i can download them from.
Thanx
May 13th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Hi David Reed,
Just wanted to post another “THANK YOU” in big caps for putting together this tutorial. Great instructions on using nLite and it worked like a champ. I really appreciate the help!
-Randy
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:48 am
any one got the working driver for bluetooth for XP in Inspi 1420? Dell ppl told me that, Inspi 1520 bluetooth drivers will work for 1420. can any one confirm this?
May 28th, 2008 at 3:08 am
I am not able to install webcam manager from the link u provided and the cd which dell gave me can u tell me any solution I would be thankfull to u.
May 31st, 2008 at 10:26 pm
deseo descagar drivers para el laptop dell inspiron 1525 con instalacion
de windows xp sp2 de antemano les agradesco la ayuda que me puedan
dar, con alguna direccion o correo,ya que en las paginas de dell solo
se consiguen controladores para windows vista.
gracias
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:36 am
First of all i would like to thank David for this tutorial.. it really helped.
Now for everyone trying to install drivers,
The drivers can ALL BE FOUND ON THE DELL WEBSITE. Just enter your product key from the bottom of your laptop and your off.
For those getting a pci.sys error i had the same problem which has a very simple fix. Buy windows xp with atleast service pack 2 ALREADY INSTALLED. The error message occurs due to an outdated version of windows Xp.
Hope this helps
June 13th, 2008 at 7:45 am
I have followed all the suggestions on this blog regarding bluetooth, but I still get error message: Bluetooth device not found. Please verify that your Bluetooth device is properly connected and turned on
June 21st, 2008 at 4:03 am
Last Month I Purchased Dell Laptop Inspiron 1420, Intel Core 2 Duo 1.5 Ghz. Windows Vista Home Premium. In 1 Month Time I M Fed Up With This. I Purchased This Laptop To Work With My Co. Accounting Software Which Vista Does Not Supports. From Last 1 Month I Was Searching For A Solution To Downgrade To XP.
Yesterday Night I Came Across Mr. David Reed Article And Hopefully Today I Will Migrate To XP With The Response On This Site And Mr. David’s Suggested Method. I Will Post, Another Article Once I Finish With XP On My Dell.
Till Than Cheers & Good Luck.
Thanks For Your Valuable Guide Mr. David.
Regards,
Shabber Vasan
June 21st, 2008 at 9:24 am
Hello, After I Insert CD Error Message.
This Program Is Blocked Due To Compatiblity Issues.
Setup Cannot Continue because The Version Of Windows On your Computer Is Newer Than The Version On The CD.
I Have Win Vista Home premium - Service Pack 1 On My Laptop.
Kindly Need Solution For This.
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 am
Hello Vista To XP User,
Thanks All For Your Kind Comments. My Dell Inspiron 1420 Has Now
XP SP2 Working Fine. Thanks Mr. David For Your Valuable Feedback. Just A Little Issue With My Modem & Bluetooth Driver.
I Will Try To Fix The Driver, If Not I Will Come Back For Some Help From Fellow Members.
Thanks 1 & All.
Good Luck.
Regards,
Shabber Vasan
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 am
Hi there,
Installed Xp (SP2) on a 1720 this weekend.
After several mistakes here is the procedure I took which worked very well.
(XP is FAAAAAST on that machine).
First:
Follow the nLite tutorial to slipstream the SATA drivers to your XP ISO.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.
I tried without it and setting the drive mode to ATA in the DELL BIOS.
I you do that the installation will make some very long pauses (like 10 minutes every once in a while), but worst:
once windows installed pc would lock for the same amount of time.
SO : Inject the intel SATA driver in the ISO with nLite.
Then once XP booted (i used xp pro):
After researching, here are the drivers i used.
Everything works fine (could not very bluetooth since i dont have a device).
Here is the order i used:
1.Notebook_System_Software : R171888.exe
2.Intel_chipset : R153997.exe
3.VIDEO CARD 8600 GTM :R180917.exe
4.NETWORK ETHERNET : R149798.EXE
5.AUDIO : R158235.EXE
6.MODEM : R147115.EXE
7.TOUCHPAD : R165804.exe
No specific order (did in the order listed here):
WEBCAM : R160320.EXE
MEMORY_CARDS : R141246.EXE
WIRELESS : Dell_multi-device_A17_R174291.exe
POWERMANAGEMENT : R161139.EXE
BLUETOOTH : R161378.exe
Thanks for this blog.
Hope it helps.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:28 am
Angela: slipstreaming the SATA driver in you ISO will solve your problem.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
david, that’s great tutorial, i’ve followed everything clues and it’s all work for me, my xp and vista worked with no problem, i used easy bcd soft for both booting
and here’s some tips from me, esp for make new partition in allocated space, just remember the vista system only accept 3 primary partition, so we must delete one of the primary to made new one from allocated space
exam; 1. is eisa part
2. is os vista part
3. is recovery part
4. is another part already made by vista or 3rd party soft
we must del one of them for because 3 of them known as primary part, i choose the 4th part since it was didn’t need for me, and extend it, then made new primary, then new logical part for extra swap or etc.
sallam
June 29th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Inspiron 1420. I tried the webcam driver (r155105) but can’t install. It says “driver doesn’t support current operating system”. I’ve got XP sp2 installed. Any ideas guys? Thanks in advance
June 30th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I have a dell 1720 and have been trying to load the ACHI drivers with no luck. I’ve even tried the Intel Matrix manager only to be told my system does not meet the min req. This dell is a 2400 mhtz with 4 gig of ram so I;m sure that’s not it. Any help on getting XP to load this would be appreciated.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
For those who have a problem with bluetooth…….
setup prompts you for activating bluetooth device (Wi-Fi switch or fn+f2 )… and none of them work…
here is the solution….
1st, open ur bluetooth setup, after that, setup will prompt and ask u to press Fn+F2. then enter this webpage
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=sg&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R159805&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=213714
download the stuff just 153kb…..and run it…..then the setup will run till finish install the bluetooth…..
July 5th, 2008 at 1:45 am
Has anyone tried this(R171888.exe) Dell Notebook System Software driver on their Inspiron 1420? I see that “rastermax” from the 6/23/08 post installed this(R171888.exe) on their Inspiron 1720 with Windows XP. The Dell Notebook System Software for the 1420 is the only piece of the XP driver puzzle I haven’t found a driver for. The Dell rep said that Dell NSS didn’t exist for the 1420. If the (R171888.exe) driver worked, that would be awesome. Let me know.
VERY well written procedure David!
Leemo
July 5th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Well, I’ve been trying to install all my drivers for my 1420 and can’t seem to get half of the components to work. Chipset, video and network card are ok. The audio, modem and wifi all say it doesn’t support the operating system. This is very puzzling since everything but the bluetooth driver are on the Dell website for Windows XP! Do they want me to just give up and deal with Vista? I’ve spent hours upon hours trying different ways of installing WinXP to see if it’s the problem. I even tried my un-service packed version on WinXP, just in case. I’ve also re-downloaded from Dells site. This just really sucks!
July 6th, 2008 at 12:35 am
I’m sorry to say that I’ve given up. I am nearly finished with the installation of the Vista drivers from Dell’s website on my freshly installed Vista setup. I’ve been doing this sort of hardware and operating system tweaking since Windows 3.1 so this loss really hurts. My plan is to install my user software on this Vista machine and give it a try. I’m not sure what else I can do. I will gladly accept simpathetic gestures for my failure. I hope the rest of you have better luck.
Peace,
Leemo
July 6th, 2008 at 8:28 am
how do you get the Multimedia button; to the left of the power button to work? have downgraded to xp and installed all drivers
July 7th, 2008 at 12:25 am
SIGMATEL AUDIO Driver
Okay now…this part is a little tricky but not really THAT hard. You just have to follow my directions EXACTLY to make this work.
Download and install it from
http://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R158235.EXE
(DO NOT DELETE IT, keep it even after installing)
Now at this point, after installing all of the above, you should reinstall the computer. After your computer reboots, you WILL get an error saying that the sigmatel audio driver failed to install because you don’t have the proper hardware (or something to that extent). This is OKAY!!! Proceed to the next step.
c. Okay, so what we need to do now, assuming that you followed all of the instructions so far, is go into the Device Manager (right click on properties on My Computer and go into the Hardware tab). Here, what you need to do is look for the one PCI device with a question mark next to it. It should say Unidentified PCI device or something close to that. What you want to do is right click on it and select “Uninstall.” After doing that, right click again on the PCI devices and select “Scan for hardware changes.” Now, your integrated audio along with the modem speaker will be detected, and so you should choose the automatically install driver option when prompted. After all of this is done, it will STILL FAIL. That’s okay…now what we need to do is just reinstall the SIGMATEL audio driver once more! Go ahead and do that…and this time viola our audio will be detected and the driver will finally install!!! The only thing that WILL NOT work is the modem speaker if you are using a dial-up connection…but in today’s world I’m surprised Dell even put a modem in this computer instead of giving us a gigabit ethernet…but that’s besides the point.
***EDIT*** WE HAVE THE MODEM DRIVER UP AND WORKING PERFECTLY AS WELL!!!
Download the driver from:
http://support.us.dell.com/support/d…&fileid=195675
That should take care of that
July 11th, 2008 at 4:42 am
Thanks a lot!
The sound driver works with my laptop Gateway M6750
Great work
July 11th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Thanks to Dave and all the responses to his blog for helping get my 1420 up and running. My experiences during the process is my contribution to the blog:
1. I followed Dave’s directions and made the nLite/Win XP install CD. I used his link to add the Intel AHCI driver to the installation. Later, When you are loading the rest of the Dell drivers, take care not to overwrite the newer Intel AHCI driver with the older Dell R154198 Matrix SATA driver.
2. Before the install started, I used the nLite/WinXP CD to delete both the Vista and Recovery partitions on my 1420. No turning back to Vista now! The WinXP utility correctly added the available space from the deleted partitions into the new WinXP partition that I then formatted. The rest of the install went smoothly.
3. I upgraded the 1420 bios with the upgrade on the Dell driver page.
4. I downloaded and installed the Dell Support Center application. It was very helpful in identifying my 1420 hardware, in particular the TSST CD/DVD drive. I upgraded the firmware to that drive which was similar process to the bios upgrade if a little more involve. The instructions come with the download.
5. I loaded the many Dell drivers, occasionally looking at the device manager to check how the unidentified drivers were being found. I like the Dell driver installation process and I think that Dell should be commended for posting the WinXP drivers for those of us that prefer XP.
6. I found that I prefer the Microsoft touchpad driver to the Dell driver. After using the Dell driver, I used the Device Manager to roll it back to the Microsoft driver that had been the default driver from the WinXP installation.
7. I loaded the Roxio Creator DE software that came with my 1420. I got an error message that that one module would not work in Win XP, but it installed without a problem. The registration process was a little rocky, but as with the rest of the install, patience won the day.
Thanks for all you your comments. I hope that mine have been helpful.
July 16th, 2008 at 1:22 am
Thanks for the post David, I could get rid of Vista finally on my 1420. Enerything worked fine until I realised that there was a driver missing from the “Non-plug and Play” section called “Serial” and I have no idea what that is. The real problem started after I restarted the PC and XP would hang while loading user preferences. Checked the event viewer and found that the error was related to Serial.Sys driver. Has anyone had the same problem?. I would appreciate your help on this.
July 16th, 2008 at 2:37 am
Adding to the previous post, booting on Safe mode works and I have run check disk and everything works fine. Once you restart the problem resurfaces. I am wondering what this Serial.Sys does and it is the real culprit or anything else that is causing this?
thanks,
Sanjay
July 20th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
! ! ! MY AUDIO DRIVER SOLUTION ! ! !
Hello Pals, for anyone with the problem with the Audio Device.
I took part of the post above, now it shows the procedure for the problematic audio driver.
Here is the order i used:
0. BIOS UPDATE: 1420_A09
1. Notebook_System_Software : R171888.exe
2. Intel_chipset : R153997.exe
3. VIDEO CARD 8600 GTM :R180917.exe
4. NETWORK ETHERNET : R149798.EXE
5. AUDIO: R158235.EXE
Will not work but you will need to have it installed on C:/dell/drivers/R158235 for later use. You will get the not recognized device error though.
6. AUDIO : R108276.EXE
Not the correct driver but useful to get the device to change from “PCI Device?” to “Modem device on high def audio bus driver?” This is a generic driver for Sigmatel devices which helps the device to show up correctly.
7. MODEM : R147115.EXE
Now you have the Modem installed and the PCI Sigmatel High Def Audio or something like it, showing on screen.
Right click on Sigmatel HD audio device and update driver with the first and correct driver. Restart PC and no sound will come, go to devices and reinstall driver. Then it will work at last.
8.TOUCHPAD : R165804.exe
No specific order (did in the order listed here):
The rest of the drivers showed no problem at all, WIFI works fine, can’t try modem, Bluetooth works fine too.
WEBCAM : R160320.EXE
MEMORY_CARDS : R141246.EXE
WIRELESS : Dell_multi-device_A17_R174291.exe
POWERMANAGEMENT : R161139.EXE
BLUETOOTH : R161378.exe
Hope this helps clear your ideas on how to install the sound driver, this was my last attempt before going back to Vista with its crappy updates and problems. This was a 1 whole day headache.
Hope it helps
Project Mandalorian
July 21st, 2008 at 6:49 pm
can i follow the same procedure if i want to install XP on Vostro 1000..??
July 29th, 2008 at 12:17 am
I am not able to download nlite from it’s site. It always gives me error “The page cannot be displayed”. Can somebody suggest why this is occuring.
August 1st, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Thanks a lot dude it worked!!
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:27 am
I, too, got an Inspiron 1420, hated Vista, and decided to go back to trusty XP. I used Killdisk to wipe my computer, switched from ACHA to ATA in BIOS
why i can not install wireless.
my network controller not found.
help help
August 4th, 2008 at 3:13 am
Hi,
I also have Inspiron 1420. And I have downgraded to XP. Now It runs smoothly. I have install all drivers following:
R140747 ; R141246; R153997; R155246; R161378; R165804; R167368; R171131; R171789; R173082; R180917 and R165094.
@gajah: You have to install Intel PROSet/Wireless to use your wireless(if your laptop uses Intel Wireless Card).
August 5th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Hello,
My Dell 1420 Is Working Fine with all the drivers loaded. [ Win XP ]
Issue With Modem & Wireless Driver Solved.
Installed New Drivers For Wireless, [ Dell Laptop Has * Dell Wireless ]
Windows Update also works fine.
Thank U All For Your Valuable Support.
Regards,
Shabber Vasan
August 7th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Hey. Great work. I am still stuck with a few things.Dint find the bluetooth driver and yes the audio is quite low than what it used to be in Vista. Anythin to boost it up.
August 7th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
G’day David - thanks for all this valuable help, it was just about all I needed to get XP working on my 1720.
I’m still having trouble getting XP to recognise the wireless card. I am going to try R155386 (downloading it now) - I’ll post here with the results of this.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:53 am
Audio - sigmatel\R171789
Bluetooth 355\R127314
Chipset\Intel\R153997
Chipset\Ricoh\R141246
Modem Conextant\R167368
Network\Broadcom 10-100\R15246
Network\Wireless 4965AGN\R164255
Quickset\R165094
SATA - Intel\Driver\R154200
SATA - Intel\Manager\R154198
Touchpad\R155653
Video\R181739
WebCam\R155105
i am having inspiron 1420 and the above drivers worked well for me….
they installed without a glitch.. thank u very much David…. u saved the day for me…:)
August 9th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
@ Alphading
Thanks for all the help man, mine is working now.
August 10th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
great tutorial! vista suxed and i got my xp back and running.
thanx much.
August 10th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
All Inspiron 1720 users on XP having trouble with wireless should download and install Dell driver R155386, which includes the Intel PROSet software.
I have just done so and it now works!
August 15th, 2008 at 9:32 am
I followed the steps and created an iso,extracted and burn them into a CD-R but i don’t seem to get it loaded, i’ve already choosed my cdroom for bootup but it will skip and jump directly vista loading page,can you email me on this? Thanks a million!!
August 16th, 2008 at 4:14 am
I went the easy way “The first and easier option is to simply set the hard drive to SATA mode in the BIOS.” All seemed to work out ok, I then installed all the drivers outlined above and microsoft windows installer 3.1. After I put it all together it worked just fine. I have a 1420 and I went from Vista to Ubunto to XP. (wasnt a fan of Ubunto… wine doesnt support any decent software)
At anyrate it all worked out alright for me… I guess we will see if switching the bios to SATA mode has any implications. Can anyone explain the difference and why or how this could change anything? I am still confused on that part..is it performace related? Thanks
August 16th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
i almost got everything installed but i’ve got problem in the installation of the NVDIA driver…I downloaded it fr dell support but it doesn’t work on my Inspiron 1420
August 20th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I too followed the nlite route a a few months ago but now I find this isn’t needed. After I installed Dell’s latest bios, I checked to see if the “no disk found” SATA problem was fixed but it wasn’t. I then went into bios and changed the SATA to IDE mode and from there on; no problems. Windows XP installs easily; I deleted my partition and reinstalled just to prove the process worked. Dell must have got tired of all the laptop returns, as Vista is totally unsuitable for low end laptops which cannot take a video card, so they have now put ALL the XP drivers for the 1525 on their download site. A welcome, if belated, change. After you install XP you can go back into the bios and change back to ACHI mode. There is one other switch but Dell’s bios tells you what to change before youcan switch modes. If Ubuntu had approved wireless drivers for HP, Dell, Toshiba, Levano and Acer laptops, Microsoft would be in trouble as they have no suitable OS for this market sector when XP is killed.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:44 am
Bluetooth dell inspiron 1420 how to installing vista
August 25th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
For those using the nlite method and still having SATA issues
try to insert the ACHI sata controller 8 EM driver instead of the whole list
August 27th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I installed XP after changing the BIOS to ATA mode and most went smooth.
I have two problems:
1) Webcam driver
I tried both R173082 and R155105. Both return with the same error:
“An error occurred while setting up the driver.”
That’s it. No other information is provided.
2) Bluetooth
My bluetooth device does not even show up in device manager. It is enabled and it was working fine under Vista.
Any ideas?
August 28th, 2008 at 8:32 am
thanks very much to everyone who has contributed to this blog. I had a great deal of trouble trying to change my dell inspiron 1720 from vista to Xp but now I have hope at last.
August 31st, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Thanks for the note on how to install the wireless card. I have a Studio and that was driving me nuts.
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Thats a very nicely explained document… Great work buddy
September 8th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I Have nVidia Graphic Card Installed
and I Try To Install Intel Graphics Accellerator, but It Says Error “This Computer Does Not Meet The Minimum Requrements For Installing This Software”
What’s Gone Wrong?.
I Want My Display Perform It Max. Capacity (1440×900 display)
First Time I Look On My Vista Display (dxdiag) It Had Video Memory About 800MB (Which I Calculate If nVidia + Graphic Accellerator = about 800MB)
Please Help Me With This Problem
Thank You Very Much
This Blog Helps Me Much …
September 9th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Hi David,
Great post! I have been searching for answers on how to install XP for my client. She hates Vista. I should be able to get this done now w/ your aid.
Thank you again.
Mark
September 16th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Hi david thank you very much your post really helped me a lot to get rid of windows vista and install Xp pro SP2 on my Dell vostro 1400 .
Every thing is working fine except the “Modem on high definition audio bus”
I have tried all the drivers mentioned above but none worked ..
If you have any solution plz tell us …
once again I appreciate your work and all others whoh shared their ideas ..
September 16th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
David,
You’re such a blessing. Now I can start adobe and visual studio using xp. wow.. don’t know how to pay you back, Hope I’m rich enough to have some token for you.. Anyway, I’ll get back you. Thanks for helping us David.
God Bless.. May heavens gate open above your house. And let His glory fall.
Regards,
Christian
September 24th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Will XP SP3 work with the same process?
September 29th, 2008 at 3:29 am
Thanks for this wonderful information provided. I am able to install XP on my system. but I still have 1 problem with my webcam its not working i am able to install Webcam manager but the driver in the end just got stuck and throws me an error. i guess its not compatible with the webcam. My system is Inspiron 1720 with creative 2.o MP webcam. Please help!
THanks.
October 4th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
I installed windows after slipstreaming Intel’s latest AHCI drivers into the XP disc. Installation was successful but after installation my computer restarts before login sreen showing blue screen. I thought its VGA problem, so slipstream “Mobile Intel® 965 Express Chipset Family” driver into XP disc. I reinstalled the window and now I am enjoying XP at inspiron 1420. Thanks to all for sharing information.
October 7th, 2008 at 5:37 am
thx a lot man. this really helps
October 20th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Hi, I have Dell Inspiron 1720. Due to display problems, its motherboard was replaced by Dell Engineer. He also updated the BIOS drivers. I was running Vista & XP dual boot. My problem is now (after replacement of motherboard) I am not able to open XP. I get the boot screen and if I select XP, after some time the machine restarts. I am able to log in vista without any problem.
October 26th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
hey all! ive been following these steps for my dell inspiron 1420. but i cant seem to install the video part.. i keep getting the error. “cant find compatible hardware” ive downloaded quite a number of drivers for xp and none of them are working.. can anyone help? it would be greatly appreciated.. tnx.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Hi
Really thnx for this great instructions.
It works fine for me.
I m facing problem in creating partition.
Can you guide me for that ?
November 12th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Ok for those people that have webcam driver problem. Here the fix.
Start -> Right Click On My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware -> Device Manager.
Right click on the Intergrate Webcam driver. Uninstall the driver. This should fix it.
It seems the install proccess got corrupted. Once it is uninstall it will auto find the correct files.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
hello guys,
I have inspirion 1420 too. But there are many drivers suggested here and many novice will have problems in finding the right one.
Is it possible that somebody gather all the drivers in one zip package? after installing winxp that this file would be a good direction for drivers?
how about a winxp fresh ghost image after the install into inspiron 1420? like the one that dell provides us for vista. we can enter our legal serial later to make it a valid copy.
maybe i am asking too much
cheers
November 17th, 2008 at 1:16 am
I have Compaq Presario 784 TU laptop. It has Windows Vista. I hate working on it. I want to fresh install Windows XP OS. I need supporting files, steps to be followed and drivers to support that laptop. Can u post solution on this website? Thanks in advance…
December 9th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Does anyone have info. on the media card reader? I got verything up and running with that exception.
December 16th, 2008 at 3:52 am
thanks for posting this, i wasted like 2 hours messing around before i read this.
January 5th, 2009 at 5:49 am
Hola,..
I just bought DELL Inspiron 1420 for my friend (actually I helped her to buy),.. Once I found that VISTA is suck,.. then i’m going to downgrade the os to xp windows, I found problems which is quite annoying, because DELL’s Driver’s CD only provide drivers for Vista not for XP,.. Which is very not convenient for us to research those drivers by our selves,.. remembering there got a lot of drivers’ version in the manufacture’s website,..
Once I found this wonderful blog, wonderful tutorial and of course wonderful posts,.. I thanks to God, that I felt like I had been blessed,..
But the problem is It’s quite hard for me to determine which drivers’ version I should choose for my Inspiron 1420? (because there got some different versions of drivers),.. I hope who had downgraded to XP successfully please give us a short brief on how going to get rid of these and give us the sequences of how u install those drivers,..
Once again, thanks for the help,..
thanks for the wonderful blog,..
thanks for u David (u’re great),..
Eric
January 10th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I have a question for you. It is about the “i386″ file that nLite asks you for on the second step of the nLite procedure. I have copied the contents of 2 different Windows XP cd’s to a folder and the nLite program is not detecting this particular file. Please help!!!! Email me if possible…
January 12th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Nevermind! Re-gained all senses and figured it out.
Thanks,
Martha
January 15th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
I was wanting to install XP on my Inspiron 1720 and get rid of Vista which I really don’t like at all. What were they thinking when they came up with that? But that’s another story.
I decided to try the option of installing it by disabling AHCI and enabling ATA but it said I had to disable Flash Cache first. I did this and it is now installing but I was wondering what flash cache is and can or should I re-enable it after the installation is finished?
Cheers
Mike
January 18th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Best advice is to leave the bios settings alone once you’ve changed over to SATA… I switched ‘em back and got blue screens.
Other than that, this guide is perfect.
Thanks Dave!
January 19th, 2009 at 2:31 am
Just wanted to say thanks for this great blog. I too purchased a Dell Inspiron 1420 (for my daughter) since it was a great deal. However, we had nothing but problems with Vista. Using nLite and creating the ISO worked like a charm. Thanks to this article converting from Vista to XP was actually quite easy. Thanks!
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Using the AHCI zipped SATA driver package from the main message and Andrew’s list of Inspiron 1720 drivers above that he got from Dell, I have successfully managed to install XP on my Inspiron 1720. What a pleasure! I also installed SP3 on and all seems stable and happy and it’s been running a week now. I left the bios as AHCI as my first attempt at changing it to ATA failed while I was formatting the hard drive.
Thanks so much guys!!
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:15 am
Hey, this is a great entry. BUT I have installation problems with Dell Inspiron E1405. Do you have a similar article for E1405?
I formatted and installed Win XP Unlimited - it went well. The problem is installing the Drivers I got from dell.com. But the Notebook System Software R120775 refused to install. Error: “Setup Cannot run on this machine”. I get similar errors
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:16 am
Hey, this is a great entry. BUT I have installation problems with Dell Inspiron E1405. Do you have a similar article for E1405?
I formatted and installed Win XP Unlimited - it went well. The problem is installing the Drivers I got from dell.com. But the Notebook System Software R120775 refused to install. Error: “Setup Cannot run on this machine”. I get similar errors when trying to install Sigmatel Audio R171789 (”no supported device found”) and also Sound Blaster Audigy ADVANCED HD Audio Driver R127097. Please what can I do? Other drivers have installed expect sound. I’ll really appreciate some help. Thanks.
February 5th, 2009 at 4:35 am
hi david, please help me, i have dell 1420, problem with my notebook my intergrated webcam not work, i try download driver, but not working, i’m using win XP.thx
February 5th, 2009 at 5:04 am
hello i need help. my usb ports dont work it has a yellow excalamtion mark on device manager. please help
February 11th, 2009 at 2:24 am
hello , i have dell 1420 inspiron laptop. i want to install windows xp 2002 black edition but when i install the xp its get sound problum, vga problum…. my main problum is i have not xp sopported driver for my laptop. i search my market but i cant found so plz if u solve my problum plz send me this types of drivers or send me some site name where i got it..
February 11th, 2009 at 8:36 am
thx a lot.. the sound driver worked… i was a bit tensed for a moment.. when i could not find the driver for the sound card.. this saved me a lot of headaches
February 15th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I just downgrade my 1420 to XP today and found that if you use a splitstream Windows XP SP3 CD it will have all the drivers properly installed except Bluetooth. However, after boot up to XP, I found the fan1 (cpu) & fan 2 (GPU) all tune on at max. speed and CPU always stay at 1.5GHz (at max) without any SpeedStep control. For those of you who downgraded your 1420 to XP, do you noticed the similar problems as mine?
February 28th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I installed xp with no problem..
Everything is fine but..When i scroll up and down on either Mozilla or IE..it is very choppy..Not smooth like it usually is…
Can you you lend me a hand please?
Thanks
March 1st, 2009 at 5:52 pm
All I have to say is, THANKS! I have a 1720 and after following the first set of instructions, I slipstreamed SP3 and all my drivers into the installation CD. It worked perfectly. Thanks again!
March 13th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Dear,
I’ve already try to setup driver for NVIDIA 8400M GS to support my inspiron 1420 but alway fail or not success. try to browse nv4_disp.inf downloaded from 162.18 go to device manager –> update driver the result also fail.
pleas help how to install it ??? it’s really make me confusing ….
thanks in advance
May 14th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Hey, after reading this, i think im going to give it a go… ill get back to you later if u get a chance to let you know how it goes…
Brilliant Article
July 8th, 2009 at 7:34 am
If you already install XP to inspiron 1420, and already install all driver that suggested from this site, and still have a problem, means that you install XP SP3. means that the suggestion is only for XP SP2.
the audio will not work. and only state PCI at device manager. for this problem, download ftp://ftp.dell.com/audio/R108276.EXE
and install. it will fix your problem.
regards
July 15th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I install xp on cause my vista got messed up but now I cant get online it says is missing network is there a driver I’m missing? email me shawty67 at hotmail
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:43 am
Hi,
I got everything done, but my webcam is not working, I have tried R55105, but my windows xp SP1 can’t even install. There is one from dell recommended R160320. I can install it, but the software can’t detect the webcam. Anyone can help?
August 6th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
having problems with my inspiron 1420 just cant install the NVIDIA 8400m gs for windows xp home, vga is not working need help
August 16th, 2009 at 10:53 am
[…] David Reed Online » Blog Archive » Installing Windows XP on the … […]
October 20th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Hi All,
Today i am facing a problem while installing Web Cam Manager in my laptop inspiron 1420 DELL. Operating system - VISTA (Basic Home).
Problem - As provided Webcam CD by DELL, i started installing by the provided CD, it starts installing and stops at 14% completion, by this i am not able to install and system hangs with out proceeding forward.
Unable to install Web Cam Manager in my PC.
Thanks in advance.
Waiting for the quick reply.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I am trying to load XP on Inspiron 1720 and get message that drive not recognized. I can’t make any changes to my bios to ata or sata mode? Any suggestions please. I am on Bios Version A07 (02-03-2008)
December 8th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Hello there,
After an hour long search on internet I found this blog. It works bloody well. I changed that SATA option in my BIOS settings. Thanks mate, you are a champion.
January 15th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
Thanks man…that worked fine. L
June 7th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Years later, your article is still helping people. Thanks loads!
Alan