*** How to install XP on Dell's Studio XPS 16 (and will work with systems with some of the same hardware) ***

I recieved my Dell Studio XPS 16 about a month ago, i have to say i really love it, even 64-bit Vista, but it still lacked that "sense of home" that XP used to bring me, and some of my programs i used did not work in 64-bit Vista, therefore i decided to try to duel boot 32-bit XP, little did i know what challenges i had to overcome...

The main problem with doing this, is the drivers!!! I had to track them down and mod one... but here, i am simply going to list them for you and give you a nice and easy to follow guide (along with a link or 2 to other guides that you may need)

REQUIREMENTS
- Dell Studio XPS 16, although other systems with some of the hardware may work if you find the drivers i do not list for your system
- XP Install CD
- Blank CD (unless you know how to boot off a usb drive or something similar)
- nLite http://www.nliteos.com/download.html

Okay so your first decision is simple, do you want to keep vista, or dump it completely? If you dump it completely this makes your life i bit more simple, but in my case i decided to keep it.

STEP 1
- Partitioning
Partitioning is simply splitting your hardrive in to 2 or more peices, basically creating "virtual hardrives". The simplest way to do this is to use vista's disk management, now since this would take awhile, i'm just going to give a link to a page that shows 3 different ways to partition, once you're done come back here because if you follow that whole tutorial, you'll find it wont work

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_...talled_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm?page=2
STEP 2
- Integrating Drivers
Your hardrive is a SATA drive which back in the XP days, weren't really around, therefore there were no built in drivers in your disk. Your wireless card was always not around back then, so we need to integrate that aswell so you can follow the rest of the tutorial once you have XP installed (or at least so you can download the other drivers).

In this step you will need to open up nLite, put in your XP Installtion cd and extract to a folder somewhere.

Next download these 2 drivers
- Intel WiFi Link 5100 : http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=3062
- ICH9R/M SATA : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=107504

Now read this to figure out how to integrate the drivers into your cd
http://komku.blogspot.com/2007/11/integrate-driver-into-windows.html

STEP 3
- Install XP
Now when you boot from the cd (Hold down F12 when you start up the computer and go to boot from cd) you should have no BSOD or any errors and install normally, make sure you install to the right partition and not to overwrite you vista one (unless you want to).

STEP 4
- The rest of the drivers
Here is a list of drivers you will need to install (you might not need some if you do not have that component)

Audio
http://rapidshare.de/files/40173729/PIDT001.EXE.html

Intel Chipset
http://rapidshare.de/files/40173743/...autol.zip.html

HDMI
http://rapidshare.de/files/40173712/P163694.EXE.html

Cardreader
http://rapidshare.de/files/40173687/R166188.EXE.html

Touchpad
http://rapidshare.de/files/40173670/R179644.exe.html

Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet
http://rapidshare.de/files/40173666/R180977.exe.html

IR Receiver
http://rapidshare.de/files/40173639/R181761.exe.html

Volume buttons (put this in Startup folder in the Start Menu) :

http://wickmanstudios.com/tutorials/dell1535/volumeStatePlusRuntime.zip

NOTE: Install HDMI before audio otherwise audio will be disabled.

Video: Now this one is more tricky, since ATI just wants to make your life a living hell if you have a laptop, you have to mod a desktop driver in order to enable the video card, this is probably the hardest part of the whole thing and it's actually very simple. Follow this guide on how to use it and that's all there is to it
http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php

STEP 5 (Skip if you are not duel booting)
- How to duel boot
Duel booting is very simple, i suggest following this guide in order to do it because i don't want to upload screenshots or anything... before you do this though, make sure to download the newest .NET platform from microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FD-AE52-4E35-B531-508D977D32A6&displaylang=en
Now follow this page of the guide
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_...talled_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm?page=4

FINISHED
If everything went well you should now be able to boot either XP or Vista with no problem, and run both OS's just fine. I am currently writing this tutorial on XP btw... after install XP, you'll probably want to run windows updates, as things like service packs, windows installer, are usually out of date. If you have any questions feel free to ask, i wrote this tutorial kind of late and i'm tired so sorry about the quality of it, if you have any recommendations plz feel free to tell me, always looking for improvement!

Hoodoomoo

 

why put xp on this system when it wont pickup the 4gb of ram? or does the 64bit pick up 4gb?

also, vista runs perfectly fine once you tweak it around so back to my previous, why put xp on this system?

 

Its all down to individual preference jmoose . Most people are quite happy using XP as its familiar and just works.. Not saying Vista dose not i left vista on my laptop as it runs fine and still have XP on my gaming desktop.

 

i guess to each his own

 

i like to have the option, i have tweaked vista and it runs really nice, but XP does as well, also even though you don't get all 4gb with XP, you don't have Vista taking up 1gb of it, therefore it's about the same

 

Dell has drivers listed for XP. Shouldn't need any special treatment.

 

are you kidding me? Unless they put them on yesterday i know for fact tehy only have 32-bit and 64-bit Vista listed! dell promotes vista except for their netbooks!

 

Did you run spell check on your guide?


McCin'

 

no lol, there might be alot of errors... idk

 

sweet, nice write up.

ill be installing xp on mine here in the next few days since a few of the drivers that my tuning software uses arent available for vista 64.

 

I really would like to get that link, cuz i cant find anything for xp buddy?

 

you know i listed all of the drivers needed already here right? Except if you got a different wireless card...

 

Hey hoodomoo,

Can you repost your link for the Intel chipset drivers you used? The link appears to be broken. I tried multiple drivers from Intels site, but haven't had any luck. I should be the PM45 right?

 

the link is broken, and i don't have the file iteself, but if you just install the Intel Controller it works just fine... that's listed a little above the intel chipset link labeled SATA/ICH9R/B

 

I got XP installed ok using the SATA driver, but there are many drivers left over that must be included in the chipset. I slipstreamed the rest into my image. I'll see if I can get a screenshot. I just need to know exactly which one you used so I can get completely up and running...

 

I just re-installed (on a different partition) XP WITHOUT the chipset and using only the ones i listed in this guide and it runs the same as my original install, and to find them, just search google, i tried with no luck but i did before?

 

Great tutorial, really appreciate it! Been looking for a way out from the Vista claw. Just finished installing XP and the drivers you linked to. Most hardware seems to work fine but I have some yellow question marks in Device manager, 3 saying "Base System Device" 2 saying "Unknown device" and 1 saying "WinTV-NOVA" (and one 1394 Net Adaptor which I guess I don't need)
Some of them might be the webcam and IR receiver but would you happen to know which "base system devices" drivers are needed and where to look for them?
Cheers Jacob

 

I don't know what driver is needed for that, it may be the chipset, which i cannot find a link to now but i installed using just the drivers from this tutorial (excluding the chipset) and have had no problems, i can play crysis, render cg images, browse internet, everything completely fine.

 

Dude, you looted my tutorial and took credit for it. It's obvious that you did. I created this here 2 weeks ago : http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19264032/19448681.aspx#19448681
I wrote it and then Dell deleted it for me using H x l l, and then reposted it. Give proper credit.

 

Umm no. Not for their new laptops. They have no non-vista support at this point. Beleive me when I say that the process of getting XP on this machine prior to spending mass amounts of time getting all the drivers was involved. Dell is obviously in bed w/ MS on vista and XP works faster than vista.

 

Here's the original : http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19260599/19437397.aspx#19437397. Note the date : 26 Feb 2009 12:35AM

 

I saw your post on the Dell community pages right after posting Ninjarunningwild, credit to you. Now to my problem:

Has any of you succesfully manage to get rid of all unknown devices in Device Manager?
I installed the chipset driver and the rest of the drivers mentioned but I still have 3 yellow question marks in Device manager saying "Base System Device" 2 saying "Unknown device" and 1 saying "WinTV-NOVA"
The laptop works fine browsing the internet, wifi etc but I would like to get all the hardware working.

Missing drivers/functionalities:

eSATA
Touchpad multitouch + zones
TV tuner (Vista driver says "AVerMedia HC82 Express-Card Hybrid Analog" but I believe it is a Hauppage Nova tuner?)
(I don't have bluetooth due to a lame error)

Maybe I'll have to revert to my original Vista setup and take note af all hardware before I roll back to XP and try to locate the drivers.
The machine feels much more responsive with XP on it, it seems so far.

 

Thanks, much obliged. I haven't, and I've seen this with earlier versions of this laptop too (XPS 13/15). I narrowed mine down to 1 unknown device and an exclamation on the 1394 network. I finally gave up on that part since the whole machine is completely functional as far as I can tell. For the SATA, you need to do the nlite XP install with the driver I mentioned @ http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=107504. Specifically, this driver needs to be embedded into the Nlite install : http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15251/eng/STOR_all32_f6flpy32_8.7.0.1007_PV.zip

It's listed under this heading "a ) New: For Intel ICH7R/M, ICH8R/M, ICH9R/M or ICH10R/D S-ATA AHCI and RAID Controllers:"

For bluetooth, this link should have what you need : http://wickmanstudios.com/tutorials/dell1535/studio1535.zip

This site helped me a ton! http://wickmanstudios.com/content/view/17/29/. If I were you, I'd begin to search for any Dell Studio 13/15 drivers for the same or similar TV cards and try install them. Just set a restore point before you do and you should have no possible issues from just trying the drivers out. Hopefully, one of them will just work (it doesn't seem like Dell's upgraded their hardware noticeably from the 13 and 15 versions of this same laptop). Good luck to you!

 

Maybe one of these drivers will help you : http://driver.zol.com.cn/list.php?keyword=dell+1535&channelid=&x=0&y=0
http://dellstudio.jeroenzelle.nl/
http://rapidshare.com/files/166695417/DellStudioAudiXP.ZIP

I can't read a frickin' thing on the first link, but I know many of those drivers do work on our machines...

 

Wuhuu.. down to one "Unknown Device" + the yellow exclamation mark on the 1394 Net adaptor.
Installed the Vista TV Tuner driver for XPS 1640 and that worked + the IR and Card Reader listed in the above mentioned links.

Multitouch + zones on the touchpad, input on microphone doesn't work. Not crucial but especially the multitouch zoom was nice.
(Cant find ATI control panel either, I guess that can be installed somehow)

I am a very happy man, I must say I was not overly excited about the speed on my T9600/4 GB RAM when it ran on Vista. Now it's up to par on XP.
Thanks to everyone for sharing.

EDIT: Got the multizones feature working. Just installed the Vista touchpad driver. Only thing that is missing so far is the microphone. Getting there

 

Thanks a bunch. Do you happen to know where to find the drivers for the Studio XPS 16, running Windows XP Pro X64 Edition??

 

XP Pro 32 will be the same drivers that I listed (Home/Pro). The SATA drivers for XP 64 are here : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=107504 (search for the section "a ) For Intel ICH7R/M, ICH8R/M, ICH9R/M or ICH10R/D S-ATA AHCI and RAID Controllers:"). The only problem is that the other drivers available for it are distinctly NOT 64-bit, so if you want to actually use your computer, then just go with a 32-bit XP. Trust me. It is NOT slow. In fact it's noticeably faster than 64-bit Vista on the same machine.

 

thanks for the instructions. 2 points for clarification.

1. the folowing link no longer has the file. so where can i get the intel chipset

http://rapidshare.de/files/40173743/...autol.zip.html\

2. i have the samsung SSD RBX 128GB solid state hard drive. is there an XP drivr for this and if so where can i download this.

once i have these 2 questions answered i will then try and istall windows XP onto my studio XPS 1640. thanks for the help.

chris

 

unfortunately the link for the intel chipet cannot find the file http://rapidshare.de/files/40173743/...autol.zip.html
is there an alternate link for this.

also with my studio XPS 1640 i got the samsung solid state hard drive RBX series 128GB. are there xp drivers for this and if so where can i download them.

once these 2 points are sorted out i will dual boot XP with vista.

chris

 

When I installed the CIR Receiver driver, it only removed one of the last two unknown devices, it installed but with a yellow quotation mark that said it can not load the device driver, code 39? Any Ideas? Also the 1394 net adapter says it can not start? running 32bit Xp Pro

 

I have xp installed but the problem I have is 1 unknown device, the infrared has an exclamation mark and I can't get my microphone to work!!! i used the audio drivers which were listed but it doesn't work.. anyone have the answers for it yet?

 

Excellent thread, thank you.
I just finished installing XP on my XPS 16. Hope I can get all the drivers to work

 

Ok I'm having the same issues, one unknown device and microphone not working.
At first I thought the unknown device was the bluetooth but it's not.
The driver I used for the bluetooth is file R196560 on dell's website.

For the touchpad, I used the driver available on Synaptics website instead.

 

I think the unknown might be the webcam driver, because it doesn't work on XP, and i haven't really searched to find it, also you can use the Touchpad driver off the dell website (i know it's vista but this one works with xp too) and you get all the touchpad functions as you would in vista.

 

it's not the webcam, mine is working without having installed any driver for it

 

yeah i just found that out as well after my last post, well at least it doesn't appear to be vital at the moment.

 

yes it's not vital but the microphone issue definitely is!

 

i had my microphone working for a day but then i reformatted cause i accidently modified xp.. and i kinda stuffed it up... but nw... no more mic.. i've gone back to vista... i want xp tho... more reliable and faster...

 

how did you get the microphone to work on xp?

 

Has anyone managed to get the microphone working? Everything else is working perfectly fine - except this! Any help would be appreciated.

 

I prefer Vista over XP any day, but thanks for the guide anyways. I'm sure it will help some. BTW, can you post the original locations where you found the drivers? I noticed many of the links were rapidshare files.

 

use this for the unknown device:
http://www.mediafire.com/?wdg4hj9pyzu

 

still no luck for me with microphone.. surely someone has it done

 

Hi. I have a Studio XPS 1340 (same thing, smaller screen) and am considering setting up dualboot XP specifically so I'll have something usable for DAW audio work. Due to a problem with this hardware and Microsoft's ACPI, there is a DPC Latency problem that is unresolved, with NO workaround on Vista (or Win7). See this thread for details: http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19270658.aspx

My question is, can anyone confirm success in getting the 1394 Firewire driver working on this machine in XP? My audio interface connects via Firewire, so unless I can get onboard 1394 or at least the ExpressCard slot working on XP, there's no point in me going any further.

Thanks...

 

Can someone please summarize the problems that one may face while installing xp? Someone who is actually running xp....

 

the integrated microphone does not work with the supplied audio driver

 

So no other problems other than that? Is there an alternatie audio driver that may be used?

Thanks so much!

 

I have found some drivers where the microphone now works! thing is now that I reckon xp sp3 and vista sp1 basically the same speed... im not getting any real difference in speed or multitasking... only diff is vista uses less memory but with 3gb usable in a 32bit system.. vista is fine so i may revert back to it

 

hi,

i'm sure i already posted this, but here goes..

skip all the nlite thing and set your sata mode to IDE, in the bios, saves a lot of bother..xp goes straight in.

firstly go into your bios, set sata to ide and the lappy to boot from the cd..stick ur xp cd in, and install!

..then onto the tsunami of device drivers installs ^^



also, would like to say that finding this thread was VERY hard and i'm a registered user!

the disabling of the search funtion was a stroke of "genius", by someone ^^


cheers,
bill

p.s. stuff and nonsense: http://www.eupeople.net/forum

 

i think it would be good if you shared your experience so that others may benefit