Help with XP drivers for Vostro 1700

I'm getting frustrated with Dell. I talked with Dell about purchasing the Vostro 1700 and told them we would be downgrading it to XP. I was told they had other clients that have done this successfully. However I can't find a video driver, audio driver or wireless card driver that will work. I have talked with Dell and they are zero help and I have looked on the internet and haven't found a solution so any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Vostro 1700
Windows XP Pro
Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, 1.8GHz
17" Wide Screen XGA+
1GB, DDR2 RAM
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
120G 5400RPM SATA
Integrated High Definition Audio 2.0
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card

 

Which drivers did you try?

 

dude, go to dell.com, find a support section- then software- then look for drivers under windows xp. i found most of my drivers that way, even though i have a 1520. for video, though, go to laptopvideo2go.com and dnload forceware 163.44

 

sound: http://support.us.dell.com/support/...eid=R158235&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=211297
days vostro 1500, just ignore it, works on my 1520, should probably work on 1720

wireless card: http://support.us.dell.com/support/...eid=R140747&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=187881

 

Have you tried Graphic drivers from Intel for your GMA x3100?
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2800&lang=eng

 

As far as the Video driver I have tried the driver from dell for the 1500. I went to Intel's site and tried the GMA driver for XP version 14.31.1 and 14.31. With all of these after a reboot and the windows xp splash screen it goes black and I have to boot into safe mode and uninstall the driver.

 

oh, my bad about the video driver...didn't see that u have an integrated one..

 

Update:

I reinstalled XP and was able to get everything to install except the Video Driver. I have searched the forum and found some different ways to install the Intel driver and everytime it installs then the screen goes black.

 

Did you ever get this working? For some reason, the Intel Mobile GM965 driver for XP won't load on a Vostro 1700 with XP. It sees the driver as a compatible driver and attempts to load, but in the end, the driver fails to load (shows a yellow exclamation mark). Tried the one from Dell for the Vostro 1500 and from Intel's web site.

Thanks!

 

No I was never able to get the video drivers working. I talked to my dell rep and we worked out a way to return the notebook and get a new one with the dedicated NVIDIA video.

 

I just got mine working!

I'm not sure what the differences are, but for anyone who has a problem getting the 1700 w/XP to load the X3100 drivers, be sure to download the video drivers from the D630 downloads at dell.com.

The X3100 drivers from the 1500/XP drivers section don't work, and the drivers from the Intel.com website for the X3100 don't work.

I don't know what the differences are, but the D630 drivers for the X3100 worked great for the Vostro 1700. (as a matter of fact, when you run the drivers for the D630, they actually say they're for the D630, Vostro 1400, 1500 and 1700 for Windows XP!! Almost as if Dell WAS supporting XP on the 1700!!)

 

Lancorp, I saw you have two hd's in ur vostro 1700. Are they both the same rpm? Would there be a problem if I put 2 different rpm drives in the same notebook?

 

I don't think so. Dell seems to only sell a matched pair of HD's, but I don't see any options for a hardware RAID (nor have I checked too thoroughly), so I just use them as two separate volumes. If they were RAID, then it would be a problem!

 

Lancorp, I have a Vostro 1700 arriving tonight that appears identical to yours except 2GB of RAM and only the 120MB HDD. I can either put XP Pro on a 2nd partition (then fix the Vista partition, heh) or just replace the Vista partition with a fresh XP install which, it appears, is what you did.

Any advice?

I've already downloaded the latest XP Pro files from Dell, was intending to do a std XP install, then install the Dell drivers 1-by-1 starting with the Nvidia drivers. Sound reasonable? Any bad pitfalls you think I might encounter?

Thx for any quick tips you might have time to post. /wave
--SD

PS I'm an OEM/VAR and build MS machines & networks routinely, just not on notebooks.

PPS I kind of like the dual-boot option so I can stick my toe in the Vista waters now and then, but not req'd.

 

Well, my Vostro 1700 is running Vista Ultimate. I was doing a Vostro 1700 with XP for a friend, and I took the easy way out on that one--I "Ghosted" a Vostro 1500 HD with XP onto the Vostro 1700, then got the Intel X3100 drivers from the Latitude D630 driver section. Takes about 20 minutes from start to finish.

 

LOL, wish I could ghost the drive, too. Here's to finding all XP drivers. /pray

 

Did you guys have to make any changes in BIOS, etc. when you downgraded to XP? What did you do about the SATA hard drive??

 

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2101

 

Ok, so I am a little late to the game. Our company will NOT use vista at all, which leaves us in a serious predicament, since MS themselves are the ones that do NOT want the vostro shipping with xp. (They are losing revenue, but they are literally trying to force vista upon people because of the income they will generate with DRM).


Anyways, I have completely configured the first vostro 1700 with XP pro, just finished.

Some notes:

Wireless : Broadcom based, use the dell 1390 driver, it will work

Audio : sigmatel, obtain from the 1500 series downloads on dell
Video : Depends, will either be a dedicated nvidia (get the nvidia forceware), or use the intel drivers.
Ethernet: Broadcom series as well, 440x line
chipset: intel pm 965

You should be able to get your system using this information, but I have personally gotten a 1700 working with xp professional now, so its not just theory.

Daemoen

In order to get xp to recognize the sata driver: Turn off the AHCI operation, OR get the ahci drivers and load them at startup. (Rather interesting trying to do that on a laptop though.) I just turned it back into ATA instead. Works just as well.

 

Is it possible to feed in the AHCI drivers from a USB drive or do they have to be slipstreamed into the install disk?

 

Is there any real disadvantage to leaving the AHCI turned off after the install as well?

 

Thanks a lot!!! Total Guide 1420 is working on my Vostro 1700 with SATA drive, once your in XP, just load the right drivers for your PC and do not reboot until you have all the driver installed (audio is a bit tricky)

What a relief!!