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    Switching to Win Media Center?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by Platypus, Jun 14, 2005.

  1. Platypus

    Platypus Notebook Enthusiast

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    I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 6000 with Windows XP Professional installed. Since I got it, I also purchased the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR USB2 tv tuner and have become very immersed in using my laptop as a TiVo. Now that I understand what a multimedia pc can do, I want to switch my operating system to Windows XP Media Center Edition. The problem is that Dell has informed me that I'm past the 21-day window to do this (i'm in about 32 days). When I volunteered to buy and install it myself, they said that I was free to do so but that they wouldn't offer support on it. Here are my questions:
    1) Is there anything I can say or do to get Dell to extend their window and swap the OS for me [I'm willing to pay for that service]
    2) If I do it myself, how complicated is it? I'm not a techie, but I did already reformat my hard drive and reinstall XP without much of a problem.
    3) If I stay with XP professional, does anyone have any opinions of SageTV versus BeyondTV?
     
    Platypus, Jun 14, 2005
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  2. Amber

    Amber Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    I wouldn't worry about Dell. The 21 day thing is their return policy, so you would have to order a new notebook with Media XP on it and return your current one. Besides, Dell actually doesn't offer any support on OS/software, not even the orginial software installed, so you aren't going to void your warranty. The worst thing that could happen is if something should fail, they might ask you to reinstall XP Pro to see if it is an OS problem or not.

    As for installation, it should be very similar to reinstalling XP. Before you install Media XP, go to Dell's download/drivers website and get the current drivers for Media XP. You can burn them to a cd/dvd and install them once you get your new OS installed.

    ~SG~
    __________________________________________________________________________________________
    Inspiron 9300 || 1.73GHz || 60GB 7200rpm ||1gb DDR2||ATI Radeon X300 64MB || CD/DVD RW || XP Pro
     
    Amber, Jun 14, 2005
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