WinXP on Inspiron 1525, impossible? :/

It seems the drivers I need (the ones on the discs that came with my system and the ones on the dell.com support site for my model) only have drivers for Vista for my hardware. So I'm forced to use Vista? I just went thrug a long XP installation only to realize I couldnt even get online since no driver was working.

This whole Dell experience has been an utter nightmare.

 

Well, the 1525 as a whole is a nightmare.

 

Does that mean it's impossible?

 

Try to figure out every component in your notebook that requires a driver and start searching manufature sites they should have xp drivers. Dell is just a poopie head

 

Dell didnt make the hardware so just because they dont have the drivers(or they cant be found yet on the site) doesnt mean they dont exist nor does it mean its impossible.

If you cant figure an easier way through the forums I would suggest just identifying the hardware individually and going to the manufacturers site(s).

wish I could be more help but honestly I just dont know where they are or if they TRULY exist lol.

 

I much prefer Vista with SP1, and I recommend you give that a try for a while before deciding to downgrade.

But if you're intent on running XP, this page looks like it might help:
http://www.laptops-drivers.com/dell...-dell-inspiron-1525-or-downgrading-vista.html

 

It's definitely not impossible, you just have to find all the XP drivers yourself. Hopefully someone has done it before you, try searching around; but even if not - it's not impossible to do yourself.

First steps would be finding out all the details of your system (probably easiest to do under Vista, with all drivers installed). Things like chipset, audio card, video card, wifi card, touchpad.... find the model for all those items (as well as any other little things I missed) and then try and find XP drivers for each of them. There's a 95% chance you'll be successful, it's just a matter of time and effort really. Often DELL will provide the right XP drivers for a lot of components in your machine, even though they won't be listed for your model specifically... so don't dismiss their site as a resource either.

Good luck.

 

Well I managed to get all the correct drivers (turns out you have to treat the 1525 like a 1520 when putting XP on, for the most part)

However, the only negative is the screen is blurry. It's not too bad, I can read text - but the screen when I had vista was very sharp and clean, now it looks a little blurry... any ideas?

 

Video driver. If you're a true nubby and dont know what screen resolutions are, then speak up and I'll help you adjust them as they might be set too low.

 

Yes I know what resolutions are I have the resolution set to 1440x900 which is the highest it will allow me to go... set Color Quality "32bit (highest quality)"

 

Ok, you neglected the drivers part. Other than that I dont have a clue.

 

Ahh I completely missed that part. I downloaded the (Vista) drivers for the 1525 and they work with XP, though the installation process brought up a lot of errors. The screen is crystal clear now, all the drivers have been located - everything is in working order.

The only annoyance is that anytime I'm typing sometime it will randomly move the cursor to a different area and start typing somewhere else, and just now I was typing here and the cursor jumped to the url bar. Annoying bigtime. Keyboard driver perhaps? We'll find out!

 

Yep, it was the mouse driver... my Inspiron 1525 is now running XP perfectly. I feel like a moron for creating this thread.. there should be a sticky about this - for people like me.

 

Jacobv,
could you post the exact location of the Video + touchpad drivers you installed to solve your problems ?
I have exactly the same problems of yours and I can't find them easily.

Thanks

 

It is possible. If you go on youtube, and look up "wowitskevin"s review of the 1525, You'll see that is is running windows XP. Although is came like that..but still. It is definitly possible.

 

All of the components in it have been used in other laptops. Audio, video, touchpad, wired network card, wireless network card, bluetooth, etc.

 

According to the post someone linked to earlier in this thread, you should need this file for the touchpad drivers. If that doesn't work, you might try the Vista drivers or the 1520 XP drivers - it wouldn't surprise me if they are all the same.