Vista on my Dell 6400

Good day All
Two years ago I bought a $1500 Dell 6400 with most of the bells and whistles. Vista did not work with half the stuff that came pre-installed on the machine and compatability mode was very unstable when I used it with my parts ordering software along with just about every toy, camera, and Astronomy software I own. I went to XP, now mostly great, very fast and stable but I cant burn DVD's and dell doesent seem to have a driver formy DVD Drive while using XP.
My question is ... Has the Vista OS become more compatible and stable? I can re-install it if it has.
Thanks for any input.

P.S. dell handled all my complaints in a very poor punk like way and Ill never buy another Dell. These issues should have been taken care of by them for free but they just blamed Micosoft. Microsoft blames everyone for not being ready for the new OS. Still Dell used it and sold it so ultimately they should back their product and I feel they did not. I knowmany think it is a cool challange to make all this stuff work but I just want a machine that just plain works. After all who wants to fidgitt with their car every day just to get to work?

 

The original Vista was very poor as I removed Vista on my Dell 820 Lattitude until SP1 came out, and then reinstalled it. Are you installing Serviice Pack 1?
I have an employee with a 6400 that has a Vista Capable decal on it, but we are running XP with SP3 because of our business software. Dell does have 32 bit Vista drivers for the 6400 itself located at:

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...RONI6400/E1505&hidos=WW1&hidlang=en&TabIndex=

We are upgrading our business system interface this Spring from a 16 bit to a 32 bit program finally, so we will be able to migrate up to 32 bit Vista if we increase our memory to 2GB minimum.

Your 6400 should be able to get Vista to work, but when it comes to old software and other devices, all bets are off.

 

Well, according to a lot of people on this forum, Vista is the greatest thing since ice cream and apple pie. If you are having any problems, there are one of two explanations. 1.) Your compatibility & driver problems are a figment of your imagination, period. 2.) If you need any further explanations, please refer back to explanation #1 or watch this video (warning, strong language). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExeyrNZwzwQ

 

Sure....Just answer the question... you can't. If it don't work scrap it. Playtime is for games, I need tools not toys.

 

DVD drive doesn’t need special drivers. Whatever problems you have with DVD burning has nothing to do with DELL not having drivers for it.

Getting back to your original question : Vista has come a long way since it’s release, more programs and devices support it and it has better stability and security compared to XP. Looking at your specs, you shouldn't have any trouble running Vista in that notebook. However, if you use very old programs that have not been updated to support Vista, then they still might not work.

 

I'm pretty sure that his post was just meant to be humorous.

In any case, what are some of the software packages that didn't work in Vista before? As of SP1 Vista's gotten stable and most software will run.

Of course, if your happy with XP, that's cool, and there are several drivers for your system's optical drive under XP, you'll just need to find out who makes it. The easiest way to do that is to right click the drive in My Computer and click "Properties" Then, switch to the Hardware tab.

If the DVD drive isn't even showing up there, you can go to the Dell support site and enter your service tag found on the bottom of your laptop. (click "Drivers and downloads" then enter your service tag)

When the drivers list window opens, simply click on "System Configuration" on the left hand side of the screen. There you'll see a list of all the parts that make up your particular computer. Among them should be something like this: (the brand name may vary-this is my optical drive for my laptop)

"1 JM200 Module,DVD+/-RW,Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Latitude DMOD "

Within that you'll be able to find out who makes the disk drive (In my case, Toshiba Samsung (TSST)) and you can switch back to the Drivers page and grab the right one. Make sure you switch the "operating system" dropdown on the drivers page to XP.

Hope this helps out,
Ricky

 

Wow, that's like the second big advice mistake I gave in one day....

Firmware vs. Driver, how could I have mixed that up!?

It would have helped if I grasped that key concept known as "reading"

Really gotta get some sleep.......

 

Thanks guys, I may try to install the original Vista with the new updates and see what happens

 

Well, I can assure you, I am the farthest thing from a Nazi you well ever meet, and the video was just pure sarcasm and humor, which apparently are things you dont appreciate. The post was not meant to be taken literally , so if I offended your sensibilities , I apologize--------Cheers