Can't upgrade Dell laptop?

B

Biggles

I was having problems running Upgrade Advisor on my Dell
WinME laptop, ie it wouldn't run at all.

Dell now tell me that:-
My system will not support an upgrade to XP.
A full install *might* work but there will probably be no
drivers available for various components.
Dell do not support OS upgrades (tho I see they sell
them!).

My laptop dates from Sep 01. Is this normal?

Biggles
 
S

Shenan T. Stanley

Biggles said:
I was having problems running Upgrade Advisor on my Dell
WinME laptop, ie it wouldn't run at all.

Dell now tell me that:-
My system will not support an upgrade to XP.
A full install *might* work but there will probably be no
drivers available for various components.
Dell do not support OS upgrades (tho I see they sell
them!).

My laptop dates from Sep 01. Is this normal?

First, Dell will tell you they do not support upgrades because, well "They"
don't - your warranty is for the machine with the OS you bought and if you
have trouble, they will usually ask you to restore (using the CDs shipped
with the computer/laptop in question) to original manufacturer state first.

That does not mean you should not upgrade.

If you ran the Compatability Wizard (I think it is the last option to check
system compatibility when you insert the Windows XP CD while running the
current Operating System) and it found no problems (or you corrected those
it found) and you have gone to the Dell Support website for your particular
model of Laptop and found Windows XP drivers for download for the system
components - then you should be fine. The \other alternative is to go to
the "per component" manufacturer and get Windows XP drivers from them.

Now you say your laptop "dates from Sept. '01" <- doesn't really tell anyone
much. You want to tell the exact model number. Also, your warranty worries
should take into consideration the laptop is now over two years old and
unless you bought or it came with the 3 or 4 year warranty - you may or may
not have to worry with the tech support any longer anyway.
 
G

Guest

Hi Shenan.

When you say 'compatibility wizard', I assume that's the
same as the standalone 'upgrade advisor' that I
downloaded. I don't have XP or a CD. That just keeps
giving the message 'before setup continues, please restart
your computer'. As I believe upgrade advisor is similar
to xp setup, I assume setup wouldn't run either.

As result, I have no way of knowing which drivers may not
be compatible with xp. And Dell couldn't tell me despite
knowing the tag number of my machine.

It is an Inspiron 8000 and I have a year of warranty left.

Regards,
Biggles
 
S

Shenan T. Stanley

Biggles said:
I was having problems running Upgrade Advisor on my Dell
WinME laptop, ie it wouldn't run at all.

Dell now tell me that:-
My system will not support an upgrade to XP.
A full install *might* work but there will probably be no
drivers available for various components.
Dell do not support OS upgrades (tho I see they sell
them!).

My laptop dates from Sep 01. Is this normal?

Shenan said:
First, Dell will tell you they do not support upgrades because, well
"They" don't - your warranty is for the machine with the OS you
bought and if you have trouble, they will usually ask you to restore
(using the CDs shipped with the computer/laptop in question) to
original manufacturer state first.

That does not mean you should not upgrade.

Biggles said:
When you say 'compatibility wizard', I assume that's the
same as the standalone 'upgrade advisor' that I
downloaded. I don't have XP or a CD. That just keeps
giving the message 'before setup continues, please restart
your computer'. As I believe upgrade advisor is similar
to xp setup, I assume setup wouldn't run either.

As result, I have no way of knowing which drivers may not
be compatible with xp. And Dell couldn't tell me despite
knowing the tag number of my machine.

It is an Inspiron 8000 and I have a year of warranty left.



The Windows XP drivers for the Inspiron 8000 series can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/wb3x
(shortened for your convenience)

Select "Home and Home Office" from the menu on the left. Then (if it
doesn't just forward you to the "You are searching for: "All Catagories on
Inspiron 8000 / Windows XP / English" automatically because of my link..)
choose your product model or put in your service tag/serial number. Select
the OS as Windows XP to see the list of drivers for Windows XP, or select
your current OS for those drivers. Basically this is this page:
http://support.dell.com/filelib/criteria.aspx
With some selections already made. Go to the above site to walk through all
this yourself.

One thing I noticed was that there is BIOS upgrade for your laptop. Since
you bought it in September 2001, this one is not applied unless YOU have
done it. You may want to consider flashing the BIOS - it can be found on
the download page as well. The newest BIOS is dated 7/15/2002.

As for the Update Advisor just rebooting - that is strange. Yes - it is the
same program that would run if you were to put in a Windows XP Cd and
selected to scan your system for compatibility issues. But it is not the
same stuff that would happen if you actually installed Windows XP. For more
information on the advisor, read the part under "What Do I Need to Know
Before I Use Upgrade Advisor?" at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp

It sounds like you may have some other issues with your system that have
nothing to do with the Update Advisor, since it shouldn't even NEED to
reboot your system. It sounds like, to me, there is some other
install/uninstall that needs to happen first.

My advice is tthe following:
(Some of these steps are time-consuming, but all are worth it for the
maintenance of your system in the first place.)

1) Go to Dell's web site and download the latest device drivers for your
current operating system and install them.
2) Uninstall any unnecessary applications/games/etc from your computer. The
less you have on it, the more likely you will have a successful upgrade.
This includes, for now, any advisors you installed, etc.
3) Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and scan your system. Install
all updates for your current OS.
4) Update your AntiVirus software and perform a full system scan.
5) Download, Install, Run and Update and scan with the following
Adware/Spyware elimination applications:
LavaSoft AdAware
http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/
Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?lang=en&page=download
Another good one, in my opinion, is The Cleaner(but the above two
should do in most cases):
http://www.moosoft.com/products/cleaner/
Prevent future infestations with SpyWareBlaster:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
6) Afterwards, check your hard drive for errors. Open "My Computer" or
"Windows Explorer" and right-click on the hard drive letter. Choose
properties. Select the "Tools" tab. Under the "Error-Checking" section,
click on "Check Now..." - if it is your only drive or your system drive, it
may tell you it cannot do it now, do this on the next reboot? You should
say yes and reboot the computer yourself.
7) Once all the drives are checked for errors, defragment them. To open
Disk Defragmenter, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories,
point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.

Now - you cannot get more ready than that to update your system, in my
opinion. If you flashg your BIOS, update all the drivers, get rid of all
unneeded software, scan for viruses, clean off all trojans/adware/spyware
and the Upgrade Advisor still reboots and won't install - then your system
still has other issues. Obviously, even if unofficially, Dell does have
some support for your laptop (Inspiron 8000) with Windows XP - or they would
not have the drivers available for that OS. It's just a matter of you
getting your system prepared for the upgrade. Most of the above will get it
ready - beyond that - be sure you backup ALL of your documents, music,
spreadsheets and other files that are important to you. Things CAN go bad.
And, it is likely that if you call in for warranty support after upgrading
to XP, Dell will say they con only help you if you restore it to the OS that
shipped with the system originally.

Having said all that - I wish you luck!
 
B

Bruce Chambers

Greetings --

If the laptop bears a logo saying it was "Designed for Windows
Me," it could very well be true. Bear in mind that PCs designed for,
sold and run fine with Win9x/Me very often do not meet WinXP's much
more stringent hardware quality requirements.

Bruce Chambers

--
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You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
 

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