[moondog830]

I have been trying to figure out how to get to the BIOS on her machine to make sure it is set to boot from CD first and have tried a couple of websites that give some of the key controls and still can't get into the BIOS.

Her PC is currently running Win98 on a Dell Dimension XPS T800r. Any help is appreciated. In the meantime I will keep searching online just in case.

dog

[Advertisements]

You can download a little utility called SmartBootManager and image it to a floppy disk, it will allow you to boot from any device. You can use another utility called Rawwritewin.exe to write the image to disk. I've used both of these many times and they work very well.

On most Dells you enter the BIOS with either F1 or F2, but sometimes F12 will let you choose the boot order. I am not acquainted with the XPS series yet so I can't give specific details.

Also, If you can I would suggest increasing the memory to at least 256mb for XP.

[Tyger]

You can download a little utility called SmartBootManager and image it to a floppy disk, it will allow you to boot from any device. You can use another utility called Rawwritewin.exe to write the image to disk. I've used both of these many times and they work very well.

On most Dells you enter the BIOS with either F1 or F2, but sometimes F12 will let you choose the boot order. I am not acquainted with the XPS series yet so I can't give specific details.

Also, If you can I would suggest increasing the memory to at least 256mb for XP.

[Murray S.]

Howdy:

Gotta ask, but is the system capable of handling XP - hardware and software?

Also, what are you using for an install cd - OEM or retail?

Murray

[moondog830]

Hey Tyger,
Thanks for the advice on SmartBootManager and Rawwritewin. However, I was able to finally locate an entry to a forum at
TreCentral Forum that mention among other things,
using the DELETE key and Voila, that is what got me into my BIOS on this PC.

As soon as I can I plan to install more RAM .... I know that 128mb for XP is just BARELY adequate. But thanks for the advice on
that as well.

Everybody at Geeks to Go is always so helpful and I DO appreciate it.

dog

[moondog830]

Howdy:

Gotta ask, but is the system capable of handling XP - hardware and software?

Also, what are you using for an install cd - OEM or retail?

Murray

XP checked to see if the system met the requirements and was given the green light, although I know that it just barely meets the requirements.
My main problem is low RAM .... but I might be able to find sticks for that from my brother-in-law.

Thanks

dog

[Murray S.]

What about the XP cd - OEM (came with a different system) or retail (unused) ?

Murray

[moondog830]

What about the XP cd - OEM (came with a different system) or retail (unused) ?

Murray

Ooops .... retail. My bad .... I'm trying to do that and fix coffee for tonight's football game ... it's going to be COLD!

Now though I have a problem .... Instead of wiping Win98 and installing WinXP it is trying to install XP as well as keeping
Win98 on the machine ... I certainly don't want that. So ... how do I get rid of Win98? Should I post this question in another
Topic Entry or what?

dog

[Tyger]

What about the XP cd - OEM (came with a different system) or retail (unused) ?

Murray

Ooops .... retail. My bad .... I'm trying to do that and fix coffee for tonight's football game ... it's going to be COLD!

Now though I have a problem .... Instead of wiping Win98 and installing WinXP it is trying to install XP as well as keeping
Win98 on the machine ... I certainly don't want that. So ... how do I get rid of Win98? Should I post this question in another
Topic Entry or what?

dog

You need to remove the old partition to get it to do a completely fresh install. You can just restart win98 in ms-dos mode, type in fdisk, hit Enter, and use fdisk to remove the partition. When you put in the XP disk it will make a new partition and format it properly for XP. You could also remove the partition with the XP disk if you need to.