[dustman]

Well, I've spent a small fortune on a new Dell XPS 420, with a 650GB HD, 2GB RAM, and 64-bit Vista. I have had it for about 4 weeks now, and I absolutely HATE Vista. I can't use my printer, or my scanner, I can't transfer my emails, and I don't like the features or the looks of Vista. No matter what I try to do or install, it stonewalls me. So tonight, I finally gave up and tried to wipe the HD and install my trusty XP Pro. I set the bios to boot to the CD, put the DriveWasher CD in the drive, and started it up. It booted to DriveWasher but refused to allow the program to run. I tried again. This time it said there was no boot device. I went into bios, the only boot drive available was the CD drive, so I tried again. No boot device. No matter what I try to do with this monster, I can't do it. Its like dealing with a giant malicious trojan. Any ideas of how to wipe the HD and start over, or if I'm going to end up with even bigger headaches? And I can't believe it doesn't even have any wireless capabilities! I guess I shouldn't have assumed. It doesn't accept anything but USB add-ons or firewire, I am in a maze of buying adapters, and different cords only to find the drivers won't work, no wireless, I can't network, can't do anything. Dell really let me down. They take days to answer even the simplest question, and then give a useless answer. Same thing from HP on trying to get my printers and scanners to work with Vista, they offer a few convoluted work-arounds that don't work, and that's it. There are thousands of people experiencing the same thing, and there are cries for help all over the net. Why does everything have to be so complicated? Anyway, after paying for this whirling jenny I can't afford to go out and buy new EVERYTHING, printer, scanner, software, etc. Eveything I have worked perfectly in XP, but it seems with Vista, no matter what you want to do, you can't get there from here.

Ideas and sympathy appreciated,

Dustman

Edited by dustman, 02 February 2009 - 12:56 AM.

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Legacy hardware does not always work in a 64-bit environment. With all due respect maybe you should have checked what you have now printer and scanner wise was compatible before you committed yourself. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Somewhere in the BIOS is an option to change the SATA type - this is what you need. Typically you can change it to ATA or Legacy or some alternative that does not feature RAID or AHCI. This should let you install XP.

That being said, look up your model number on the Dell website BEFORE you wipe the machine, as you may find there is no driver support from Dell for Windows XP. If there are XP drivers, download them BEFORE you wipe the machine. If no driver support from Dell for XP is available, you'll have to find and source third-party or generic drivers for all your hardware, otherwise it'll never work properly.

[Neil Jones]

Legacy hardware does not always work in a 64-bit environment. With all due respect maybe you should have checked what you have now printer and scanner wise was compatible before you committed yourself. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Somewhere in the BIOS is an option to change the SATA type - this is what you need. Typically you can change it to ATA or Legacy or some alternative that does not feature RAID or AHCI. This should let you install XP.

That being said, look up your model number on the Dell website BEFORE you wipe the machine, as you may find there is no driver support from Dell for Windows XP. If there are XP drivers, download them BEFORE you wipe the machine. If no driver support from Dell for XP is available, you'll have to find and source third-party or generic drivers for all your hardware, otherwise it'll never work properly.

[dustman]

Thanks, Neil,

Yepper, that's what I get for assuming you would get even the basic stuff with a top of the line computer. : (

Have a great day!

Dustman

[headwayne]

Hey I am going thru the same things. HP finally was able to get the drivers assigned so i could use the HP printer that i preferred to continue using over the one that was featured with my Dell computer purchase. The info chart for whether or not these different elements will be compatible with the 64bit Vista shows they are copatible but not the myriad steps it will take to accomplish this. So, don't feel bad that you assumed that getting top of the line would equate with a full functioning system. THEIR INFO INDICATES THAT IT WILL HAPPEN. I am still working around different issues that Intuit said would not be an issue when i was making the purchase but guess what?? it is not an issue for $49.00 down plus whatever it takes in additional hours.
What can we do but try ??

[dustman]

Thanks for the post, headwayne.

This is an example of how Dell "helps". I want to add a floppy drive (I have 4 expensive digital cameras that use the floppy disks, I paid nearly $500 each for them, and have hundreds of floppy disks with my photos on them, so I am not going to be able to do without a floppy drive). In light of all the trouble I have had installing ANYTHING on this computer, I asked Dell support (after giving my service tag number and describing exactly which unit I had) if it would take a standard 144 floppy drive, or one of the new half-height floppy drives, or some newer floppy drive version to work with the Vista 64 bit operating system. Their answer? THREE DAYS LATER, I got this: "I am owning your problem. Feel free to contact a third party to purchase the necessary drive." Followed by a long spiel about how much they valued my business, and asking if I would like to take a survey to indicate my pleasure at how satisfied I was with their response. Believe me, they wouldn't want to hear what I thought of their response.

I asked for help in loading the HP 722c drivers for my printer. After 3 days, Dell advised me to contact HP. I had already contacted HP who suggested I contact the manufacturer of the computer (Dell).

I have had 3 occasions to ask support for help in the last 2 weeks, and not one answer made sense, or helped in the slightest. I think I will be looking at another brand if I ever get another computer. In the meantime, this one is up for sale. Believe me, if I could sent this thing back, I would.

Thanks again for your response.

Dustman

Edited by dustman, 02 February 2009 - 05:54 PM.