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Reinstalling Software

User's Guide

  Drivers

  Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities

  Restoring Your Operating System


Drivers

What Is a Driver?

A driver is a program that controls a device such as a printer, mouse, or keyboard. All devices require a driver program.

A driver acts like a translator between the device and any other programs that use the device. Each device has its own set of specialized commands that only its driver recognizes.

Dell ships your computer to you with required drivers already installed—no further installation or configuration is needed.

NOTICE: The optional Drivers and Utilities CD may contain drivers for operating systems that are not on your computer. Ensure that you are installing software appropriate for your operating system.

Many drivers, such as the keyboard driver, come with your Microsoft® Windows® operating system. You may need to install drivers if you:

Identifying Drivers

If you experience a problem with any device, identify whether the driver is the source of your problem and, if necessary, update the driver.

  1. Click Start® Control Panel® System.

  2. Click Hardware® Device Manager.

  3. Scroll down the list to see if any device has an exclamation point (a yellow circle with a [!]) on the device icon.

If an exclamation point is next to the device name, you may need to reinstall the driver or install a new driver (see Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities).

Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities

NOTICE: The Dell Support website at support.dell.com and your Drivers and Utilities CD provide approved drivers for Dell™ computers. If you install drivers obtained from other sources, your computer might not work correctly.

Using Windows XP Device Driver Rollback

If a problem occurs on your computer after you install or update a driver, use Windows XP Device Driver Rollback to replace the driver with the previously installed version.

  1. Click Start® Control Panel® System.

  2. Click Hardware® Device Manager.

  3. Right-click the device for which the new driver was installed and click Properties.

  4. Click Drivers® Roll Back Driver.

If Device Driver Rollback does not resolve the problem, then use System Restore to return your computer to the operating state that existed before you installed the new driver (see Using Microsoft Windows XP System Restore).

Using the Drivers and Utilities CD

NOTE: The Drivers and Utilities CD may be optional and may not ship with your computer.

If using Device Driver Rollback or System Restore does not resolve the problem, then reinstall the driver from the Drivers and Utilities CD (also known as the ResourceCD).

  1. Save and close any open files, and exit any open programs.

  2. Insert the Drivers and Utilities CD.

In most cases, the CD starts running automatically. If it does not, start Windows Explorer, click your CD drive directory to display the CD contents, and then double-click the autorcd.exe file. The first time that you run the CD, it might prompt you to install setup files. Click OK, and follow the instructions on the screen to continue.

  1. From the Language drop-down menu in the toolbar, select your preferred language for the driver or utility (if available). A welcome screen appears.

  2. Click Next.

The CD automatically scans your hardware to detect drivers and utilities used by your computer.

  1. After the CD completes the hardware scan, you can also detect other drivers and utilities. Under Search Criteria, select the appropriate categories from the System Model, Operating System, and Topic drop-down menus.

A link or links appear(s) for the specific drivers and utilities used by your computer.

  1. Click the link of a specific driver or utility to display information about the driver or utility that you want to install.

  2. Click Install (if present) to begin installing the driver or utility. At the welcome screen, follow the screen prompts to complete the installation.

If Install is not present, automatic installation is not an option. For installation instructions, either see the appropriate instructions in the following subsections, or click Extract, follow the extracting instructions, and then read the readme file.

If instructed to navigate to the driver files, click the CD directory on the driver information window to display the files associated with that driver.

Manually Reinstalling Drivers

NOTE: If you are reinstalling an infrared sensor driver, you must first enable the infrared sensor in the system setup program (see Enabling the Infrared Sensor) before continuing with the driver installation.
  1. After extracting the driver files to your hard drive as described in the previous section, right-click My Computer on the Windows desktop® Properties® Hardware® Device Manager.

  2. Double-click the type of device for which you are installing the driver (for example, Modems or Infrared devices).

  3. Double-click the name of the device for which you are installing the driver.

  4. Click Driver® Update Driver.

  5. Click Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)® Next.

  6. Click Browse and browse to the location to which you previously copied the driver files.

  7. When the name of the appropriate driver appears, click Next® Finish and restart your computer.

Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities

If a device is either not detected during the operating system setup or is detected but incorrectly configured, you can use the Hardware Troubleshooter to resolve the incompatibility.

  1. Click Start® Help and Support.

  2. Type hardware troubleshooter in the Search field and click the arrow to start the search.

  3. Click Hardware Troubleshooter® I need to resolve a hardware conflict on my computer® Next.

Restoring Your Operating System

You can restore your operating system in the following ways:

Using Microsoft Windows XP System Restore

The Microsoft Windows XP operating system provides System Restore to allow you to return your computer to an earlier operating state (without affecting data files) if changes to the hardware, software, or other system settings have left the computer in an undesirable operating state. See the Windows Help and Support Center for information on using System Restore. To access the Windows Help and Support Center, see Windows Help and Support Center.

NOTICE: Make regular backups of your data files. System Restore does not monitor your data files or recover them.
NOTE: The procedures in this document were written for the Windows default view, so they may not apply if you set your Dell™ computer to the Windows Classic view.

Creating a Restore Point

  1. Click Start® Help and Support.

  2. Click the task for System Restore.

  3. Follow the instructions on the screen.

Restoring the Computer to an Earlier Operating State

If problems occur after you install a device driver, use Device Driver Rollback (see Using Windows XP Device Driver Rollback) to resolve the problem. If that is unsuccessful, then use System Restore.

NOTICE: Before you restore the computer to an earlier operating state, save and close any open files and exit any open programs. Do not alter, open, or delete any files or programs until the system restoration is complete.
  1. Click Start® All Programs® Accessories® System Tools® System Restore.

  2. Ensure that Restore my computer to an earlier time is selected and click Next.

  3. Click a calendar date to which you want to restore your computer.

The Select a Restore Point screen provides a calendar that allows you to see and select restore points. All calendar dates with available restore points appear in boldface type.

  1. Select a restore point and click Next.

If a calendar date has only one restore point, then that restore point is automatically selected. If two or more restore points are available, click the restore point that you prefer.

  1. Click Next.

The Restoration Complete screen appears after System Restore finishes collecting data and then the computer restarts.

  1. After the computer restarts, click OK.

To change the restore point, you can either repeat the steps using a different restore point, or you can undo the restoration.

Undoing the Last System Restore

NOTICE: Before you undo the last system restore, save and close all open files and exit any open programs. Do not alter, open, or delete any files or programs until the system restoration is complete.
  1. Click Start® All Programs® Accessories® System Tools® System Restore.

  2. Click Undo my last restoration® Next.

Enabling System Restore

If you reinstall Windows XP with less than 200 MB of free hard-disk space available, System Restore is automatically disabled. To see if System Restore is enabled:

  1. Click Start® Control Panel® Performance and Maintenance® System® System Restore.

  2. Ensure that Turn off System Restore is unchecked.

Using the Operating System CD

Before You Begin

If you are considering reinstalling the Windows XP operating system to correct a problem with a newly installed driver, first try using Windows XP Device Driver Rollback (see Using Windows XP Device Driver Rollback). If Device Driver Rollback does not resolve the problem, then use System Restore to return your operating system to the operating state it was in before you installed the new device driver (see Using Microsoft Windows XP System Restore).

To reinstall Windows XP, you need the following items:

NOTE: The Drivers and Utilities CD contains drivers that were installed during assembly of the computer. Use the Drivers and Utilities CD to load any required, including the drivers required if your computer has a RAID controller. drivers. Depending on the region from where you ordered your computer, or whether you requested the CDs, the Drivers and Utilities CD and Operating System CD may not ship with your system.

Reinstalling Windows XP

The reinstallation process can take 1 to 2 hours to complete. After you reinstall the operating system, you must also reinstall the device drivers, virus protection program, and other software.

NOTICE: The optional Operating System CD provides options for reinstalling Windows XP. The options can overwrite files and possibly affect programs installed on your hard drive. Therefore, do not reinstall Windows XP unless a Dell technical support representative instructs you to do so.
  1. Save and close any open files and exit any open programs.

  2. Insert the Operating System CD. Click Exit if the Install Windows XP message appears and restart the computer.

  3. Press <F12> immediately after the DELL™ logo appears.

If the operating system logo appears, wait until you see the Windows desktop, and then shut down the computer and try again.

  1. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.

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