Dell ships your computer to you with required drivers and utilities already installed—no further installation or configuration is needed.
NOTICE: The 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.
To reinstall drivers for optional devices such as wireless communications and DVD drives you may need the CD and documentation that came with those devices.
To reinstall a driver or utility from your Drivers and Utilities CD:
NOTICE: The Dell | Support website, support.dell.com, and the Drivers and
UtilitiesCD provide approved drivers for Dell™ computers. If you install
drivers from other sources, your computer might not work correctly.
Save and close any open files, and exit any open programs.
Insert the Drivers and Utilities CD.
In most cases, the CD starts running automatically. If it does not, start Microsoft® Windows® Explorer, click your CD drive directory to display the CD contents, and then double-click the autocd.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.
From the Language pull-down menu in the toolbar, select your
preferred language for the driver or utility (if available).
A welcome screen appears.
Click Next.
The CD automatically scans your hardware to detect drivers and utilities used by your computer.
NOTE: 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
pull-down menus.
A link or links appear(s) for the specific drivers and utilities used by your computer.
Click the link of a specific driver or utility to display information about
the driver or utility that you want to install.
Click the Install button (if present) to begin installing the driver or
utility. At the welcome screen, follow the screen prompts to complete
the installation.
If no Install button is present, automatic installation is not an option. For installation instructions, either see the appropriate instructions in the following subsections, or click the Extract button, follow the extracting instructions, and read the readme file (or continue on to "Manually Reinstalling Drivers").
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.
NOTE: If you are
reinstalling an infrared
driver, you must first
enable the infrared sensor
in the system setup
program before
continuing with the driver
installation.
After extracting the driver files to your hard drive as described
previously, click the Start button, point to Settings, and click Control
Panel.
Double-click the System icon.
Click the Hardware tab.
Click Device Manager.
Update Driver.
Click Next.
Ensure that Search for a suitable driver for my device (recommended)
is selected, and then click Next.
Ensure that the Specify a location check box is checked and that all
other check boxes are unchecked, and click Next.
Click Browse to browse to the location to which you previously
extracted the driver files.
When the name of the appropriate driver appears, click Next.
Click Finish and restart your computer.
NOTE: If you are
reinstalling an infrared
driver, you must first
enable the infrared sensor
in the system setup
program before
continuing with the driver
installation.
After extracting the driver files to your hard drive as described
previously, click the Start button, point to Settings, and click Control
Panel.
Click the Start buttonand right-click My Computer.
Click Properties.
Click the Hardware tab and click Device Manager.
Update Driver.
Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced), and then
click Next.
Click Browse, and browse to the location to which you previously
extracted the driver files.
When the name of the appropriate driver appears, click Next.
If you install a new device driver that causes system instability, you can use the Windows XP Device Driver Rollback to replace the new device driver with the previously installed version of the device driver. If you cannot reinstall your previous driver by using the Device Driver Rollback process, then use System Restore to return your operating system to its previous operating state before you installed the new device driver. To use Device Driver Rollback:
Click the Start buttonand right-click My Computer.
Click Properties.
Click the Hardware tab and click Device Manager.
In the Device Manager window, right-click the device for which the
new driver was installed and then click Properties.
The Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system provides a System Restore feature that allows you to return your computer to an earlier operating state if changes to the computer's hardware or software (including new hardware or program installations) or system settings, have left the computer in an undesirable operating state. You can also undo the last system restore.
System Restore automatically creates system checkpoints. You can also manually create your own checkpoints by creating restore points. To limit the amount of hard disk space used, older restore points will be automatically purged.
To resolve an operating system problem, you can use System Restore from Safe Mode or Normal Mode to return your computer to an earlier operating state.
System Restore does not cause you to lose personal files stored in the My Documents folder, data files, or e-mail messages after restoring the computer to an earlier time. If you restore the computer to an operating state that existed before you installed a program, the program's data files are not lost, but you must reinstall the actual program again.
NOTICE: It is important to make regular backups of your data files. System
Restore does not monitor changes to or recover your data files. If the original
data on the hard disk is accidentally erased or overwritten, or if it becomes
inaccessible because of a hard disk malfunction, use your backup files to
recover the lost or damaged data.
System Restore is enabled on your new computer. However, if you reinstall Windows XP with less than 200 MB of free hard-disk space available, System Restore is automatically disabled. Before you use System Restore, see the following subsections to confirm that it is enabled.
In Windows XP you can either use the System Restore Wizard or manually create the restore points. To use the System Restore Wizard, click the Start button, click Help and Support, click System Restore, and then follow the instructions on the System Restore Wizard window. You can also create and name a restore point if you are logged on as the computer administrator or a user with administrator rights.
If problems occur after installing a device driver, first try using Device Driver Rollback. If Device Driver Rollback does not resolve the problem, then use System Restore.
NOTICE: Before restoring the computer to an earlier operating state, save
and close all open files and exit all open programs. Do not alter, open, or delete
any files or programs until the system restoration is complete.
Click the Start button, point to All Programs —>
Accessories—>System Tools, and then click System Restore.
Ensure that Restore my computer to an earlier time is selected and
click Next.
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 bold.
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 want to use.
NOTICE: Save and close all open files and exit all open programs. Do not
alter, open, or delete any files or programs until the system restoration is
complete.
Click Next.
In Windows XP, the Restoration Complete screen appears after System Restore finishes collecting data, and then the computer automatically restarts.
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.
NOTICE: Save and close all open files and exit all open programs. Do not
alter, open, or delete any files or programs until the system restoration is
complete.
Click the Start button, point to All Programs —>
Accessories—>System Tools, and then click System Restore.
Select Undo my last restoration and click Next.
NOTICE: Save and close all open files and exit all open programs. Do not
alter, open, or delete any files or programs until the system restoration is
complete.
Click Next.
The System Restore screen appears, and then the computer
automatically restarts.
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