Vista to XP Problems Inspiron 6400

sham69

Hi All,
I posted something similiar recently but cannot find the post so apologies if this is repeated. I bought a dell inspiron 6400 laptop about 6 weeks ago. I was so excited to get it networked and all that but when I got it and tried vista it was a disaster, could not do anything on it, very slow to boot, nightmare to network etc etc. I formatted it and installed XP. This was a bad move as I had to find the drivers for everything. The only 2 drivers that I could not find are the drivers for WXGA and the bluetooth.
I could live with out the bluetooth but the screen looks like a 10 year old pc.
I have tried different drivers from the dell site but it is looking for some advanced graphic driver?
Could anyone help me out.
I got a cd of drivers from my sister, she has the same laptop running XP and this didnt work.
My next move is to put vista back on which I don't want to do.
Help....
Apologies for the long post.
Thanks
Sham

8T8

It's just a case of missing drivers as Dell can ship multiple configurations you might not have the same graphics chip as other 6400 owners.

On the laptop there should be a service tag, if you input the service tag in this web page it will bring up all the right drivers for your notebook so you can get the graphics and blue tooth working again.

If you wish to attempt Vista again at some further point, let me know & I'll try and help you through the installation process if that's what's giving you trouble.

{If for some reason the service tag does not bring up only the correct drivers for your graphics card there is another way to ID it, also if you purchased the cheapest Inspiron 6400 and never made any alterations to the graphics area then it probably uses Intel integrated graphics for which these are the generic drivers for XP}

sham69

Thanks for the reply.
I used the service tag and tried to install everything I needed but still the WXGA
wasnt working (as the screen looks shi*) It did prompt me to download some intel chipset thingy that kept asking me for a cd (which I don't have).
I will try the generic drivers.
Thanks Again.
Sham

8T8

There is the possibility the correct graphics driver is in place it's just the resolution is set low in the display properties so it's worth checking at least.

The WXGA sounds like a driver for the actual built in LCD display it is unusual for Windows to require a special driver for those as a generic one suffices in almost all cases.

I can see no LCD display drivers on Dell site for the 6400 and only three drivers for the graphics chip which can be the Intel GMA 950, ATI Mobility X1300 or X1400 & the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300.

The chipset drivers for the laptop are worth installing as well just in case you haven't already.

Didn't Dell supply a recovery disc with the machine because if you used that it will restore the machine correct drivers and all to the state when it was originally shipped.

sham69

yeah I have the disc but if I use it, it brings me back to vista[/I]