Dell Latitude C600

[Rough Trader]

Hi all,

I have been given one of the above notebooks, problem is, it is an old machine used by my friend in his office, it has Windows NT loaded on it, so I formatted another laptop HDD with Windows XP and change the one in there.

The problem is, on boot up it searches for Windows NT, not found and it returns to the POST state. How can I stop it searching for Windows NT and constantly rebooting?

Thanks
Geoff

 

[geekygirl63]

Geoff,,

What type of system did you build the other laptop drive on. Is the processor type the same? Also have have you checked your BIOS ssettings to determine if NT is defined there as the OS to look for?

I would do this:

Boot the current hard drive from an XP CD (full install mode) and load XP from scratch on the system you have the drive in. I have found that an XP load for an AMD for example will not boot a system that has a Pentium or Celeron. Also make sure the hardware you have, has XP drivers for all the necessary pieces.

Happy to provide more information if you need.

Tracy

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes it is always recommended that you install the OS fresh on the system it will be used with, and not created from another system. The hardware would have to be nearly identical for a "cloned OS" drive to boot properly. I have had limited "cloned OS" boot success with similar chipset systems

 

[Rough Trader]

Hi Tracey & Tmagic,

I did build the new hard drive from another system, Compaq Presario, that explains why it did not work : thanks for that. How do I tell if the BIOS is cloned to look for NT?

I will reformat the HDD in ther Dell and do a fresh install of Windows XP see if that works. Let you know how i get on.

Regards
Geoff

 

[kimsland]

I will reformat the HDD in ther Dell and do a fresh install of Windows XP

I just like to add to the excellent support posts above.

If you decide to install Windows Xp (fresh install)

Make sure to remove the Partition during the initial Setup install

Windows will automatically partition and format a non-partitioned drive. There is no need to manually create a partition or format.

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes Kimsland, it is important to delete any existing partition(s) before the fresh OS install begins...

"How do I tell if the BIOS is cloned to look for NT?"...

The deletion of the old partition will take care of this. The bios "reads" this info from the hard drive, not from itself

 

[Tmagic650]

Recovery CD's are obsolete many times, even the disc's included with a new laptop. It is also always nice to delete that "recovery" partition that is essentially useless and takes up valuable hard drive space

 

[geekygirl63]

Geoff,

Wondering if you had any luck with the rebuild directly on the Dell. Also are you using a Dell OEM CD for the operating system or a full retail version. Note that an OS distributed by HP won't build a Dell even if you use it on a Dell, because they usually check hardware type before loading. If you have a retail copy of the software however, even if it has been used elsewhere, and the Dell has a valid key (located on the case) you can stilll activate the Windows using the Key located on the Dell. Hope your recovery process is going well.

 

[Rough Trader]

Hi geekygirl,

Yes the new install went fine as far as it goes. This has presented me with another problem, it did not install any network driver for the on board LAN, does anybody know what the card is and where i find the drivers?

Regards
Geoff

 

[Tmagic650]

Go to Dell's support site under your models downloads & drivers and install the LAN driver from there

 

[kimsland]

Or try here: All Dell Drivers