[Mauigreen77]

I have a Dell XPS Gen 2 and I recently fried the hard drive. I purchased a new hard drive and it is installed. Heres the problem. I am the third owner of this notebook and I dont have the driver discs that come with the notebook. So I called Dell customer support to have them send me all the driver discs. They said I have to have the notebook registered under my name in order for them to release any products for this computer. In order for me to get registered I must know the full name of the previous registered owner, but I dont so Im screwed here. Removed for Community Standards Violation Thanks a lot ahead of time, Josh

[rgreen4]

Ok, we know that you have a Dell XPS Gen 2, but which model?Did it have XP Home or XP Pro?Do you still have the original COA sticker on the bottom of the laptop?Did you replace the HD or did a repair shop do it?

[Mauigreen77]

Im not sure which model it is. I cant get to the system specs because of the blank hard drive. It was XP Home Edition and Im not sure what a COA sticker is. I did replace the hard drive myself. Let me know if I can give you anymore info.

[rgreen4]

Okay - on the bottom of the case should be several stickers. One will have a Dell logo and should say something like Dell XPS Model xxxxxx S/N xxxxxxx. Don't put your s/n on the internet, but the model would help. If it were an HP it would also have a product code which tells techie types exactly what CPU/MB combination, etc.The COA sticker is multicolored and has a Microsoft Logo and would say Genuine Windows XP Home and then a bunch of letters and numbers. Never put the COA on the internet either - any more than you would publish your Social Security Number and Bank Account. The key here is that it originally had from the factory XP Home.In order to reinstall XP you need two things, an XP Home disk (any one will do) and the COA. My next question is what exactly happened to your first hard drive?Second question - did you buy the laptop from an individual? Computer Store? or where.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Mauigreen77. You cannot request to pay for Operating System discs or anything of that sort within this forum. Since RGreen is assisting you, this thread will not be locked or moved. However, please do not post that you will pay to buy, rent, or use another person's CDs.

[Mauigreen77]

First of all, Sorry mphenterprises. I didnt know that I couldnt do that. rgreen, here is the info you requested from the bottom of my notebook. I have Windows XP Media Center Edition and the model # of the computer is PP14L. I hope this helps. I appreciate the help rgreen. Oh and I am not sure what happened to my hard drive, one day it just started messing up, when I booted up my notebook it would start to boot up fine, then as soon as my desktop icons would appear the notebook would freeze up with a blue screen with a bunch of white writing on it. Saying windows need to shut down ect. I baught this notebook from an individual. It was fine when I fist got it. When I first started to fix my notebook I pulled one ram board out at a time and restarted the notebook each time to see if it was the ram but the same problem was there. So Im pretty sure its not the ram. Hope this helps you. Josh

[mphenterprises]

Hi Mauigreen. No apologizes necessary. :-)Anyway, I think at this point you should not even worry about what happened and try to concentrate on getting your laptop back.The only surefire way to do that is to follow RGreen's steps. You need an Operating System and a Product Key. If the laptop you have had a legally obtained XP Operating System, it should have a sticker similar to the one within this LinkIf you see something like that, you are halfway home. At this point, you have a few options. You can either:- Ask people that you know if they have a XP Installation Disc- Buy a XP Installation Disc from a retailer- Contact Microsoft and explain the situationMore than likely, the third option will not get you anywhere but it is still an option.If you do not see that sticker, that doesn't necessarily mean the version you had was illegal. But you may have no choice but to buy an installation Disc.

[rgreen4]

Alright - this is not going to be easy. The most difficult thing is the fact that the OS was XP Media Center. Unfortunately, this was a version that was never sold at the retail or upgrade market, only the OEM market.If I have identified the correct manual, the laptop is a 17", has the XPS pattern on the outside of the top, and a dark bottm, keyboard and silver surround around the keyboard.Was the individual you acquired the PC from the original owner?Do you still have any way to contact him/her?

[Mauigreen77]

that is the correct PC. you described it correct. No, there is no way to contact the original owner. Now what?

[rgreen4]

Ok this is what I did this morning. I took my HP laptop removed the original HD and placed a spare, blank HD in it. I then installed XP Home (the laptop came with Home) from an update CD I have. The only difference between the update and full version is that you have to have a windows cd available to insert at a certain point when it ask for it on the update. The full version doesn't have this requirement.The results were not encouraging. As expected the original OEM COA on the bottom of my laptop were not valid with an install from a non-OEM disc. I had heard this but wanted to verify this. This means a full install or update disc would be needed.I proceeded with the install with the correct COA number. As expected, drivers are a real issue. The only item that worked as it should was the mouse pad on the keyboard top. The display defaulted to generic video drivers and 800x600 resolution. This laptop has the ATI 9000/9100 integrated video and I normally run 1280x800. I could not get a display beyond 1024x768.It did recognize the Network RJ45, but not the wireless. It had default audio (beyond the XP chimes on startup I did not test it). There were several other items it did not recognize.I hooked the laptop up to the internet with an ethernet cable, and attempted to find drivers. It failed, because it did not have the identification of the item. For example it knew there was a video adapter, but did not know which one. I ran Belarc Advisor which gives detailed information on a system, but it did not tell me what was installed, for it apparently reads the same installed item file that windows creates. I attempted to find out specifics from the Dell website, but did not get too far. In order to get detail about the configuration, they asked for the Service Tag No. I tried the PP14L, but it said it was a server in the European market. Here is a link to the dell web page that asks for the service tag and a button at the bottom of the box will show you what the tag looks like.http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/mysystemsinfo/en/details?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~tab=2&~ck=ln&lnki=0A grasping at straws approach would be to remove the new HD, reinstall the original and attempt to boot the machine. When you get the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD), write down the exact message. Then come back here, and there is a possibilty we can help then.Without this information, I am afraid we are spinning our wheels. Without the original owners name, it is unlikely that Dell will assist you. If you have the original HD, and can take it and the laptop to a Dell repair station, they might be able to get enough off the original HD to install a fresh copy of XP.

[Mauigreen77]

Ok here is the message on the "BSOD" lol. It says "a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.If this is the fisrt time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:Run a system diagnostic utillity supplied by your hardware manufacturer. In particular, run a memory check. and check for faulty or mismatched memory, Try changing video adapters.Disable or remove any newly installed hardware and driver. Disable or remove any newly installed software. If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press f8 to select advanced startup options, and then select safe mode.Technical information:* STOP: 0x0000007F (0x00000008, 0x80042000.0x00000000, vxv0000000)Beginning dump of physical memoryPhysical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance."Ok, I typed everything exactly as it appears on the blue screen. Another thing I notice now is that the writing on the screen is kinda screwed up. Some of the letters in the message are missing pieces. Its not clear font, it like glitched writing. I hope this helps you figure out whats going on.

[rgreen4]

Did you try to boot in the safe mode? It will look terrible as it will be grainy and very large and will have a SAFE MODE logo in the corners. If you have not, try it please and come back with the result. If it boots into the safe mode and is stable that will tell us something.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Mauigreen. That error message is associated with hardware or software failures. Since the new hard drive is the most recent hardware installation, it is safe to say that would be my first guess.- Have you at any point and time tried to take the new hard drive out and put it back in?- Also, did you buy that hard drive new? If you did, and reseating the hard drive does not work, I would take it back and get another one.Still in all, you still face the daunting task of getting the Operating System. You still have not answered a previously posted question...Is there a "Certification of Authenticity (COA)" on the bottom of your laptop? If there is one, as RGReen mentioned, you may need to get the full version of the exact Operating System you had.

[rgreen4]

mph - I believe this error message is from the original HD. I had asked him to put it back, boot up and post the error. I do not believe his new HD has an OS on it.

[mphenterprises]

AHHHH, okay...I didn't notice that.Let me just be a silent observer... LOL :oops: :lol:

[rgreen4]

Please keep an eye out, this is a toughie.

[Mauigreen77]

I can boot in safe mode. Another thing is when I press [poser to turn on the computer, I need to press Ctrl Alt Delete to get the computer to start up, otherwise its just a black screen when I turn on the power. I have to do this everytime. Safe Mode is up and running, FYI.

[Mauigreen77]

I meant power, not [poser. sorry

[mphenterprises]

Maui, do you have any idea if this laptop was used for corporate business? When I worked for a bank, that is the exact process I had to go through in order to boot my computer.

[Mauigreen77]

no, I dont think it was. I never had to do this before this problem though.