[CSI _TJ]

Hello all, first day newbie here. Would like to seek help and expertise regarding my issue.

My brother has just moved into a new house and found a Dell 910 Inspiron mini in the loft (8Gb version)

It appears to have windows installed, but not the original dell supplied OS. Unfortunately it also appears that it only half works, no drivers are installed to allow for operation or internet usage.

I have visited the dell drivers page and downloaded to usb key (which the unit fails to recognize) the relevant drivers and so copied to a cd disc. I have tried to install them with no success.

The message I get is it needs to create a folder for the relevant driver but is unable to do so.


Wondered if you could help advise on what would my best plan of action be, re-install another copy of windows xp and hope the drivers are relevant or try and locate a set of now out of date discs for the unit. or at as a last resort scrap the unit.?????

Any advise would be well appreciated.

[rrfranczak3]

1st, have you enabled 'Legacy USB' in the BIOS?, if not the unit will not boot to anything in the USB no matter what it is or what is on it...

PS. Welcome to the forum.....

[CSI _TJ]

Thanks for the intro and,


Huh!?

Legacy Bios, what, where, and How?

[rrfranczak3]

On your Mini 9, restart it and enter the BIOS setup by pressing "2" and make sure 'legacy USB' is enabled. Save it. Now, reboot and select the boot options list by tapping "0" at startup and choose USB Storage, now the system should boot to either the USB flashdrive or the USB DVD/CD drive, which ever you are using but keep in mind that the Mini 9 only has one 'powered' USB port (usually located next to the power adapter socket) and using another USB port might not supply enough power to an external DVD drive, and even the 'powered' USB port sometimes doesnt even have enough power to power the DVD drive depending on the DVD drive chosen, the best thing is to either use a DVD drive with an external power supply or just use a USB thumbdrive which would eliminate this scenario altogether...hope all this helps ya

[Prostreetray]

Hello: I have a dell Mini 10,2gigs of Ram,160 gig HD,160ghz chip, Running XP w/sp3. Works well.
I have Vista on my Desktop.and have the Up-grade disc for Vista.
Is it worth trying to Up-grade my Mini to Vista ?
Thanks-Prostreetray.

[rrfranczak3]

I believe that the upgrade is only licensed for 1 PC, so technically it would be illegal to upgrade more than that, also I consider Vista to be nothing more than a BETA for Win 7 in the 1st place so if you 'reload' anything I would suggest buying a retail copy of Win 7 Pro or Ultimate and upgrading your Mini to that

[Prostreetray]

Originally Posted by rrfranczak3

I believe that the upgrade is only licensed for 1 PC, so technically it would be illegal to upgrade more than that, also I consider Vista to be nothing more than a BETA for Win 7 in the 1st place so if you 'reload' anything I would suggest buying a retail copy of Win 7 Pro or Ultimate and upgrading your Mini to that

Thank You-Im thinking that woud be a better idea.