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Clean XP install on Dim 8400
My 8400 is almost 4 years old and has been acting sluggish and slightly erratic for a while now and rather than spend a lot of time chasing down theories as to how to fix it, I want to do a clean install of XP Pro. After reading many,many posts, I have a few concerns and questions:
1) Except for additional RAM, I have the original hardware. I do not plan any upgrades. Is it necessary or even desirable to update the BIOS ? I have A03.
2) I have no floppy drive. I am NOT running RAID drives. Will the lack of a floppy be a problem?
3) I am happy and confident with XP. Should I even think about upgrading to Vista? I ran the MS Vista compatibility tool and nothing of consequence came up.
Thank you
Dimension 8400 Series, Intel Pentium 4 Processor 560 (3.6GHz) w/HT Technology and 1MB cache
3GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
256MB Nvidia GeForce 6800 GTO Graphics Card
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional,Service Pack 3
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, PCIw/Dolby Digital EX, IEEE1394, 7.1 channel, THX cert
NO floppy
mombodog
2 Intern
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12735 Posts
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Posted October 6th, 2008 19:00
1. If it ain't broke don't flash the bios. The only reason to flash a bios is to solve a problem than cannot be solved any other way.
2. No, but you will need to make a bios change. Under "Drive Controller", set it to "RAID Autodetect/ATA"
Now you can install XP without Sata drivers.
3. Stick with XP on that 8400.
4. Please increase your font size in your posts.