Windows 2000 Professional

Hello:

I have a Dell Latitude CPi Laptop that runs on Pentium II 266 Mhz. It used to run on Windows 98 Second Edition until the graphics became distorted. Do you think that it will run on Windows 2000 Professional?

Thank you!

Dave

 

It will run just fine. We have a few 300MHz machines that use 2000. The biggest issue is RAM, and how many processes are running at one time. When the system is idle, and there are no applications running, use the Task Manager to view the number of task. If there are more than 30, then you will want to trim it down some. Basically, keep the Windows system and the applications to a minimum.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "the graphics became distorted." Have you tried reinstalling Windows 98 SE?

That depends. How much RAM does your laptop have?

Phil

 

The Win 98 installation CD was damaged while I was moving. So I purchased Win 2000 Porfessional.

The laptop has 128MB RAM.

Dave

 

It should run, but might not be that fast. I just had to rebuild a PII 233 mhz box over the weekend! Has 128 MB of RAM and running Win2k Pro.

Running NOD32 for AV and have the services tweaked to the bare minimum. You should be fine, altho more RAM would be nice.

 

Okay. I have a big problem. I formatted my c: drive and I didn't create system files. Now, I formatted a 3.5" floppy disk from my desktop computer (runs on Win XP) and had the computer create system files on my formatted floppy disk. I was hoping to boot my laptop computer by using my floppy disk (with system files). The problem is that I have an external floppy drive connected to my laptop. The laptop computer does not read the external floppy drive and I don't have a bootable CD either (the laptop computer does read from the CD drive though). So it seems like I am working with a clean slate computer. All I need is to have something to boot up my laptop so I can install Windows 2000. Anybody have a solution to this problem. Does this mean I messed up and I have to buy a new laptop computer? May I burn the system files from the floppy disk into a writable CD; therefore, creating a bootable CD?

To recap, I have a Dell Latitude Cpi Pentium II 266 Mhz 128MB RAM Laptop computer.

Anyway, thank you all for your replies.

Dave

 

If you restart start the computer with the win 2000 disc in the drive it should boot the computer into the win 2000 install setup. If it doesn't make sure the bios is set to boot from cd. your win 2000 install disc will format the Hdd as it installs.

 

What I did was insert the Win 2000 installation CD in the CD drive and when I restart the computer, the DELL logo comes on and there is a option on the top right corner of the screen that says "F2 - Setup". So I pressed F2 and I set the computer to boot from the CD drive as a first boot device. However, the computer will say "Invalid, replace and press any key" or something like that.

Dave

 

If you are having problems with booting from the CD, make some Windows 2000 startup disks.

Go to a good computer and open up the W2K CD. Then look for the bootdisk folder. Double click on makeboot.exe

You will be prompted to put in a floppy diskette. (You will need four). Follow the prompts to create your startup diskettes.

Then put in startup disk 1 and fire up your computer. You will then be prompted for startup diskettes 2-4 and finally the CD.

Good luck.

 

Dave,

How is the external floppy drive connected to the computer? Is it a USB drive, or some other type?

When you're in the BIOS setup screen, carefully study everything. Sometimes it is a little hard to figure out what key(s) you're supposed to push to change a value or setting. It may be that you just didn't push the right key.

Phil

 

The external floppy drive is connected to a USB port. However, when I set the BIOS to boot from diskette first, it doesn't read the external drive. By the way, I don't have an A drive (floppy) because it broke. This is why I bought an external floppy drive to replace my broken floppy drive. When I had Windows 98 as an OS, the computer named the external floppy drive "E:" and the CD-ROM drive "D:" So, my computer named the following drives in this order:
C: = Hard Drive
D: = CD-ROM Drive
E: = External USB floppy drive

How do I create a bootable CD? I think this might be the only option I have before I can install Win 2000.

The way how I configure the BIOS is listed below:
Boot First Device: CD-ROM/DVD Drive
Boot Second Device = Diskette Drive
Boot Third Device = Internal HDD

Everything else in the BIOS is left the same as it used to be.

Dave

 

The Windows 2000 CD is already bootable. Some older systems had a hard time booting from a CD. Make sure that you have the latest BIOS version for your laptop. You may also be able to update the flash on the CDROM drive.

Bootdisk.com is a good source for bootdisks.

There is another trick that you could try if you had a desktop and the right adapter. You could remove the hard drive from the desktop and plug in the laptop drive with the right connector. Then you start the install process. When the system goes to reboot for the first time, shut the machine off and plug the laptop drive back in to the laptop. Continue the install process from there.

 

Is there a way to update the BIOS? How do I update the flash on the CD ROM drive?

Dave

 

Dave you need your hardware make and model number before you flash the bios. If not, you will end up rendering your system useless if you use the incorrect bios.

I would see if you could go to Dell's website first. (The support part of it). Hopefully you can login with your username and password to download the correct bios and firmware for your cd rom drive.

 

Go to support.dell.com. Create an account for yourself their. Have the service tag of the computer handy if you can. You want this because you can create profiles for each of the Dell computers that you own. In the future, access to support for those systems is quicker, a lot less searching. Dell provides a link called "My Systems & Peripherals". That is where you can store all of your Dell system profiles.

Dell will provide everything you need to know about that system. If you want to know what was options were selected for that system, it is there.

There will be a "Resources" tab there. Click on it and it will provide these list:

Default System
Service Tag
System Type
Product Support
Troubleshooting
Downloads
Manuals
Request Service
Upgrades

You can click on "view" in the Downloads column, and you can select what you want to download. Download the BIOS there.

But the problem is, you need some way to boot the system to get the BIOS onto it. So you will have to get the internal floppy replaced. Dell does not have your floppy drive on their site, so it has been orphaned.

You may want to do what I suggested before with this little adapter:

http://www.startech.com/ststore/ItemDetail.cfm?ProductID=BRACKET25&mt=

 

Oh geez. Are you Dell support Close Hauled?

 

Na, just support a whole bunch for years. So i know the drill.

Good office machines, great for beginners, but I build my own.

 

That's cool. You gave him some good advice. I just did not have the time to go into so much detail with him. Good job!

I hear you. Im in support as well, and I prefer to build my own.

 

Oh my! I just realized. Almost 20 years. I started using them when they were PC's Limited. Bwaaahaaa. Oh I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

They were great machines in the late eighties. The system BIOS was ahead of its time for IBM compatibles. I owned a Mac (that I still have), a TI-99/4A, and Sinclair ZX81.

 

May I just burn system files from my floppy disk into a writable CD from my desktop computer? Will that work? Just to make things simpler.

Dave

 

If you an boot from a CD you can just boot from the Win2k installation disk. All 2k disks are bootable. Even the old NT4 Workstation disk is bootable.

 

Have you even followed or tried what you have been told Dave?

 

Dave,

You don't need to do that. The Windows 2000 CD is already bootable. Go into the BIOS configuration again and make sure that it is set to boot from the CD-ROM. Then, before saving the settings and exiting, open the drawer for the CD-ROM drive and insert the Win2K CD. Close the drawer and then exit the BIOS configuration screen. If everything is working properly then the laptop should boot from the Win2K CD.

Phil

 

I guess my laptop computer is old and it's time has come.

Dave