Tuesday, July 31, 2007



The disadvantage of Dell Inspiron 1520 is the drivers are only compatible with Windows Vista. Out of the box, the Inspiron 1520 did not provide XP or other OS drivers. This is a big product mistake that freak me out. I had dig the net hard and finally found this thread which save my day. The drivers may also work with Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000
Thanks to kysterama from notebookreview forum.

Solution
For advance, Download XP Driver pack here -> (50mb)
Mirror 1
http://rapidshare.com/files/104607195/Dell5120_XPdrivers_V1.rar
Mirror 2
http://rapidshare.com/files/50075306/Dell5120_XPdrivers_V1.rar

This package includes -> (green lines represent 3rd party drivers)
Drivers
- Dell 1520 - R137139 Internal Modem XP drivers
- Dell 1520 - R149798 ethernet XP drivers
- Dell 1520 - R153997 Intel Chipset XP drivers
- Dell 1520 - R154200 Matrix Sata XP drivers (read above about using nlite to prepare your XP install ISO to include these drivers)
- Dell 1520 - R155105 Webcam XP drivers
- Dell 1520 - R141246 Ricoh XP drivers
- Intel 3945ABG pro/wireless drivers - sourced from Intel's website
- Latest LaptopVideo2Go Nvidia drivers for 8600m gt
- Dell Latitude - R153908 Sound XP driver

(There is currently no 1520 Xp driver for sound, but I used this Latitude driver which has the exact same sound chipset as the 1520 and it works great) * Its important to note, that you need to install the Intel Chipset drivers FIRST, reboot, and then you can install the sound drivers.

Programs->
- VistaBootPro (for setting up bootloader screen to choose between XP or Vista at boot)
- Nlite program for inserting the sata drivers into your XP install

Also at the dell page is the webcam manager software for XP which is 145mb ->
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/downloads/en/downloads_splash?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~mode=popup&file=214672

For more details,

Screen
I found that if i played games at abnormal resolutions to my native resolution, then yes it was a little fuzzy, but playing at 1024x768 or 1680x1050 remedied this situation. If the game is too demanding on my system, then I just use 1024x768 which doesn't seem to degrade the quality of the picture much at all. Oblivion for example was running at 1680x1050 and it looked amazing!

Webcam
The webcam is excellent. It comes with some pretty cool software that allows you to draw on your own face in real time and through motion capture algorithms, whatever your draw on your face (a moustache for example, heh) it stays where you drew it, even when moving your head around. That was pretty fun. It also has a bunch of masks and video effects which are also a lot of fun. I haven't hooked up a video chat to anyone yet, but was very impressed with the quality of the camera. With any webcam, the higher the resolution the slower the update time on-screen and its pretty obvious that the higher resolutions are using digital zoom which of course doesn't mean more pixels, just the same size lower res capture simply blown up.

Also with webcams, you need plenty of light to get a less grainy picture. Here's some examples...ones in my study with the window open and lights on, the rest are at the front of my house in varying resolutions at mid-day. These are untouched jpg's, just simpy uploaded straight from the capture folder on my HD. As you can see the webcam can capture pics at 320x240, 640x480, 1280x1024, 1600x1200 and 3200x2400...although judging by the quality, I feel 640x480 is the "actual" resolution of the camera and anything above it is digital zoom. Also to answer the above question, yes there is a blue led that turns on, right next to the camera lens.

Don't get me wrong, the pictures are not amazing, but as a web chatting device, its perfectly ample for this use and the quality in this regard is quite good.

1280x1024 indoors ->
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1.../1280x1024.jpg

320x240 outdoors ->
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ma/320x240.jpg

640x480 outdoors ->
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ma/640x480.jpg

1280x1024 outdoors ->
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...280x1024_a.jpg

1600x1200 outdoors ->
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1.../1600x1200.jpg

3200x2400 outdoors ->
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1.../3200x2400.jpg
Battery
I haven't had a chance to test battery life yet I'm sorry. I did get the 9-cell battery so I'm assuming that it will last a long time, but benchmarking a laptop battery in real-terms is a lenthy process so perhaps I'll get around to that soon. Perhaps under gaming conditions and a 2nd test under normal application conditions.

XP drivers
I'll say straight off the bat that I still have one yellow exclamation mark in my device manager, but nothing that impares my normal gaming or application usage. It's the internal modem audio driver which I'm never going to use anyway.

DUAL BOOT
There's plenty of info on how to actually install XP AFTER Vista is already on your system so I won't go into the semantics there. Here's the link I followed ->
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/about88231.html

Now for the issues I ran into. I've already explained about trying to make a 5th primary partition for XP and that Vista wouldn't create the volume because of the 4x primary partition limit. There may be ways around this (I've read people using the Acronis partition software) but I'm not an expert so use caution and I can't be held responsible for anything that happens on your computer!
I was going to format the whole system and then install XP, but at the last minute thought, well if I'm going to do that, I may as well just delete the 2gig dell media direct partition and still keep vista on there for now which would save me installing 2 operating systems. Plus I wanted to keep Vista on there in case my XP experiments failed so I still had a usable OS to try again.

Okay, first Issue with installing XP was the sata drivers. I didn't have the drivers downloaded at the time so I went into the bios and switched my sata device from AHCI mode to ATA mode. XP installed fine after this switch. Vista also works fine in this mode btw. I ran into no other issues during the XP install process.

Using Nlite to create an XP install that includes the AHCI sata drivers
Why did I disable AHCI mode and not just install the dell sata drivers during install? Here's the problem with Microsoft and their infinite wisdom. If you try to hit f6 to install a 3rd party scsi or sata driver when first installing xp, it expects you to have an A: drive to have the drivers on. Hello??! Who the hell even has an a: drive anymore? I put the drivers on a cd, but the ONLY option in setup was a: drive. Duh!
Plan B: Making a slipstream XP ISO with the Dell sata drivers already in it. What a pain, but thank the "forward thinkers" at MS for not having the foresight to allow people to install 3rd party drivers from a bloody cd rom!
So, here's the info needed on creating the slipstreamed XP install using a handy utility called nlite.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml
Okay, I'll just remind you that both XP and Vista run fine in normal ATA mode in the bios, so if you can't be bothered with all the slipsteam stuff, then you'll still have 2 perfectly working OS's using normal XP sata drivers which install automatically during XP setup. But, if you're like me and the whole exercise is about speed and fine tuning your system, then go through the nlite process to keep your system in AHCI mode.

The 2nd issue was getting the bootloader to work properly on boot. My initial problem was that XP wouldn't load when I selected it on boot. It came up with an /Ntdl error. It took me a few hours, but I finally found the solution was really simple. When using the VistaBootPro software in the above article link, I set my XP to the e: drive, which is the partition I actually installed it on. Makes sense right? XP is on e: so i set the bootloader to look for XP on e: ... Wrong! Apparently both OS's expect themselves to be on c: so make sure you set both Vista and XP in this program to be the c: drive. Don't worry, XP still loads as it should after this no matter what partition it's on.

Well, thats about everything i've gone through so far dual booting XP and installing drivers. Still a few kinks to iron out, but hopefully this article will be a moot point as soon as Dell release COMPLETE XP drivers on their website. Please Dell!

For your convenience, I've zipped up all the drivers I grabbed from Dell's website and the 3rd party drivers I have installed for 8600gt that I have confirmed to be working.

Download XP Driver pack I put together here -> (filefront 50mb)
http://files.filefront.com/Dell5120+XPdrivers+V1rar/;8057753;;/fileinfo.html

This package includes -> (green lines represent 3rd party drivers)
Drivers
- Dell 1520 - R137139 Internal Modem XP drivers
- Dell 1520 - R149798 ethernet XP drivers
- Dell 1520 - R153997 Intel Chipset XP drivers
- Dell 1520 - R154200 Matrix Sata XP drivers (read above about using nlite to prepare your XP install ISO to include these drivers)
- Dell 1520 - R155105 Webcam XP drivers
- Dell 1520 - R141246 Ricoh XP drivers
- Intel 3945ABG pro/wireless drivers - sourced from Intel's website
- Latest LaptopVideo2Go Nvidia drivers for 8600m gt
- Dell Latitude - R153908 Sound XP driver

(There is currently no 1520 Xp driver for sound, but I used this Latitude driver which has the exact same sound chipset as the 1520 and it works great) * Its important to note, that you need to install the Intel Chipset drivers FIRST, reboot, and then you can install the sound drivers.

Programs->
- VistaBootPro (for setting up bootloader screen to choose between XP or Vista at boot)
- Nlite program for inserting the sata drivers into your XP install

Also at the dell page is the webcam manager software for XP which is 145mb ->
http://support.dell.com/support/topi...up&file=214672


Righto, i'm off to do an XP repair install with my new nlite XP slipstreamed CD that now includes the AHCI sata drivers on it. Wish me luck!

Source: Notebookreview.com





15 comments:

Anonymous said...

t his link is dead!
http://files.filefront.com/Dell5120+XPdrivers+V1rar/;8057753;;/fileinfo.html

Jin said...

thanks. will upload a new file asap.

Anonymous said...

great instructions!...Also wish file link was up though.

Jin said...

The file had updated. Enjoy

Anonymous said...

Thanks a million for the updated link!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

One more question: The Dell Notebook System Software (NSS) and Dell Quickset (QS) are not available for XP users on this 1520 model... what other NSS and QS can we use for this notebook?

Jin said...

NSS and QS you may search for similar DELL model which support XP. I havent try that.

Unknown said...

Jin, I couldn't find a NSS and QS from similar models for the Inspiron 1520... tell me, is really important to have both programs installed???

Jin said...

According Dell, "The Notebook System Software (NSS) and Desktop System Software (DSS) downloads are utilities that provides critical updates and patches for Microsoft� Windows�. These utilities include updates that allow Windows to correctly access and utilize several built-in system components, such as USB ports."
So, it is not necessary to install this utility as you may maually download the drivers and patch. It wont have effect on your system.

whitespace said...

This has helped so much, thank you.

bubu said...

dude i can't see the webcam pictures....post the links without the dots pls...everything else is superb....good job

Anonymous said...

Man, you saved me 2 hours work. Respect. Thanks a lot !!! Realy nice job... oh, and nice google ranking on keyword (dell latitude 1520 driver pack) :D

Best wishes
Szaby (from Romania)

Jin said...

glad this post save you all from hassle

Anonymous said...

Thanks Thanks Thanks
My main problem were audio and u helped me very much
Thanks again ;)