My question is regarding my attempted upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows XP Home on a Dell Latitude CPi D300XT. I was able to load it fine but now it boots up you and all you see is the Windows XP screen and then nothinig else, just a blank screen. Do I perhaps need to update the Bios? And if so, do I need to revert back to 98 and then reload XP? Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! ajay

Ajay... You will definately need to upgrad the bios. if you go to support.dell.com and enter the service tag# underenath the laptop, it will take you to the proper software you will need for that specific laptop. Hope this helps. You may also need to reinstall XP. Sometimes that happens.

Thanks for the response. I double checked and I do have the latest Bios available for that model. I don't know whether I need to downgrade the Bios now or if I am lacking drivers? In any case I am at a loss on how to proceed as I cannot get any prompt/response after the XP login, my mouse pointer is the only thing visible. Any other pointers would be awesome. Thanks Again! ajay

Bios cannot be downgraded (as far as I know...) and there's no need to anyway; leave it be - you say you have the latest version. You may need suitable drivers for XP to run on this laptop... Does Dell indicate if this laptop will support/run XP (or not support/run) it. If it will support XP then Dell may also have appropriate drivers for download? How much RAM installed - a min of 128Meg is required for XP. Possibly you have less; if so then investigate adding more (crucial.com is usually noticeably cheaper source than Dell in this respect). It would have been wise to run the XP readiness advisor (or whatever it's called these days) to check if this laptop is OK for XP... before going ahead. Also I would have been inclined to have for a dual-boot initially... It's relatively simple to dump XP afterwards if things didn't work out OK; likewise it's relatively simple to remove '98 if XP did go in OK... As regards going back to '98.. Presuming you did not convert the partition(s) to ntfs then there are ways to go about it without the need to reformat. Such approaches would preserve any residual data on the drive that you may wish to preserve/recover. (It would also have nbeen wise to back up all data before starting out on this journey.)

Hi thanks for the response. Unfortunately Dell does not have any specific Drivers for this model, but I was lead to believe that would not be an issue. In any case I had taken some precautions, backing up etc. (Wish I had, also done the dual boot) The XP readiness thing indicated no problems other than a HP Scanner and my Xircom Modem/Card and that could be fixed later. So I took the plunge...:( My problem now and this may be a stupid question but if I have to go back to '98, how do I go about that, since all I end up with is a blank screen. Any pointers in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks Again! ajay

If the drive (c: ) still = fat32... hopefully it is... then simply start a standard '98 installation to c: (floppy + CD or CD boot). It will (all things being equal) go in afresh; it will restore the mbr to the dos level - disabling/removing any references to the XP boot-menu/boot.ini. It may be useful initially to first boot to an a: prompt and then run the " sys c: " (even run sys c: /s ") command - no "" in either case - to reset the mbr to dos level. This will (should) allow you to again boot to a c: prompt... Presuming so, you should then be able to locate and delete the current windows folder (which is where the XP installation will have gone during the failed upgrade). Then when you run '98 setup it will re-install as windows (as before). Other wise if the original windows (now failed XP) is still on the drive you will need to alter whatever the proffered default folder (probaly windows000) to something you can recognise; e.g. win-98, and the continue with setup. Once '98 is in again, simply locate/delete any residual XP folders/files (including anything that starts with a $ symbol). Delete the pagefile.sys (if exists). Empty the recycle-bin and defrag the drive to tidy up the scene. Then install all apps/utils afresh for '98.