Dell and OS backup discs?

julianhj

julianhj

julianhj

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I'm about to give my parents' PC a major refresh after nearly four years, as it's painfully slow. I'm going to do a fresh install of XP (they have the media centre edition, apparently) but there are no installation discs. I know Dell did this for a while and I've found out online that the discs can be requested via a form for US customers, but the link for UK customers doesn't seem to work. Before I call them to request these, does anyone have experience of this issue?

Will they try and charge for the discs? Do they still have XP Media Centre software kicking about? Are they likely to tryand give me the runaround, and if so what might work if they're being difficult?
 
Dell have an option to purchase the "Resource Kit" (OS, Drivers & Applications) when you spec up your machine - usually it's around £5. If you give them a call they will ask you for the machines service tag and send out the appropriate OS disc's for a fee.

I'm not sure where you stand with downloading an OEM ISO of Windows XP MCE if you already own the license, someone may be able to clarify this and it will save you the charge from Dell :)
 
:mad:

I've just spent 19 minutes on the phone to Dell. No problem for sending out the backup discs, but was I aware that XP is no longer supported? asked the call handler. Furthermore, as the disc had to be 'customised' to my system, was I also aware that Microsoft would charge Dell £300-£400 for this service? Of course, Dell would never dream of passing this cost on to me, but to be on the safe side Dell would like to courier these two or three CDs to me, would that be alright? Oh, and by the way, our courier charges £25 for this service, but we can guarantee it'll be delivered on Monday at some point, we just need a credit or debit card for the £25 delivery charge!!!

I said I'd be happy to take my chances with normal post...

:rolleyes:
 
Just download XP MCE from torrent and enter your parents cd key. That way you get a clean install. All you need to do then is download the latest drivers.
 
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Meatball said:
Just download XP MCE from torrent and enter your parents cd key. That way you get a clean install. All you need to do then is download the latest drivers.
Click to expand...

^ That is basically what I wanted to say but didn't for the fear of banning, it's exactly what I would do in this situation. Once it's loaded with XP MCE then visit http://support.euro.dell.com to get the latest drivers :)
 
Dell OS discs are slightly different, you never have to enter any serial key, and it always registers itself online, Dell systems got something in Bios that does it for them.

Just borrow an OS dell disc (same OS as what you currently have on your machine) from a friend if you know someone that has got a dell pc/laptop. Your license is the sticker that came with the machine.
 
The only other Dell machine I have at the moment is on Vista, so that wouldn't work. Anyway, hopefully the correct discs are winging their way to me via snail mail. Why they couldn't have stuck them in the box when we bought the machine is a complete mystery.
 
julianhj said:
The only other Dell machine I have at the moment is on Vista, so that wouldn't work. Anyway, hopefully the correct discs are winging their way to me via snail mail. Why they couldn't have stuck them in the box when we bought the machine is a complete mystery.
Click to expand...

Yes it would, you could actually use any Dell OS disk on any dell computer and it will activate just fine without entering any serial keys (for which you will never get asked anyway), but it must be Dell OS disk and Dell pc/laptop.


EDIT: have you tried using the recovery partition (if you still have it)? you can recover your pc to manufacturers state and it only takes like 5 minutes to do so, all Dell pc/laptops comes with recovery partition, no disks required to perform this operation.
 
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