Inspiron 530 with Ubuntu

I ordered an Inspiron 530 with Ubuntu, so I would not be paying for an
operating system. Big mistake.

I had Windows XP Pro on my homebuilt that got zapped by a telephone line
surge during a lightning storm (thru DSL modem which also got zapped).

I formatted the hard disk and installed Windows XP all right. Except there
were a lot of question marks in Device Manager about missing drivers. I went
to the Dell Support web site and they only had a video driver for Windows
XP. They had a sound driver that was the wrong driver for my computer. They
had nothing for the network adapter.

I did a chat with Dell Support that provided nothing. I then called the tech
support number. Both people gave me a big hassel about the computer being
hardware specific for the chosen operating system and Dell had no
responsibility for support of other operating systems. I argued with both
that a computer parts operate made today should operate on Windows XP and
Dell's only responsibility to me is to identify the parts. The only ID I had
was Integrated network card and Integrated sound.

After much hassel with the nice lady on telephone she looked up a reference
and identified the network adapter as Intel 82562V-100. I downloaded the
driver from Intel and solved that problem, which was the most important.
With connection to the Internet I got USB 2 drivers by Internet search by
Windows.

I talked with tech suppport today and only got misformation about the identy
of the integrated sound provider.

This is seems to be a prettty good computer for the money ($398 shipped w/o
monitor) if you plan to use only the operating system you buy. Others
BEWARE.

The Ubuntu operating system looked good and should work well for those who
want to use it forever.


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Relevant Pages

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