Transgressive

So my new notebook is a Dell Vostro 1400. This Dell Small Business laptop is basically a completely black Inspiron 1420 that comes without most of the bloatware. Specs are: Intel Core 2 Duo Santa Rosa CPU (T7300 2.0 Ghz), 14.1″ WXGA+ screen (1440×900), 120 Gb hard drive, and 2 Gb RAM. Also came with Intel wireless, Bluetooth and a built-in webcam that is handier than I thought it would be.

Anyway, one of the first things I did was to format the drive and install Windows XP instead of Vista. For reference, here is a list of the drivers I had to download:

Essential
SATA drivers – You’re going to have to find a way to load these onto your install CD. NLite is a good option – initial release 9/28/2007.

Intel Mobile Chipset – initial release 9/28/2007

Ricoh Driver – updated 10/24/2007
Network
Broadcom Ethernet Driver – initial release 6/28/2007

Intel PRO/Wireless Driver – updated 11/19/2007

Dell Wireless Driver – This is for people who got the Dell wireless card instead of the Intel – multi-device update on 12/18/2007 combines US and foreign drivers into one file. Separate smaller downloads still available on Dell site.

Modem Driver – initial release 5/11/2007
Graphics
Nvidia 8400GS Driver – For those with the dedicated graphics card – updated 12/14/2007.

Intel X3100 Driver – For those using onboard video – initial release 11/21/2007.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth Driver – updated 12/3/2007

Bluetooth restore
From Dell: “The Dell™ Wireless 355 Bluetooth® may become disabled when downgrading to Microsoft® Windows® XP from Microsoft Vista. This is due to the Dell Wireless Bluetooth adapter being turned off before the reinstallation of the Bluetooth software or operating system. To resolve this issue, download the utility to enable the Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth adapter.”
Touchpad
Official Touchpad Driver – updated 11/5/2007

Enhanced Touchpad Driver – I use this instead of the above driver because it enables more options.
Multimedia/Extras
Sigmatel Audio – updated 12/20/2007

Webcam Driver – updated 12/12/2007

Quickset – updated 3/26/2008
BIOS
BIOS – Usually not necessary. I have included it here only for reference. Use it at your own risk! Version A07 released on 2/4/2008.

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