I have DELL XPS m1330 laptop with Windows Vista home edition installed as factory setting. Its working fine. But I wanted to install windows XP and same time I wanted to preserve my Windows vista copy too. So I bought a new internal HDD and just replaced the original internal harddisk with new one and installed Windows XP Professional on this new HDD. But now problem is after working for few mins my laptop just freeze. I have macafee installed and it doesn’t show any viruses or adware or any malicious stuff. So I guess it’s some software issues with my WINDOWS XP copy or touch pad problem. I tried to work in safe mode and touch pad and keyboard works fine in safe mode but not in normal mode. Attaching a mouse doesn’t work either. I even reinstalled the WINDOWS XP quite a few times, but same problem persists it works for a bit then doesn’t work again.

I guess as my system works fine with Windows Vista and even with windows XP in safe mode, its not hardware problem.

I get problem when I work in Windows XP normal mode, so i guess should I try with different copy of Windows XP? What should I do?

Not sure if different copy of Windows XP will fix the problem.
Here’s what you can try. Check the BIOS version running on your laptop. I just checked the Dell website and it looks like the latest BIOS version for your laptop was released on September 19, 2007. The latest BIOS has an update for nVidia video BIOS.
If you have a previous BIOS version installed, try upgrading to the latest one. It’s possible that the video update will fix your problem with Windows XP.

I’m having a problem with my Toshiba Satelite P20.
I believe that my HDD has finally worn out. Over the past few months, it used to take several attempts to boot up windows XP. Sometimes, the hard drive failed to load and sometimes the HDD light used to hang on, and I would receive a disk-read error has occurred. The message which I also used to get, and which I keep getting now is:
PXE-E61 Media test failure, check cable
Exiting PXE ROM
I tried booting up from a CD, and it failed to detect the hard drive.

I’m almost positive that you have a bad hard drive. PXE means Pre-Boot Execution Environment. You see this message when the laptop trying to boot from a remote server using the network card. If you didn’t see the PXE-E61 message before, it means that the network card was listed after the hard drive in the boot order (you can set the order in BIOS) and the laptop booted directly from the hard drive. Now, when the hard drive has failed, the laptop cannot detect it and tries to boot from the next available device – the network card. Your laptop is not configured to boot from a remote server using the network card, that’s why you are getting PXE-E61 Media test failure error. You have to replace the hard drive and reinstall the operating system.

Just recently I have been having problems with the video card. (I think?) on my Toshiba Satellite A65-S126. It runs XP home.
The computer starts to boot fine but about halfway through after the windows logo shows up, the screen goes to a screen that says…” We apologize for the inconvenience but windows did not start normally. It will prompt me to start normally or safe mode, safe mode with command prompt, safe mode with networking, etc.
Then IF it goes through into normal start up mode it will say…Computer restarted after an unexpected shutdown. Microsoft Windows detected a possible device failure. The driver for the display device was unable to complete a drawing operation. Please check with the device manufacturer for a driver update. The display driver for the ATI MOBILITY RADEON 7000 IGP seems to be responsible for the system instability.” The error signature is (szAppName Drivers.Display) (szappVer 1002443700FF101179) (szModName ati2dvag.dll) (szModVer6.14.10.6430) (Offset 403106EA).
When I boot the computer in safe mode, windows works normally, but tells me it had a problem with the ATI card and after a time will shut down by itself and continue with all of the issues mentioned before.
I recently deleted everything from it (it took 8 hours) and restored with original software given only to have the same exact error messages pop up again.

Running a restore CDs and reloading everything back to original factory defaults was a very good troubleshooting step. It eliminated any software related problems. If this error is not caused by a software fault, then it’s a hardware issue. Unfortunately it didn’t fix your problem and to be honest, you do not have a lot of choices. Toshiba Satellite A65 has onboard video and onboard memory; everything is integrated into the system board. So, if the onboard video or onboard memory is bad, the entire system board must be replaced. If you have any extra memory module installed, try to remove it and run the laptop just with onboard memory. You can try to re-flash/upgrade the laptop BIOS, sometimes it helps. If after re-flashing the BIOS you still have the same problem, then I would say that the system board is bad.

I have a Toshiba Satellite A50 and want to replace the standard SD-C2612 DVD drive for an NEC ND-6750A DVD Writer but after replacing the drive and switching on I get an IDE ERROR message before windows XP starts and the drive is not recognized. I have tried detecting the drive using the hardware wizard but it won’t detect it can you please help.

I think it happens because the new drive has a different configuration then the old drive. Some laptops require a drive that works in cable select mode (CSEL) – the laptop determines with drive is a slave and witch is a master by its position on IDE channel. Some laptops require a drive that works in master/slave mode – the drive is set as a master or as a slave through the firmware flash. If the optical drive is not configured properly, you’ll get an IDE ERROR on startup. Sometimes you can find the information about optical drive configuration on the top of the drive. It would be CSEL for cable select and M/S for master/slave. Unfortunately, I don’t know what drive configuration is required for Toshiba Satellite A50.