I’ve been messing around with reinstalling XP on a Dimension 2400 for the last couple of days. I can get XP installed no problem, but because the key I have is an OEM key, it won’t activate for me. I could use a crack, but as this is not my machine, I don’t want to put the owner in a legally and ethically dubious position.
I’ve tried installing using the setup files in the i386 directory, but no matter what type of disk I boot from, I just get error messages that either Windows cannot find a place to put the swap file (when booting from a Win98 disk with NTFS support), or that winnt.exe is not a recognised command (when trying to run the installer from the recovery console).
In the last couple of days I’ve burned several boot and utility CD’s all to no avail. The only thing that is left for me to do is fdisk the hard-drive, reformat as FAT32, boot from a Win98 disk and try to install from the i386 directory that way. Seems like a lot of effort, for very little gain I thought, so hence my reason for contacting Dell.
I started off my calling the Lo-Call number in their website for Sales. I ended up talking to someone in India, who told me that they would transfer me to the right department. That person then transferred me to another department, who then transferred me back to the first person I was talking to. I eventually got through to someone in the UK who told me that I would have to contact Technical Support. He very kindly gave me a number for Tech Support in the UK. This is despite the fact that when I first rang, I went through the automated system clearing picking the choice for Ireland. I also informed every person that I spoke to that I was in Ireland, yet I still managed to be put through to someone in the UK, who could only give me a number for UK Support. I thanked them for their time and hung up.
I did a quick search myself and found the number for Technical Support and called again. Yet again I got through to India, and after giving all my details again, I was put on hold and I was told that I was being transferred to Part Sales. And this rigmarole continued for another 3 transfers, until I got to someone who took my details, yet again, and after explaining for the umpteenth time that all I wanted was a set of restore cd’s, I was told I would have to talk to Part Sales.
Now I’m fairly sure that I had been told at least twice already that I was being put through to Part Sales, but apparently not.
Once more I was put on hold while I was transferred. This time after a couple of minutes the agent came back on the phone to tell me that the queue waiting to speak with Part Sales was a long one and did I want to wait. No I said, I’ll try again later. Chances are that all those people trying to get through to Part Sales are probably looking for Dell Printer Support. Best of luck to them.