Dell Latitude E6500 blue screen of death on XP install/downgrade/reinstall

7. January 2009
Comments (14)

I've just had a frustrating few days trying to downgrade 4 Dell Latitude E6500 laptops to XP. The problem was, whenever you booted to the XP cd you would get to the point just before you agree to the license and then hit a blue screen with a SATA error code. It seems that the bundled driver for the SATA storage controller incorrectly identifies it and causes a fatal error as it's loaded.

 The solution is fairly specific and needs to be done exactly in the order prescribed below. You will need a USB floppy drive, and a blank floppy disk.

  •  Firstly, go to Dell's support website and select the downloads for your E6500 laptop (if you enter your service tag, you might find that there are no XP downloads available -use the product select instead).
  • Download the LATEST BIOS - at the point of writing that's A11.
  • Also download the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver.
  • Plug in your USB floppy, insert the disk and format it. Extract the storage manager driver, and then copy the extracted files onto the floppy. Unplug the floppy
  • Now run the BIOS update, follow the on-screen instructions, let it reboot and flash your BIOS.
  • Reboot, and on the BIOS screen, hit F2 to enter into the BIOS setup.
  • Move down to System Configuration, then SATA operation. Make sure it's set to IRRT.
  • Move through the BIOS and disable Parallel, Serial, and any other devices that aren't needed. Switch the NIC to Disabled. Also go down to Miscellaneous Devices and ensure USB and the Modular bay (i.e. CD/DVD) are enabled. Disable everything else.
  • Plug in your USB floppy, and insert the floppy containing the drivers from earlier. Also put your Windows XP install CD in the CD/DVD drive. Save your BIOS changes and then reboot.
  • On the BIOS screen, hit F12 to bring up the one time boot menu. Select your CD/DVD ROM device.
  • *IMPORTANT* The blue windows installer screen will come up and you have a few seconds to hit F6 to specify that you want to use a 3rd party driver for storage.
  • Once you've hit it, wait for the next screen, which will be asking for your driver. Hit S and specify the Intel SATA driver needed. There were 4 drivers in the list for my laptops, trial and error will find the right one. It should say that Windows already has a driver for that device - do you want to use the new one? Well of course you do, the old one blue screens. Hit S to accept it and at the next screen, hit ENTER to continue.
  • After that, it's plain sailing - just don't forget to enable all of your devices once you've installed XP!!!

Windows XP

Comments

Borg
Borg
1/22/2009 7:41:44 PM #
Nice, but for some reason it won't work with my USB floppy drive. At first it seems that setup can access the drive without any problem. But a bit further in the setup process, after formatting, when it asks for the floppy disk again, pressing enter does not make it access the floppy drive. Nothing happens...

Could this be some sort of sick compatibilty problem with this specific USB A: drive? It's a NEC UF0002.
rotgipfler
rotgipfler
1/25/2009 4:38:32 PM #
Thank you,
i've tried to integrate the driver with nlite, but it didn't worked.
I disabled everything, copied the driver on the floppy and it worked.
After formating the partition, windows said that there's a problem with copiing the aistor.sys . I choose "try it again" a few times and it worked...
SamMcGeown
SamMcGeown
2/5/2009 10:25:24 AM #
@Borg: I'm not sure why it's asking again for the floppy at that point as the setup program will already have the driver loaded into memory? Make sure all the drivers from the Intel Storage package are on the disk, and that you've updated the BIOS to the latest version.

@Rotgiplfer: I don't think nlite will work because the setup program will use what it thinks is a compatible driver (i.e. the one on the disk) before it gets to the working driver. I'd check your XP CD for scratches if you're having trouble copying files (and always make a backup .iso!)  Glad I could be of help!
yonex
yonex
3/16/2009 10:39:24 AM #
My Dell E6500 has problem. It's look like that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDVthXcO79I
I used XP, Vista, Ubuntu, Windows 7 with newest driver. Everything is the same. I can't see anything. Help me!!
SamMcGeown
SamMcGeown
3/26/2009 6:30:45 PM #
@yonex - that's an entirely different issue - looks like your graphics card is dead there - get onto Dell support and let them sort it.
Giody
Giody
3/27/2009 1:30:15 PM #
Simply change bios SATA Operation to "ATA" instead "IRRT" and you don't need anything else no floppy usb, no additional driver.. simply put your xp cd on cd/dvd drive and install.

Call Microsoft for free key code downgrade from vista business or ultimate to any xp version pro/home 32 or 64bit
SamMcGeown
SamMcGeown
4/3/2009 10:01:26 AM #
@Giody - I tried every feasible combination of settings in the BIOS, including setting SATA Operation to ATA - none of them worked for me - though I am glad they worked for you! It should be anyone's first port of call.
Michael
Michael
4/4/2009 7:21:09 PM #
Hi, I firstly had the same problem reported by Borg at Jan-22. I first tried an external NEC Floppy drive and got the same message saying to insert a Floppy with Intel Storage Manager Driver a second time. Next I changed the Floppy Drive to an IBM one and see - it worked!
Hell, this made me a lot of grey Hair... !
I´ll report that to Dell Support, maybe they correct this at a future BIOS release...
-Michael
Mike
Mike
4/7/2009 2:45:40 PM #
Thanks for the tip. It's funny I have two 6500's here and the first I also was nto able to get any sata operation to work without using your advice. The second however i was able to just switch it sata and xp installed fine. Very weird. I personally think these laptops are junk...just my .02 though.

Thanks again.
xom
xom
5/28/2009 5:30:12 PM #
Thank you verry mutch!
Works great now!
The Elf
The Elf
6/12/2009 4:47:15 PM #
@Giody

I've had similar troubles with IBM laptops w/ SATA drives.  Their BIOS is a lot friendlier, and actaully says "Change this to load OS... 'Compatibility Mode.' "

All you should need to do, as Giody said, is to change BIOS SATA Operation to "ATA."  At least with BIOS A12.

Thank you for the remedy!
Noel
Noel
7/24/2009 6:44:34 PM #
Great Stuff, Giody - I have A13 bios and your tip turning IRRT to ATA in the BIOS did the trick.  XP install proceeded without a hitch.  Thanks a lot, mate.
Fred Olsen
Fred Olsen
9/4/2009 2:51:32 PM #
Any solution for changing a "wrong xp installation" into a working one with correct eSata driver ?
By changing the Bios (A13) I allways get a bluescreen.

F.O.
CarterBarns
CarterBarns
9/16/2009 12:59:02 AM #
This is my 3rd computer from DELL and they have been unable to make the DVD burner burn a DVD. They also refuse to refund as I let the 30 day window pass while working with them to let them: uninstall and reinstall soft and drivers, flash the Bios, wipe the drive and reinstall the operating system, and replace the optical drive. On the two prior laptops (not E6500s) they did all of the above repeatedly and changed out the hard drive. In exasperation I have been scouring the web trying to find someone who has solved the problem. I see lots of people that have DELLs that will not recognize a DVD the way mine won't but I can't seem to find a solution. I have lost 100s of hours in work time. I finally admitted that DELL just can not make their machine burn a DVD. Since I bought the original DELL laptop to burn DVDs and be able to do seminars I now plan to buy a machine from another company and have crossed DELL off my list of suppliers.
Comments are closed