Resolved [Dell Inspiron 630m/XPS M140: Which drivers to choose on the Dell site?]

I heard the Insprion 630m and XPS M140 are the same laptops but Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is ONLY available for XPS M140 and that is the operating system I have so I am pretty sure I have XPS M140.

I recently restored my laptop to factory settings using the Ctrl + F11 key method. I want to install the latest bios/drivers/software that is available from the Dell.com website. When I go to the "Drivers and Downloads" page at Dell.com there are 3 separate pages for my laptop, which one should I download from? I can search for drivers and downloads using my service tag and I'm guessing this would be the safest method but there are no new bios listed. Does every Dell laptop owner get their own service tag number? However, when I search for drivers and downloads using the "Choose from a list of all products" method there is a page for Insprion 630m and a page for XPS M140 and there is a new bios listed. Which page should I be downloading from? Service tag method page, Inspiron 630m page, or XPS M140 page?

 

Hi alfun, a quick Google says what you found out. Dell Inspiron 630M has Windows XP Home Edition as the OS.
XPS M140 has the XP Media Center OS.
Your call for the Download should be for the OS you have installed. Cheers Neil.

 

To make sure you have the right page, use your Dell service tag number.

 

I'm guessing using the Dell service tag number is the safest method? When using the service tag number it says I have an Inspiron 630m but I'm thinking I have the XPS M140 because my OS is the XP Media Center?

Should I just use the service tag number method? If I use this method there are no bios updates available.

 

Why do you want a BIOS update. Do something wrong and you will make a brick out of your PC. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

I want a BIOS update because it gives me the latest enhancements and fixes issues. I know its possible to brick a PC from a BIOS update but I've done it a lot before and have never bricked a PC before.

I also would like to update all the drivers and software on this laptop too. Like all the Dell diagnostic utilities, DVD drive firmware, network drivers, etc. But the thing is when using the Service Tag method some of these updates aren't available but when I go to "Choose from a list of all Dell products" and I choose Inspiron 630m or XPS M140 to get Drivers & Downloads there are these updates available. Shouldn't all 3 of these pages have the same update files to choose from? Or at least shouldn't the XPS M140 and the Service Tag page have the same updates to choose from? But its weird because when I enter my Service Tag it says I have an Inspiron 630m.

 

If the system has not been altered, use their service tag.

 

If you use the XPS M140 page method there are more downloads to choose from. Like for instance, there are a lot of CDRW/DVDRW drivers to choose from. I guess some XPS M140 laptops came with different drives. When I used the Service Tag method there was no drivers listed, I guess I can go to the XPS M140 page method and look up my DVDRW drive model in my Device Manager and download the driver for my drive but I'm just going to skip this update and only download the updates from the Service Tag page just to be safe.

I also found a page that shows you the order you should install your drivers. I think the order you install your drivers after a fresh OS install is very important and Dell does a bad job at letting people know. I had to do a little digging to find this:
http://support.dell.com/support/top...A0C0937D62A8739E0401E0A55174744&isLegacy=true

I remember one time I installed the drivers in the wrong order on a custom desktop PC I had. All the USB ports stopped working so I couldn't use my mouse or keyboard. My motherboard was legacy free which meant it had no PS/2 ports so I had to reinstall the OS all over again.

I don't know if these are important or not but the Dell QuickSet used for seeing how high/low your volume and monitor brightness is, Synaptics Touchpad, and Dell Notebook System Software updates are only available using the XPS M140 page. So if you have a XPS M140 laptop and want these updates you cannot use the Service Tag method, at least for me it doesn't work. Since these updates don't show up for me when using the Service Tag method I'm not sure that these drivers will work for you.

 

It did for me.

 

Do you also have a Dell Inspiron 630m or XPS M140 laptop?

 

xps m140

 

When you search for Drivers & Downloads at Dell.com using the Service Tag method does it take you to the Inspiron 630M page or the XPS M140 page?

Just to let people know, when I updated the drivers for the Network Intel-Driver PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection, one of the test functions stopped working for the Intel PROSet/Wireless software that controls the WiFi internet. It would still connect to my wireless router and the internet worked fine and I'm guessing you would never need to use the test function anyways. I only tested the new drivers on my Linksys router.

I changed back to the original drivers that shipped with the laptop anyways, but when using these drivers I was not able to get the internet working with the Windows wireless software. If you want to use the Windows software to manage your wireless I was not able to get it to work using an AT&T DSL 2Wire router, it would only work with the Intel PROSet software. However, the wireless worked fine using Windows to manage wireless on my Linksys router though on cable internet. It also worked fine using the Intel PROSet software with the Linksys router.

 

Don't remember which page it took me to now. (The laptop has been repaired and returned to the owner).