Dell Latitude XP install is in French !

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi all
Asking on behalf of a neighbour...

...who used to work for a big multinational corporation, and, as part
of leaving them, purchased a nice 2nd-hand Dell Latitude from them.

It's complete with a nice licensed WinXP installed - in French !! -
but no WinXP CD......

As it stands it's not a great deal of use (he doesn't speak or read
French) - so he asked me to look at getting it back into English.

Spent a hour or so fiddling with settings - but can't seem to achieve
an English-language configuration.

Checked with Dell in the USA - they said that the language can't be
changed, and he must buy a new copy of WinXP - which is available from
Dell in the UK for about £150 + VAT.

Has anybody else been in this situation.....? - and is what they say
correct....?

The box is a Dell Latitude C600 - any idea of what it's worth ?
Ebay prices seem to be about the £200 - £300 mark.....

Any help gratefully received....

Many thanks
Adrian
Suffolk UK

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Since there's a product key on the system, borrow a copy of XP from another
Dell owner and install it using that key.

The license goes with the system, so there should be no legal issues in
doing that.



"Adrian Brentnall" <adrian@ambquality.co.uk> wrote in message
news:7h2gg0tvme8gsnukqpeuqaanpqb6p8hivl@4ax.com...
> Hi all
> Asking on behalf of a neighbour...
>
> ..who used to work for a big multinational corporation, and, as part
> of leaving them, purchased a nice 2nd-hand Dell Latitude from them.
>
> It's complete with a nice licensed WinXP installed - in French !! -
> but no WinXP CD......
>
> As it stands it's not a great deal of use (he doesn't speak or read
> French) - so he asked me to look at getting it back into English.
>
> Spent a hour or so fiddling with settings - but can't seem to achieve
> an English-language configuration.
>
> Checked with Dell in the USA - they said that the language can't be
> changed, and he must buy a new copy of WinXP - which is available from
> Dell in the UK for about £150 + VAT.
>
> Has anybody else been in this situation.....? - and is what they say
> correct....?
>
> The box is a Dell Latitude C600 - any idea of what it's worth ?
> Ebay prices seem to be about the £200 - £300 mark.....
>
> Any help gratefully received....
>
> Many thanks
> Adrian
> Suffolk UK

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Dell was correct. You cannot change the language of Windows. You need to
purchase an English language version of Windows and perform a clean install.

Some bargain, huh?
--
Ted Zieglar
formerly "Rocket J. Squirrel"


"Adrian Brentnall" <adrian@ambquality.co.uk> wrote in message
news:7h2gg0tvme8gsnukqpeuqaanpqb6p8hivl@4ax.com...
> Hi all
> Asking on behalf of a neighbour...
>
> ..who used to work for a big multinational corporation, and, as part
> of leaving them, purchased a nice 2nd-hand Dell Latitude from them.
>
> It's complete with a nice licensed WinXP installed - in French !! -
> but no WinXP CD......
>
> As it stands it's not a great deal of use (he doesn't speak or read
> French) - so he asked me to look at getting it back into English.
>
> Spent a hour or so fiddling with settings - but can't seem to achieve
> an English-language configuration.
>
> Checked with Dell in the USA - they said that the language can't be
> changed, and he must buy a new copy of WinXP - which is available from
> Dell in the UK for about £150 + VAT.
>
> Has anybody else been in this situation.....? - and is what they say
> correct....?
>
> The box is a Dell Latitude C600 - any idea of what it's worth ?
> Ebay prices seem to be about the £200 - £300 mark.....
>
> Any help gratefully received....
>
> Many thanks
> Adrian
> Suffolk UK

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Microsoft supply there business desktop operating systems in a number of
forms. One form is country/language specific i.e English Windows XP or
French Windows XP etc. where you can change the keyboard&/or locale settings
to another country/language but the menus & dialogues will always be in the
Windows XP installed language. The other and more useful form for large
multinational corporates is the use of Windows XP MUI's. The MUI is a
language pack to provide additional language specific support on top of an
English Select/Volume Licensing Windows XP version. There are numerous
MUI's supporting many languages. If you had a MUI version of the operating
system within the Control Panel\Regional and Language Options\Language tab
there would be an extra drop down box to select the default language for the
menus and dialog boxes. So if your French version of Windows XP was infact
a MUI version of Windows XP you would be able to select English menus and
dialgog boxes from this drop down box. If the drop down box is not present
then I'm afraid its just a country specific version of Windows XP i.e French
and your stuck with French dialog boxes and menus unless you install an
English version.


"Ted Zieglar aka "Rocky"" <teddyz@notmail.com> wrote in message
news:3cUNc.11506$m63.129@animal.nntpserver.com...
> Dell was correct. You cannot change the language of Windows. You need to
> purchase an English language version of Windows and perform a clean
install.
>
> Some bargain, huh?
> --
> Ted Zieglar
> formerly "Rocket J. Squirrel"
>
>
> "Adrian Brentnall" <adrian@ambquality.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:7h2gg0tvme8gsnukqpeuqaanpqb6p8hivl@4ax.com...
> > Hi all
> > Asking on behalf of a neighbour...
> >
> > ..who used to work for a big multinational corporation, and, as part
> > of leaving them, purchased a nice 2nd-hand Dell Latitude from them.
> >
> > It's complete with a nice licensed WinXP installed - in French !! -
> > but no WinXP CD......
> >
> > As it stands it's not a great deal of use (he doesn't speak or read
> > French) - so he asked me to look at getting it back into English.
> >
> > Spent a hour or so fiddling with settings - but can't seem to achieve
> > an English-language configuration.
> >
> > Checked with Dell in the USA - they said that the language can't be
> > changed, and he must buy a new copy of WinXP - which is available from
> > Dell in the UK for about £150 + VAT.
> >
> > Has anybody else been in this situation.....? - and is what they say
> > correct....?
> >
> > The box is a Dell Latitude C600 - any idea of what it's worth ?
> > Ebay prices seem to be about the £200 - £300 mark.....
> >
> > Any help gratefully received....
> >
> > Many thanks
> > Adrian
> > Suffolk UK
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi & Thanks to all who responded

I was waiting for the 'official' Dell support response before coming
back to the newsgroup. I contacted them on the 25th July - today the
response arrived.

>>My name is xxxx and I have gone through your mail. Accordingly,
>>I understand that the system was shipped with French version
>>of the operating system.
>>
>>I find that you want the English version of the operating system.
>>
>>This has to be mentioned while ordering the system.
>>
>>And since the system out of warranty we wont be able ship the
>>cd.
>>
>>You will have to purchase the cd from the outside software market.

About as much use as a chocolate teapot!
Also contradicts what Dell software sales people said - in that they
would be ever so happy to sell me a copy of WinXP - but wanted about
£160 + VAT for it...

Is there any advantage in purchasing the CD from Dell - would it be a
'customised' version with the Dell drivers - or is it just as good to
shop around for a standard retail copy ?

I did look at the existing setup to see if it supports MUI's.
It appears to allow different languages, has all the drop-down lists
etc - but they don't make any difference at all to the way the
software appears - it seems to be solidly 'stuck' in French mode....

What's a Dell Latitude C600 (model PP01L) worth ?
Is it worth spending money on ??

Thanks all for your help & comments so far

Adrian
Suffolk UK

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Adrian Brentnall <adrian@ambquality.co.uk> wrote:

>Hi & Thanks to all who responded

>I was waiting for the 'official' Dell support response before coming
>back to the newsgroup. I contacted them on the 25th July - today the
>response arrived.

>>>My name is xxxx and I have gone through your mail. Accordingly,
>>>I understand that the system was shipped with French version
>>>of the operating system.
>>>
>>>I find that you want the English version of the operating system.
>>>
>>>This has to be mentioned while ordering the system.
>>>
>>>And since the system out of warranty we wont be able ship the
>>>cd.
>>>
>>>You will have to purchase the cd from the outside software market.

>About as much use as a chocolate teapot!
>Also contradicts what Dell software sales people said - in that they
>would be ever so happy to sell me a copy of WinXP - but wanted about
>£160 + VAT for it...
>
>Is there any advantage in purchasing the CD from Dell - would it be a
>'customised' version with the Dell drivers - or is it just as good to
>shop around for a standard retail copy ?
>
>I did look at the existing setup to see if it supports MUI's.
>It appears to allow different languages, has all the drop-down lists
>etc - but they don't make any difference at all to the way the
>software appears - it seems to be solidly 'stuck' in French mode....
>
>What's a Dell Latitude C600 (model PP01L) worth ?
> Is it worth spending money on ??

http://search.ebay.com/Dell-Latitude-C600_W0QQsokeywordredirectZ1QQfromZR8
--
OJ III
[Email to Yahoo address may be burned before reading.
Lower and crunch the sig and you'll net me at comcast.]

 

[Jose]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Adrian,

You can purchase a copy of the Operating System from any Web
site(likeAmazon.co.uk) or any other vendor in your country, once you install
it, you can search for the drivers at support.dell.com by using the model
number or the Service Tag which can be found at the bottom of the unit.

The Latitude C600 is a nice notebook, and depending on the processor and the
amount of RAM, it can run Windows 2000 or XP very nicely.

Feel free to post again if you need further information.

Cheers,

Jose


"Adrian Brentnall" <adrian@ambquality.co.uk> wrote in message
news:lma7h0942hsflghbn4tmqcq41kjgljt7b7@4ax.com...
> Hi & Thanks to all who responded
>
> I was waiting for the 'official' Dell support response before coming
> back to the newsgroup. I contacted them on the 25th July - today the
> response arrived.
>
> >>My name is xxxx and I have gone through your mail. Accordingly,
> >>I understand that the system was shipped with French version
> >>of the operating system.
> >>
> >>I find that you want the English version of the operating system.
> >>
> >>This has to be mentioned while ordering the system.
> >>
> >>And since the system out of warranty we wont be able ship the
> >>cd.
> >>
> >>You will have to purchase the cd from the outside software market.
>
> About as much use as a chocolate teapot!
> Also contradicts what Dell software sales people said - in that they
> would be ever so happy to sell me a copy of WinXP - but wanted about
> £160 + VAT for it...
>
> Is there any advantage in purchasing the CD from Dell - would it be a
> 'customised' version with the Dell drivers - or is it just as good to
> shop around for a standard retail copy ?
>
> I did look at the existing setup to see if it supports MUI's.
> It appears to allow different languages, has all the drop-down lists
> etc - but they don't make any difference at all to the way the
> software appears - it seems to be solidly 'stuck' in French mode....
>
> What's a Dell Latitude C600 (model PP01L) worth ?
> Is it worth spending money on ??
>
> Thanks all for your help & comments so far
>
> Adrian
> Suffolk UK