Levi means that downloading exe files is a bit shady..... but if it's taken directly from a manufacturers website, i don't see much problem with it.... Ok, it may be a bit shady if the person who created such viruses was really smart and could affect any programs of any sort attached to the computer......
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING, SAVE ALL EXTREMELY ESSENTIAL INFORMATION!!! I'm going to be telling you to wipe your Hard Disk and everything in it, so if you have anything that you don't want to lose or can't get back, back that up with whatever you have (external hard drive, Flash Drive, Burn a CD, ANYTHING you need to just get the most vital of information/data. Anything you can live without or can get back later just forget about) sure it doesn't seem reasonable to save data from a severely infected computer, which is why I said only extremely essential. If there isn't anything on your computer that you can't get back with either the internet or an install disc that you have lying around, you can just proceed. If you do have something that is unable to get back that is EXTREMELY Important to you (Like some special pieces of informatoin that can't be reproduced or pictures (not off the internet) or.... whatever), then get that on whatever extra stuff you have. I find it a bit difficult to believe that a USB flash drive is unusable to your computer.... but i guess i understand since you said you ran it in safe mode in order to function properly...... (if you do need to get information, boot windows with last known good configuration or "start windows normally" or whatever to have it boot with all the stuff it needs. THEN flash drives should work (keyword "should") and you can quickly copy over the vital info. Keep in mind that such files may contain malicious stuff...... although less likely....
I could give you a CD of the motherboard/video/other drivers at the next tournament/smashfest, but that may be in a long time. it'd be the most efficient way of ensuring that no malicious things make it to your computer after wiping it, but for convenience, i would say that it's better to just have you get the drivers off the manufacturer's website.
for the drivers:
This is all what'd be best to have
This is firmware (you shouldn't need to get this, but you can just update it later if you want)
This seems important to have updated after the previous....
This is good to have also (the first 2 (under applications) look a bit weird, but I'd get em anyways)
I recommend all of this stuff, (It's on the manufacturer's website for this type of computer.......) (some things aren't exactly NEEDED, like the firmware, which should already be on your mobo, but it's not a bad idea to just reinstall/update drivers for your computer)
YEAH, it would make a lot more sense if i could just give you a disc with all these drivers on them at the next tourney, but if you can't wait that long, you can go with this and potentially keep the harmful files like levi said....
Now after you get that to a CD, or find your Driver CD that came with your computer (I command you to do this if you know where the original stuff for your computer is; if you had the XP CD and other stuff, you most likely had the Driver CD with it), Boot your computer from the XP CD by having it in the computer from when you turn it on.......
---- If it doesn't boot to the disc and instead starts up like normal, the Boot priority is set to have the Hard Disk start before that which is in the Disc drive. You could boot in such a way by either going into your Bios (hit f2, del, or whatever button says "SETUP" as the computer is starting up), go into advanced settings (navigate with arrow keys), press enter on the Boot device priority option. In that, I suggest setting it to CD/DVD drive first, Hard Disk second, and anything else listed after that in any order (just to give the option of booting by those later without having to go back into the bios). If you don't feel like going into your bios, you could press.... I think its F8 (F12 maybe?) as the computer is starting up to get a menu of boot devices to start from and you can enter the option for your disc drive.
now just let it boot up and everything..... let it go about stuff until everything is loaded. when it gives you some options to choose from. just press enter from this, since i'm going to be instructing you to wipe your HD and reinstall anew and not repair it (repair is if XP, the operating system, is a complete failure). say that you agree to the license stuff..... as always..... in the next thing it should list some stuff at the top, show a box on the bottom with partitions, list things at the bar on the bottom saying to select that partition, delete, ...... Press D for the delete, then enter, then it should say L for delete on the next screen. Press L and wait for it to delete. After its done with that, it'll ask you to either create a partition for your drive just install XP or exit..... I'm assuming you won't need multiple partitions, but i remember in my computer repair class that we always just went to the partition thing, but in this case you can just press enter to install. It'll as which file format you want to do (it should have NTFS, so just do that). most people do quick format, but you can do it the regular way if you want to... it doesn't matter. It'll probably just go formatting, then start XP installation directly after (after refreshing my memory with a video from youtube, you just let the formatting go let it restart normally, yada yada and don't boot from the CD again so that it goes into the installation process). Follow the XP installation instructions.... when you get to the point where you get normal control of the OS, start installing the drivers that you got from your driver CD that came with your computer (or the CD with all the stuff on it)..... after all the drivers are installed, just restart your computer for the heck of it..... if everything goes right, it'll restart with all of your settings you put in, you can customize all that stuff, etc.
if you have any other devices that go with your computer, you can get drivers for them online....
Hopefully this all works as it should..... Just make sure you either have your driver disc that came with the computer before you start this process or get the drivers from the website on a disc (although the latter i wouldnt recommend because dell just frustrates me really badly.... the way they have everything laid out on their website makes little sense.... rather than just having all necessary drivers for the proper functioning of the computer in one section and all other random stuff elseware, they just jumble everything...)
I DON'T LIKE DELL!!!! OMG!!! THEY GET ON MY NERVES SO OFTEN!!!
EDIT: Yes, levi, i fully understand that the exe files containing the update stuff for his drivers could be potentially affected by an extremely malicious virus... I would highly recommend, dajayman, to just find the original driver disc that came with your computer to avoid the potential risk of tranfering such files over...... but i could also give you a disc if that is something you can't do for an equally lessened risk
EDIT2:
Dajayman, a driver is a piece of software to be used by a computer in order to operate a piece of hardware... your computer has firmware on the bios/cmos/whatever you call it chip that contains drivers to run all of the stuff you have, like your expansion slots, onboard ports, drives slots, ram, etc.
EDIT 3: i repeated myself a lot, so disregard that....
