Dell Studio XPS DW1515 w/driver R251494 causes bsod on normal start-up and only starts in Safe Mode. Any help?

[Michael]

Vista x64 SP2 Home Premium. The system won't boot all the way to the log in screen unless I start it in Safe Mode only. Without that driver installed, the computer only notices the device in device manager as "Network Controller". When I reboot with the driver uninstalled, it notices new hardware and asks if I want to search the internet to find a driver for the "Network Controller". Of course there is no driver for a device called "Network Controller" and fails to find one. I lost my original driver disk that came with the computer. I've tried drivers from the Atheros website as well as Dell's to no avail. I'm sure that the driver on the Dell website is correct, but I think that when I install it, there may be something that doesn't like it and is causing a conflict. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

[Dell Inc.]

Hello Michael,

I am from Dell Social Media and Community.

This may be because of driver compatibility with the operating system. Perform a System Restore to a previous date when you had the system working fine.

Follow the steps below:

Close and save any documents that you may have open.

Click on the Star > All Programs menu > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore icon

After you click on the icon, if a User Account Control window opens you should click on the Continue button.

You will now be at the System Restore screen, you can specify the restore point that you would like to restore.

By default, Vista will already have selected the Recommended restore option. This restore point is one was made after a new program, driver, or update was installed. If you would like to use this restore point, you can click on the Next button to start the restore process. On the other hand, if there is a more recent restore point that you would like to restore you should select Choose a different restore point and press the Next button. This will bring you to a screen, that contains a listing of all the available restore points that you can restore to.

You should select the restore point that you would like to restore and press the Next button to start the restore process. Vista will display a Window showing your selected restore point and asking you to confirm that this is the one you would like to restore.

Confirm the selected restore point

If you would like to select a different restore point press the Back button. Otherwise you can press the Cancel button to exit System Restore or the Finish button to begin the restore process. If you selected Finish, Vista will display a second prompt asking you to confirm that you would like to continue the restore.

If you are sure you want to do the restore, then press the Yes button. Vista will now log you off of the computer and start the System Restore process.

When the restore has been completed, you computer will be restarted and when Vista boots back up it will be restored to its previous state. When you log in to Vista for the first time after the restore, you will see a message showing that the restore was successful.

If there are any problems with your computer due to the last restore, you can revert back to your previous settings by going back into the System Restore Utility and selecting the Undo System Restore option and pressing the Next button.

Undo the last System Restore

Your computer should now be working properly again.

Once the system restore is completed, you may follow the link below to know your system configuration at the point of sale and verify what type of wireless card is installed on your system and download the appropriate driver.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/g...~ck=anavml
(Enter your service tag and select configuration)

If this has not helped you or if you need any further assistance, feel free to message me on Twitter(@NiranjanatDell). I will be happy to assist.

Dell-Niranjan