Hello there:
I managed to finally find some time to upgrade my trusty (but loud) XPS Gen 5 to Windows 7. The major components changed were RAM (6GB total=2x2GB+2x1GB), a new SSD (Seagate 256GB SDSSDHP-256G-G25), and newly purchased Dell 21.5" Ultrasharp U2212HM monitor.
All seems to boot well, except that it's never on the first power up: it always fails to boot after a long pause on the splash screen, temporarily freezing so I can't select F2 setup, then eventually showing an "not found" error on the Disk 0 boot. If I cycle the power button either during the splash screen freeze or after the error message, there's no problem and the OS boots normally thereafter (and pretty quickly).
[I've never had this problem before, even with the stock WD 250GB hard disk, except that changing components will often cause a delay in bootup for the first time only.]
I would guess it's either a particular problem with the SSD or with the BIOS - the workaround is manageable but highly annoying to have to turn on the computer twice to start.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Tony