Hi RonGreen, I assume that you have Inspiron N5110 which is compatible with Windows 8. Inspiron 5100 system has not been tested to be compatible with Windows 8. Please run the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant before installing Windows 8. Upgrade Assistant checks your computer hardware and let you know which software's are compatible with your computer. Here is the link to download [URL] and click on ‘Download Upgrade Assistance’. Before upgrading to Windows 8, it is recommended to update the drivers in Windows 7.You may refer to the following link for Windows 8 Upgrade Checklist [URL]  Please reply if you have any questions.
Greetings. I am hoping that someone can offer some assistance with helping me understand what drivers to load for a Win8 64 bit clean install on the N5100? I plan to start it by first updating the BIOS to 11 to avoid hopefully the black screen. So, in preparation, I went to Dell's driver support site for my laptop version and entered in the Service Tag number and then elected Win 8 64 bit. Compared to what they show for Win7-64bit the selection was more concise and less confusing. However, the Win8section was lacking drivers for Chipset, Removable storage, and Serial ATA. Do I use the ones displayed under Win 7 64 bit? If so, how do I know which one to pick since there are a number of choices? For example, for the Removable Storage there are 3 listed (TS-L633J, DS-8A555H, and DS-6E2SH) and for the Serial ATA 2 (Julius versus Desaru). Thank you in advance for any help.
Inspiron N5100 Win8 Install - assistance with Drivers