I apologize, I may have commented a little rashly. I just double checked and it is actually an Inspiron 600m (which I believe is even more vintage than the 5100?)

It wasn't originally in my plans for this weekend, but your comment got me concerned I may have misremembered other details. I just tried installing (32 bit) 5.14 off a USB stick and it did, indeed, work just fine. Sorry you had trouble with your config :(