Latitude E6510 Owner's Lounge

they did for me. they sent the 64bit disk in a pouch with a return label and asked that I send them back my 32 bit disk (which I did). When I originally spoke with tech support as I was placing my order they said there would be a $10 + tax + shipping cost, and that I could not request the disk until I received my system and gave them the Service Tag #. then when it arrived and I called, they sent it to me without asking for me to pay.

I still have not installed the 64bit as i am waiting for my exchange system to arrive.

 

Cool. Just out of curiosity, is that price you listed before or after taxes?

 

742 was before tax, but shipping was free.

 

Okay, that's what mine was pre-tax.

 

Is there a guide I can follow that explains in detail (keep in mind my knowledge of this kind of stuff is very limited) how to reinstall Windows 7 while upgrading to 64-bit out of the box for a refurbished system? I'm under the assumption the process is a bit different because of the specific disks Dell sends you with the refurbished system? Thanks.

 

My E6410 Win7x64 re-image notes linked below may help. They include a link to Dell's reimage guide which you can study and use to augment my notes for your system build. My notes are a brief outline for the experienced user.

I suggest you run your system a day or so to be sure of no failures out of the box, note the build-specific devices in Device Manager that you will be installing drivers for, collect the drivers you'll need for your OS from dell.com, switch the BIOS to AHCI mode, and have at it starting with a wiped drive.

The only Dell disc you will need is the OS DVD. I recommend you also run the Dell Diagnostics first to bang on the hardware... start with confidence.

GK

 

Follow GKDesigns,

But just to confirm to you, Dell OS disk is no image disk or anything special.
The steps you do, and everything else is like if you purchase Win7 from the store, and load it on your computer. The only difference, is that the Win7 disk is pre-activated for you (specially made from Microsoft).
There not REALLY a special order to install things, not in Vista or Win7 anyway, as everything is supported natively. XP was an issue, as it doesn't know more than half of the technologies used in your system.
But it's nice to followa guide so that you don't miss something. Just if you install something before another, don't panic.. it's perfectly fine.

 

Good points!

GK

 

could you please explain what "switch the BIOS to AHCI mode" does? what is this for? does it need to be done before reinstalling from Win 7 32 to 64 bit?

Thanks,

 

There are various Intel storage controller devices and functionality in the chipset on the system board. These can be enabled in the BIOS under SATA something or other. There is a legacy setting ATA?, AHCI, and IRRT. Generally, you don't need the legacy setting... you want SATA... either AHCI or IRRT. IRRT includes AHCI performance specs plus enables Intel's rapid restore technology for mirroring the internal HDD to an external HDD on an asynchronous basis peculiar to portable notebook usage... for disaster recovery. IRRT has some overhead a purist might choose to skip if they don't use it... by not enabling it. So, switch the BIOS SATA to AHCI.

Because these SATA modes/devices are of the storage controller, the relevant mode/device/driver must be installed and working before you can install the OS. If the OS has a default driver, then no problem... just install the OS and update the SATA driver afterward. If the OS does not have a default driver, then you must provide/inject the required driver at the beginning of the OS install. The later case is likely to occur when the hardware technology is very new or otherwise not common enough for MS to put in their OS installer.

Once the OS is installed, switching the BIOS SATA mode may cause the OS to crash if it does not have the relevant device driver available. So, select your desired BIOS SATA mode, pre-OS install the driver, and leave it.

You can try switching the BIOS SATA mode... if it crashes, just switch it back. Then if you want a different mode, you must either reinstall the OS, are put the driver in place and hack the registry. Me, I always prefer a clean install, so I would switch the mode and reimage the system.

Sounds like you have IRRT and Win7 x64. If you switch the BIOS mode to AHCI, does it crash?

GK