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    Worth upgrading to Windows 8?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by SunsetRider, Oct 28, 2012.

  1. SunsetRider

    SunsetRider Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm thinking of upgrading to windows 8 but not sure if the graphics drivers will support it. Anyone here tried using windows 8? If yes shall i upgrade? TY
     
  2. jostefan13

    jostefan13 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi, I have just upgraded to windows 8 Pro, from windows 7 ultimate and i didnt have to upgrade any graphics drivers, or any drivers for that matter. Media playback works fine, though I have not tried any games yet. So far everything seems to be as it was from windows 7.
    Although, if you're planning to upgrade, you should remove ALL drives beside the OS drive. If there are any other drives present during the upgrade, there is a chance that windows will mistakenly place the MBR data in the other drive causing the upgrade to fail. I went through 4 upgrade failed/rollbacks before I found out about this, after which I removed my second drive, and the upgrade went well.
     
  3. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    installed flawlessly on my m17x r3. After the upgrade the only driver I really had to mess with was the Graphics Card Driver. Other than that it was quick and easy. Hope this helps :)
     
  4. M11xDude

    M11xDude Notebook Consultant

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  5. SunsetRider

    SunsetRider Notebook Enthusiast

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    Just did a clean installation and everything seems fine other than boot. For some weird reason windows startup is slow for me compare to windows 7. After boot i had to wait for like 2 minutes of blank screen :c anyone got a solution for this?
     
  6. Benchmade 42

    Benchmade 42 Titanium

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    Sticking with Windows 7. If it ain't broke don't fix or upgrade it. Maybe down the road i'll get a PC that legitimately comes with a preinstalled Windows 8 with all the bugs and issues gone.
     
  7. baii

    baii Sone

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    If it is not a work machine, by all means and try windows 8.

    Make a backup though.
     
  8. BigwaveMx

    BigwaveMx Notebook Enthusiast

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    I just finish install Win8 Pro from Win7 Home Premium on M14Xr1 and all works fine. The only drivers i need to reinstal was the OSD and free fall sensor drivers. The startup is really fast. I'm reinstalling all the steam games. Hope all goes fine.
     
  9. erephus

    erephus Notebook Geek

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    If you are considering it, buy the upgrade while it is cheaper than it is supposed to be in a few months.

    I have only tested two games, EVE Online and Guild Wars 2, I haven't seen any problems with those two.

    I did not download or installed any extra drivers for what is in the computer. Graphics driver was there, latest from Nvidia this day.
    And I by first did an upgrade install and later made clean install with the upgrade version, you have an option to make a bootable device USB/DVD when you have downloaded.

    (M14xR1)
     
  10. juliant

    juliant Notebook Deity

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    Totally agreed. If you can, upgrade now while you get the 'free' discount. It does make a difference if you do a clean installation (google on how to activate your product on a clean installation), as we already know that this is an upgrade and needs to be done over the win 7.

    I find after a while:

    1. Win 8 is more responsive;

    2. More stable;

    3. Programs load faster;

    4. Much cleaner and I can say easier to use;

    5. Smaller in size (that's if you know how to disable all that hibernation, remove windows updates);

    6. So far there are no issues with any games, run smooth and I am on the latest beta driver 310.33.

    Once you upgrade, though there is a bit of a longer procedure, you will not regret it!
     
  11. 2GStyle

    2GStyle Notebook Geek

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    I have been running Windows 8 on my M14x-R1 for give or take 5 months now. All I can say is once you go to it you wont want to go back. Yes the start screen can be seen as annoying at first but I see it less than I ever saw the start menu in Windows 7. Also once you get used to seeing the start screen you learnt hat is it better then the start menu. It is much faster, easier to customize and offers a quick glance option thanks to the live tiles.

    I am happy with my switch to windows 8 on my laptop but at the same time I would be lying if I said I changed all of my computers over to Windows 8 already.... My main desktop will still run Windows 8 until I can figure out how to set wake on lan and set up startup programs with ease. My desktop is rarely use and is mainly a movie server and torrent bot for most of my TV shows... dropped cable a few year back thanks to EZTV =p. I would love to upgrade it to Windows 8 for the syncing features but until I can "get what I have" with no issue I will not change my setup that works.

    Couple things I have learned from updating to Windows 8... Use Dell's drivers for your R1 from the R2... a lot of the hardware matches but the R2 still gets updates, thank Dell for being lazy. If you experience any random lock ups or freezing install Hyper-V... Not really 100% sure why but it solves all the issues I had with the CP version.
     
  12. Sn1PeR

    Sn1PeR Notebook Enthusiast

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    Has anyone been able to get the windows 8 specific touchpad gestures working? ie. swipe in from the right to bring up the start menu, etc.

    edit: They are working with the latest drivers through Dell's webpage. I had to use IE to get them to download.
     
  13. 2GStyle

    2GStyle Notebook Geek

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    Can you post the link to the drivers? Or how you set it up at least since I am running the Touchpad drivers for the M14x R2 page and don't have any of the gestures working.
     
  14. Sn1PeR

    Sn1PeR Notebook Enthusiast

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    I installed "Touchpad_Synaptics_W84_X00_A00_Setup-WJWT5_ZPE" - I don't have a link, but it was through the main dell support website. The swipe in from the right gesture is actually the only one that works so far, and it's fairly finicky. Right now I'm dealing with the fact that the Intel RST control panel crashes when launched and no games will launch. I'm running the 306.97 win8 drivers and am downloading the 310.33 drivers now. Hopefully I can figure out how to get games working again...
     
  15. Sn1PeR

    Sn1PeR Notebook Enthusiast

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    No dice on 310.33 either. Installed DirectX again as well. Literally no 3D games will launch.
     
  16. MakakiloMoke

    MakakiloMoke Notebook Enthusiast

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    I upgraded to Windows-8 last night and all I can say is "WOW"! Best Windows OS by far! I've used all kinds of Operating Systems since Windows-98, including Sun and Linux, and Windows-8 is hands down the best!

    Here is Dell's link for the Windows-8 drivers. Just make sure you choose "Windows-8" from the operating system drop down menu.
    Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]
     
  17. Sn1PeR

    Sn1PeR Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm going to format and give another update once everything is done reinstalling. For now I must recommend that you not upgrade from windows 7 to windows 8 at this time. Doing so made my computer unable to play games using the nvidia gpu. I've also had the synaptic driver crash quite a few times. Additionally I was never able to get my ssd caching working again.
     
  18. nuaron

    nuaron Notebook Consultant

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    Windows 8 is worth every penny spent. Its faster than windows 7 in all aspect hands down. Plus the app interface ( start screen) is kinda convenient for me. FB, mail, chat all on bootup means less time to log into separate places for same info.
    There is a minor learning curve ( like hotspots) but once you get used to it, you would appreciate the simplicity of windows 8.All my previous softwares from windows 7 are working on windows 8 like solidworks etc. only certain drivers and my A/V ( bitdefender) wouldnt install on it.
     
  19. Vip_blast

    Vip_blast Notebook Consultant

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    Just in case you guys are hesitating between the price (you haven't purchased your gear in the last few months and you are not getting the promo price for the Windows 8 Pro upgrade), there is a workaround.

    I paid £15 for my upgrade even though I bought my laptop 6 months ago.
    Anyone can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99. - techPowerUp! Forums
     
  20. smokeydogsmokey

    smokeydogsmokey Notebook Consultant

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    does it not install at all? did u upgrade or fresh (bitdefender)
     
  21. Sn1PeR

    Sn1PeR Notebook Enthusiast

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    Doing a format and fresh install fixed my GPU driver issues and allows for games to launch successfully. I haven't had any time to really play games and see how the performance is, but at least they launch. I am however getting touchpad issues - it will go unresponsive for a few seconds at a time every twenty minutes or so and then come back. I'm running "Touchpad_Synaptics_W84_X00_A00_Setup-WJWT5_ZPE" version 16.0.4.0, A01 from the Dell website. The Synaptics control panel says v7.5.
     
  22. MakakiloMoke

    MakakiloMoke Notebook Enthusiast

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    Aloha Sn1PeR,
    I had the same issue with my "32gb Caching SSD" not working after I upgraded my hard drive and OS to Windows8. I was able to get my Caching SSD to work by using the "Intel Rapid Storage Technology" software to unassociate my old hard drive's partition. Then I had to associate the new hard drive with it's partition. You can use Windows8 "Help" or google how to configure your Caching SSD using "Intel Rapid Storage Technology". Hope this helps.
     
  23. Sn1PeR

    Sn1PeR Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for the heads up. I was able to get it working as well. I believe the trick for me was deleting the caching partition in the menu during boot and then re-assigning it to the drive just like you mentioned. That combined with having the bios set to raid mode and installing the right drivers direct from Intel.