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    How to format my m17x

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by oOwhiteOo, Jul 11, 2010.

  1. oOwhiteOo

    oOwhiteOo Notebook Enthusiast

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    anybody noes how ?
    i only have the windows disc and the drivers disc
     
    oOwhiteOo, Jul 11, 2010
    #1
  2. TurbodTalon

    TurbodTalon Notebook Virtuoso

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    Ensure all of your important data is backed up elsewhere. Once you start the format, it's all gone forever. Put the Windows disk in the drive and reboot. While it's rebooting, rapidly hit the F12 button to go into boot options. Choose the disk drive. Windows will begin doing it's thing. You'll get a few prompts for options, information, etc. Windows will continue to do it's thing. You're done after some automatic reboots. You'll be sitting at the desktop again. Windows will install a lot of drivers automatically. I personally don't care about most of the other components, but my graphics cards NEED to have solid drivers. Then run some sort of benchmarking program, or install and play a game to ensure it's all working correctly. Also go into the device manager and make sure you don't have any of the yellow triangles with the exclamation mark in them. Stuff that has one of those still needs a driver. Good luck.
     
    TurbodTalon, Jul 11, 2010
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  3. oOwhiteOo

    oOwhiteOo Notebook Enthusiast

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    meaning i will be able to get all the drivers from either the disc and the net ?
     
    oOwhiteOo, Jul 11, 2010
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  4. alienwolf

    alienwolf Notebook Deity

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    Yes the major ones from Dell support. Like TurbonTalon
    said back up everything you will lose all the Alienware wallpaper and screens. So drag them all to a usb or better yet make a CD or USB back up of your files first. :eek:
     
    alienwolf, Jul 11, 2010
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  5. oOwhiteOo

    oOwhiteOo Notebook Enthusiast

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    the dell wallpaper and screens cannot be downlaoded ??
     
    oOwhiteOo, Jul 11, 2010
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  6. TurbodTalon

    TurbodTalon Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yeah, they can. It's just easier and quicker to drag them to a storage device than to root through all the crap on the net to find them again. And yes, you can find all your drivers between the web and your disk.
     
    TurbodTalon, Jul 11, 2010
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  7. oOwhiteOo

    oOwhiteOo Notebook Enthusiast

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    anything else i need to take note of ?
    i'm doing this only becos of the irritating waiting for background programs to shutdown screen .
     
    oOwhiteOo, Jul 11, 2010
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  8. alienwolf

    alienwolf Notebook Deity

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    go to start type msconfig and close any unwanted programs like steam and others from loading at start all the time will help speed up system. :D
     
    alienwolf, Jul 11, 2010
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  9. oOwhiteOo

    oOwhiteOo Notebook Enthusiast

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    thks all anyway :)
     
    oOwhiteOo, Jul 11, 2010
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  10. DaneGRClose

    DaneGRClose Notebook Virtuoso

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    One thing to keep in mind, when you do the format make sure you DO NOT load Control Center from the disc, install the other drivers/apps from the disc but not CC. Multiple Tech's have reported that it can bonk your AlienFX out if it is an older version than what your computer came with, so download the newest one from the driver site.
     
    DaneGRClose, Jul 11, 2010
    #10
  11. TurbodTalon

    TurbodTalon Notebook Virtuoso

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    Don't reformat because of the "waiting for programs to shut down" screen. Do what Alienwolf said to do and you'll more than likely eliminate that.
     
    TurbodTalon, Jul 11, 2010
    #11