M17x and Windows 7

Haha DOH!!!! It was boggling my mind how the nvidia drivers did anything to affect the wireless, but there's your answer right there!!!

 

but it doesnt support hybrid sli, does it?

 

Possibly, I disabled my 9400 in the bios and forgot to reenable it until after i installed the driver, so I just shrugged and decided it wasn't worth my time to reinstall it again.

 

it doesnt work with hybrid sli. only blank screen. with intergrated graphics only or the dual gtx280 it works. back to 186.91 again. dell still testing..

 

Alright then. I'm typing from my Windows 7 so it means I didn't smash my PC. Last night I got home and crashed. Didn't even work on it. Good thing I didn't because the first thing I did this morning was read the last posts on this thread and decided to do my W7 install without the Nvidia Ethernet.

Everything works so far. I am using 186.82 I think and they work fine. Sound is good, and wireless is great. Actually, it might be even better than before.

I'm still setting up stuff like programs, etc., so I will be back here in a bit after some testing.

Anyway, so far so good. Painless process for sure. I have ZERO issues to report. Btw, I used the Student Upgrade (modified) to do a clean install from my formatted drive.

Be back.

+Rep to narval for the tip.

 

I havent gotton my system yet but am taking all the notes I can to troubleshoot should problems like these arise. So if im understanding correctly, you uninstalled the network driver for Win7 and installed the Vista 64bit version? You then uninstalled the Nvidia chipset driver for Win7, reinstalled it, this time not checking the ethernet option?

 

After reinstalling the nVidia chipset (without the ethernet selection), did you then install the Ricoh chipset and broadcom network drivers from the Dell site?

If so... everything work okay?

 

The Ricoh drivers are for your Media Card Reader.
The Broadcom Network drivers are for your wireless.
The problem was that the nvidia chipset drivers "with ethernet selected" was dorking with the wireless drivers.

 

I installed the chipset (without Ethernet), then installed the Ricoh. The Broadcom I didn't install because it was already working. I went to device manager and it already said Broadcom so I guess W7 installed a generic one, I don't know.

All is well so far.

 

So Marvie, would you recommend then just uninstalling and then reinstalling the nvidia chipset drivers (making sure to uncheck the ethernet selection at installation) and just see how that goes before anything else?

 

I would do this if you already installed the nVidia drivers and forgot to uncheck the ethernet.

Yeah you're using generic Win 7 drivers, but this close to Win 7 release its probably the same ones that Dell has anyway. Best way to check is to look at the driver version. But if its working, why mess with it.

 

"I would do this if you already installed the nVidia drivers and forgot to uncheck the ethernet."

in my case, I dont have the system yet. Everything would already be installed


Since were on the subject of wireless, would it be safe (and not cause any system instability) to just turn off wireless in the BIOS if I dont intend on using the internal wireless card? I plan on getting Sprnts 3G/4G USB modem to use for my wireless needs. Thanks!

 

That's what its there for yes. What that will do is turn your "bluetooth/wireless on/off" button into simply a "bluetooth on/off" button.

 

Thanks for helping, rep + for you. ill probably disable bluetooth too, since I have no plans to use it for a while. So the button will not work at all then.

 

Yes you are right, First uninstalled the nework driver for win7 and installed the vista 64 and then uninstalled the nvidia chipset driver win7 not check eternet option, this method work for me.

 

Thanks! Some rep + for you as well.

 

Well nVidia officially sucks for non-video drivers. Installed the latest chipset drivers, 15,49, system took 5 minutes for the login screen to appear instead of the normal 30 seconds and my wireless stopped. HDD was on solid for the entire time.

Rolled back both drivers in device manager using the Rollback button and both Ethernet and SATA and everything is back to normal.

 

OK. Only 1 issue to report. I'm not even sure it is an issue.

Anyway, I am missing the part where it says "F10 for AlienRespawn..." I think it's because I did a clean install. The partition is still there though. I tried running the update that is supposed to fix this MBR part, but said "Repair MBR Failed"

I think that patch might have been only for Upgrades to W7, and not Clean installs. Any ideas? If I can't access this partition I was thinking about just deleting it. I have my own backup of my W7 setup so...

What do you guys think? Should I attempt to salvage it, or just kill it forever with GParted? Is there anything important on that Respawn Partition?

Thanks.

 

hi try to turn off your integrated graphics on your bios and log in again see what happens

 

Well the only way I got it to finally work was to disable my ethernet in the system bios. Then boom no more wireless connection problems. I did follow the advice and uninstall win 7 driver put vista 64 back on and then reinstall win 7 driver with ethernet unchecked. Still has problems so idk.

 

is everyone running into a problem upgrading to windows 7 with wireless? i feel like i am the only one that did not have a problem upgrading.

 

I didn't have a problem either.

Thanks to that tip above about not installing the Nvidia Ethernet, which I didn't on my first and only try. W7 is super solid.

And I gained about 100GB with all my programs and media now installed like it was on my Vista. Talk about efficiency of this new OS.

 

did anyone install win 7 32bits ? i can't really find any drivers on the site, I know you'll tell me that i should install 64 but I gotta test some stuff and kinda need 32bits


I managed to isntall the chipset, but I can't install the gfx drivers, it says smt like it cant find nvidia hardware, smt like that

 

Short time reader, but a with a month old alienware m17x operating vista 64 ultimate.

I plan on doing a fresh install with w7 ultimate, and have some questions regarding of certain matters.

1. alien fx, sense and touch software, does it work
2. facial recognition software with alienware does it work after the installl
3. video drivers, i have a single 260m and a 9400 does hybrid work with w7
4. also wondering where i could get the custom wallpapers again.
5. Any other possible quirks that might be out there.

 

Welcome.

1. They all work
2. Facial Recognition I do not run, never run installer. It did ask me to set it up though. I suppose it works (not sure).
3. I used the same drivers I was using for my Vista. Work fine. Unplug and it goes into the 9400, plug it back and it goes into GTX. I use 186.82
4. Look for Sleey0. His sig has all you need.
5. Do not install the Nvidia Ethernet when asked to.

Everything else is good over here.

 

How did you guys isntall 182.** drivers, I try and point device manager to the extracted folder and when I try and upgrade the drivers, I get a compatibility message, what the hell is the secret?

Also, anyone Play world Ofwarcraft on this machine with Win7?

 

decided to take trial run at it to see if everything working, i partition my harddrive and installed w7 on the other drive

I don't where to get the proper video driver for this laptop, i see so many options.
my keyboard doesn't light up anymore

aliencommand center keeps on crashing.

is there a particular order on how to install everything.

I have an unknown device under device manager.

 

Unknown device could be your on board graphics 9400. Yes there is a specific order to the driver/application install. If you scroll back a few pages you will yet a link to the procedure. but good luck with a stable nvidia driver they don't have an official win driver for our machines yet for a reason. Say aw dropped the ball on this as well as nvidia. This os we t rtm in July. And they still don't have a driver out. Most up to date official driver is.
8/27/09 which is very sad. Spoke to a se ior tech with aw and they are in process of issuing another bios update as well as holding off for a bit on new orders with win 7 so I was told.

 

i personally went back to vista x64. at least for the time being. dell drivers seems to be all like beta for win7 and causing major problems and in my opinion even make the dcp problem even worse (especially the nvidia chipset driver). i cant really understand how they uploaded them. for example if you have ethernet cable enabled then you cant connect via wireless lan. this is the most obvious problem and dell must pay more attention especially for this machine.

i hope for news from dell for bios and gpu drivers as well.

 

Thanx for the information,
glad i repartition and gave at a try.

 

i have a serious audio stutter problem in vista when i use rhe sli configuration.
i tried this driver but my problem remains. damn!

 

i keep getting this error with every gfx setting (hybrid on / off), windows 7 32 or 64 and 3 different driver versions...


any ideas ? lol

 

Wow. Lot of problems I see. I don't know guys. I just followed BatBoy's blog. And after over a day of testing I can say there are ZERO problems in this machine. It runs much better than Vista. Even little things I had before are now gone (i.e., I hide all my taskbar icons, but in Vista some of them would always unhide. W7 keeps everything like I set it up). I have no audio lag, video lag, or anything. SLI/9400 works for sure. Exactly like in Vista. I use less RAM, and recovered a ton of space.

If it helps here is exactly what I did:

Make sure to reboot every time is necessary.

- Removed Second Hard Drive with all the stuff I want to save.
- Make sure all graphic cards are enabled in the Bios
- Boot from W7 DVD (got the student download but modified it to become a bootable USB)
- Go through steps, pick Custom Install
- Pick Main Drive and Format via W7 USB.
- Install W7 on that formated drive.
- Computer Restarts twice I think
- Desktop loads.
- Remove W7 USB

Right off the bat it has Wireless working no problem.

Now for the drivers (Just double click, no pointing in Device manager or anything like that):

- Download and Install Chipset WITHOUT Ethernet
- Install OSD
- Install Graphics Drivers. I used 186.82 since they were great on Vista
- Update PhysX
- DO NOT install Wireless Network Card if you already have wireless internet. It seems W7 used a generic one that works better (I get faster speeds than under Vista). You set this up during installation of W7.
- Then I installed Audio Adapter
- Bluetooth
- DID NOT install Touchpad. The generic W7 uses is much better. But it has no scrolling on the sides. Not a deal breaker.
- Installed Media Card Driver Ricoh
- Installed Receiver Driver
- Installed Vista Webcam (works fine)
- Installed Alien Command Center

That's it guys. And like I said, Rebooted when asked to. One try is all it took. I will not be going back to Vista. This is leaps above and beyond it.

I could make a list of the little issues I was having with Vista but that is not the point. Suffices to say I didn't really experienced stuttering in Vista before, so I can't comment on that.

My only thing is what I posted earlier. I don't have the option anymore to "Press F10 for AlienRespawn..." so I am wondering if I should just delete that partition.

phew.. that was a long post.

 

thats what i mean. installing officially available drivers using tricks just sucks. the bad thing is that the RTM-final version was provided to the manufacturers for testing before two months and still missing absolutely working drivers or they are absent.

i personally have less less stutter on vista in comparison with win7. drivers or bios issue i dont know.

 

For those people in the UK who had not got their Windows 7 coupon code might expect theirs to arrive soon.

Mine arrived via ups urgent. There doesn't seem to be any shipping charges and it says that dispatch is 30-10-2009. I am getting the Windows 7 Ultimate English x64.

 

ok i got the graphics working now, but theres something else, its not a problem, id just like to have it like on vista, when i lauch a game at a different reso then the native one, it doesnt take up all the screen, any ideas ?

 

Maybe the game is in windowed mode?

 

This is why i am back on vista 64. I was smart. I had to extra drives so I just formatted them and enabled raid 0 on them. since they are slow 5400 rpm. I isntalled my win7 enterprise 64 bit on those. I leave the single HDD for vista alone so all I got to do is swap drives and trun on/off raid in the bios and reboot.

But I am still amazed that this company still has no working stable video driver. I remember back in win7rc i couldnt get the HDMI ports to work. Works great on vista but not on win7 with the vga port for 2 external monitrs...wth.

I have tried installed via the proper procedure and disabled the 9400 in the bios intergrated and hybrid. Stillc ant get A nvidia driver to load for the duel 260's. forget the fact theya ren't stable. Forget the fact the enternet issue, which I wasnt having.

Alienware/Dell Great Job guys, since you people new that it was going to be released 3 months after it went RTM!

 

If you have an Nvidia video card, then go to the Nvidia control panel. Under Display, go to Adjust desktop size and position and select either use "Use Nvidia scaling" (will stretch the graphics that are rendered at a resolution below your display's native resolution to fit your display without leaving black borders, which could mess up the ratio) "Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed aspect ratio" (will stretch your graphics below your display's native resolutionbut keep the aspect ratio of the resolution, so it might leave black borders either left and right or top and bottom).Selecting "Do not scale" will cause the graphics to not be stretched and there will be black borders around it at any resolutions below the display's native resolution.
If you have an AMD/ATi card the option can be found elsewhere (not sure where, don't have any computer with AMD card installed available at the moment).

On a side note, stretching/scaling will make your image slightly blurry at lower resolutions than your display's native resolution which can cause text to not be as readable. In such cases, it's best to run your application/game in your display's native resolution to keep graphics and text as sharp as possible. Of course, this will cause slower performance than using lower resolutions. It's a thing you'll have to decide for yourself on a case by case basis.

I hope this helps.

 

thanks, thats what i've been trying to do. the problem is, it keeps going back to use my display's blabla if i use the native resolution

 

So will I have to update all of my drivers if I upgrade to Windows 7? That sounds like a real pain. X.X

 

I still can't fix my BSOD/crashing when running 3d applications on win7 >.<

 

Koshin: let me guess You have to do a hard reboot? If so thats the same issue i've experianced on RC that I imagined fixed when it went rtm/release. Sorry man no fix yet.

 

So far I'm at the infared driver. Got a bluescreen - hidusb.sys while installing. Fun times

edit - seems to happen whenever I try to move my BT mouse. Looks like I need to try reinstalling bluetooth

 

I cant even find a reference for hibub.sys Zath. Google has nothing on it. That is odd. Did the BSOD indicate anything else? Probably best to start fresh and try again.

 

It's hidusb.sys actually. Misread it. Only reason I knew that is because it blue-screened a 2nd time - this time as soon as I turned on the mouse.

I installed CCleaner, did registry scan - 15 issues. Fixed. Another registry scan - 16 issues (many of these had BT in description). Fixed. Installed BT drivers again. Drivers installed fine it seems, but it's not discovering my mouse

 

Also after restarting after finishing other driver installs, bluetooth is no longer displayed in system tray and also not displayed in control panel. yay.

 

You tried reinstalling the touchpad driver? Check your PM.

 

didn't even install touchpad as it was not suggested per quoted post

 

Problem *seems* to be resolved. I re-downloaded the BT drivers and did a repair installation. Then SHUT DOWN completely. Then started up. My mouse was apparently in the bluetooth's list of already connected devices - deleted that and then re-added the mouse and seems to be working fine now