New SSD install problem - help!

OK - M17x, new, came with 750 G HDD and 64 G mSATA cache drive. I purchased a Samsung 512 GB 840 Pro SSD to install myself.

Put the new SSD in the open bay, removed the HDD just to keep me from accidentally installing Windows to the wrong drive (or worse.) Set the SSD bay as the boot drive in the BIOS. Put the Windows 7 install disc that came with the machine into the drive (BTW - how do you eject a disc? I don't see a button) and restarted, hit F12 to boot from the Windows 7 install disc. Windows install came up, set it to a Custom/New install and it proceeded to do its thing and install Windows 7. Looked like everything was going fine, it asked me to give the PC a name, it rebooted, and Windows 7 is installed.

Except it appears none of the hardware drivers were installed. No video drivers (other than the generic VGA,) no wireless drivers, nothing. My systray has the volume meter, bluetooth icon, a network icon (that indicates no connections available, even though the wireless router is working fine, using it on this computer (my old M1710,) nothing.

Why did Windows not install the drivers? What did I do wrong?

Thanks - frustrating as I took the day off work to get everything up and running!

 

The eject button for the CD drive should be over the numeric pad next to the wifi button.
hasn`t your laptop came with 2 cds? One for Win7 , and one called Resource CD ? That has all the drivers...

 

The resource CD seems to have out of date files, for example it list the NVIDIA driver as the 675M driver and I have the 680M (or are those the same thing?) (Thanks on the CD eject, BTW)

 

Nothing went wrong, you just have a clean Windows install which you need to finish with the correct drivers..
This is how I personally always do it, I don't want others to install all my drivers with out of date ones in a wrong order, I want to do it myself.

Go to support.dell.com and enter your tag number. Here you will find all the most recent drivers, for your system.
Install them in the correct order (see M17x owner's thread), and do not install Windows Updates until you installed all software and drivers from Dell/Alienware first. I would also recommend installing the most recent Nvidia drivers, over the Dell drivers for your graphics card.

 

Gotcha, thanks. Is the correct order in the R3/R4 owners thread? I'll search for "order" - wait, that will bring up everyone who asked about their order, LOL! Drivers. Hmm I'll figure it out.

D/Ling drivers to a USB flash stick to use on the M17x (I think I have to install the mousepad driver first, that thing is unusable without a driver!)

 

Here you go:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html

 

Many thanks for taking the time to help.