stoopid noob doing a reinstall

hey guys I have a feeling my comp is strangled with the amount of crap I have floating around on here and I want to do a fresh reistall, I am scared that I am going to be missing a bunch of crap after I do this, dose anyone have a link or anything that has ALL the drivers we need for the m17x-r2

are there any folders you guys think I need to save to a external hard drive before I do this?

also I flashed the bios to A09 and also just flashed the vbios aswell.

ps: I have been installing the new video drivers as they are released aswell, however do I need to uninstall the old ones first before I install the new one to make the system run as fast as it can???

God thats a lot of questions hope someone can help.....bottom line I have just installed Final Fantasy XIV and I am less than impressed with the setting my m17x can handle, I have seen people claim there m17x can run this game max settings!!!!

I have the 720qm and HD5870 crossfire, 6gb ram

 

First time setup - Alienware M17x Wiki

^^
All you need to know for the drivers part.


As for your system's re-installation , just use Alienware recovery partition ..

 

thanks for your reply mate, so if I completely re-install windows dose it automatically wipe all drivers aswell? or will all my drivers still be left working?

sorry man I'm kinda new and computers aren't my strong point

also if I update to windows ultimate using the cd, will installing alienware control center take care of making face recognition work on boot up ?

 

1. 2 Questions, if you format, there will be nothing left, get the latest drivers from support.dell.com.

2. Question, Yes Command Center is the Face recognition software build in, Aliensense from SensibleVision, there is also a rep in this forum especially for AlienSense. (svrep)

Not impressed? Yeah might be a driver issue, the game just came out and ATI needs to work on this game, except a Hotfix sooner or later that gives a better compatibility...
Cheers

 

just incase if you have a bluray drive, or for some unknown reason want the Creative SB drivers again,

smartsource.dell.com for those.

 

cheers for the reply's guys, and thanks grim, you have helped me out with info twice now....this might be the dumbest question you have been asked in a while but if I reinstall and the drivers are wiped including the videocard drivers.....how do the video cards still display stuff? do they have a default driver they revert to?

and yeah unimpressed is a dirty word to use anywhere near a m17x lol sorry guys ( I love this laptop )....your probably right man that its a driver issue and as you said grim, its a very new game. I was just puzzled as to how some people said the max settings were no problem for their m17x, while mine seemed to be struggling a bit(screen tears and what-not) Im sure they had a better cpu but basically same specs.

 

Yeah, if you don't have a video driver installed, the OS will use its integrated VGA Driver. What do you think how the BIOS Screen is displayed?

If you have tearing (not struggling, i'm sure others have the same issue at the moment), the game might not support V.Sync, or is there somewhere such an option? And with server lag and such things i'm sure S-E also has some work in sight and should be busy for atleast this week.

So if you bought the collectors edition, call yourself a premium beta tester a week in advance, cheers

Anyway give it some time, have patience and if you don't b*tch at ATI or DELL (sarcasm is ok from time to time), i'm sure they continue to listen to us and try to solve our issues one-by-one we are having.

 

^ lol @ CE

 

The sole reason I just bought my M17x today is to play FFXIV. I surely hope the machine can handle this game as it is the only game besides HOMM3 (old 2D game) and FFXI that I play. My specs,

QX9300
8Gig
SLI 280

I'm worry. Let me know how FFXIV runs in your system please Thanks in advance.

 

The R2 has a recovery partition?!?

 

I HAD one, yes... But since i completly did not realize or care anyhow and did a fresh windows install right away when i got my system, i could not capture all the stuff that were preinstalled. And since i totally blew up, kinda, i'm still very comfortable with my base windows, clean and fresh, with the apps i am used to and own for longer time already. I don't think i am missing something. the Windows 7 backup manager should be just fine to make an image, or i also do specific individual backups of the applications that are important to me.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...70-september-2010-incl-vbios-flash-guide.html

That's what i more or less have on my system, along Nero Lite, Microsoft Essentials, Creative Webcam Software, Media Player Classic-Home Cinema, to name a few programs i use and replaced from alienwares original provided preinstalled software, note: some of the apps are on the ressource Disk if you still like to use (you paid for them along, so why not ), but the Dell Backup Manager is not on the disk.

 

Here is more or less the reason i think, why Dell Backup manager is not provided for a fresh clean reinstall, you can also try it for yourself. I have searched a long time to find this site actually, not much info out there about this...

So i downloaded the Dell DataSafe Local Backup from here:
http://dslbdownload.ddsupdate1.com/DSLDownload-en.html

I tried to install it and the program was named as AlienRespawn, clicked Next, it tried to install, then the programm noticed me with the message, that i would need to be on a factory default installation to install. So clicked OK and the program aborted.

So, here's your answer, dell simply does not provide further support once you decided to go the fresh way and operate on your own software installed. They would say: Do whatever you want, if you don't like our software, we don't care anymore, you're on your own now and independant (that includes their software support), good luck

 

ok Im about to embark on this reinstall boat and I just have another couple of quick questions before I do

1. Do I have to worry about this raid0?? setup upon startup? remember someone mentioning this, will it stay setup the way it is? this is a bios issue isn't it not a reistall issue???

2. I am going to be reinstalling win7 ulti, however I am skeptical as to the legitimacy of this cd key I have, if worst case scenario it fails, how do I revert back to the win7 home premium that came preinstalled on here? I have a alienware cd that came with this laptop titled windows home, it sort of says its a recovery cd??? can this be used to reinstall windows?

3. If I download the newest version of catalyst it will take care of crossfire working properly right?