The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    W3J/A8Jm: Reformat w/ Clean WinXP install

    Discussion in 'Asus' started by homie, May 28, 2006.

  1. homie

    homie Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    28
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I was wondering if anyone did a clean install of Windows with their A8Jm/W3J already because I want to do the same with mine.

    A. What would be the set of steps involved? My guess is:
    1. Install WinXP from WinXP CD + all OS security updates
    2. Install drivers and utilities downloaded from Asus website (ordering matter?)
    3. ...anything else?

    B. What utilities did you leave out because they were useless/crappy/error prone in the first place?

    C. Did everything still work after the fresh install? (i.e. special buttons on the left and right sides of the W3J)

    Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. :)
     
  2. SRD

    SRD Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    133
    Messages:
    2,089
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Honestly asus adds no extra crap softwar to their machines. not like dell or something. Its pretty much a clean image.
     
  3. SRD

    SRD Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    133
    Messages:
    2,089
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    reinstalling is easy though you pretty much listed everything you have to do. after you install all the drivers all the bottons and stuff will work fine.
     
  4. Darrick

    Darrick Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    46
    Messages:
    1,098
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    I did a clean format/install on my A8Jm with no problem.

    Just popped in my XP CD (my own XP, not the recovery one from ASUS), boot from CD, enter setup, delete all the partitions there (I decided to leave the Recovery Partition in there, only takes 2 GB, no harm done), format the drive and let installation run.

    Then put in the ASUS Driver & Utility CD, install it from top to bottom in order (Excluding the Synaptics driver, download the Synaptics driver from the Synaptics site.. the ASUS one gives error when trying to go to Device Settings).

    All buttons still working on mine, no problems on the machine so far.
     
  5. homie

    homie Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    28
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Thanks a lot for the detailed information Darrick. That was exactly what I was looking for.
     
  6. Darrick

    Darrick Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    46
    Messages:
    1,098
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    No prob.. let us know how it goes
     
  7. MaloS

    MaloS Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    117
    Messages:
    95
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    what if I don't have the drivers on me? I was hoping to use wireless connectivity, possibly storing that and video driver on my external hd (usb) - would that trick pass? (after downloading and connecting with wireless and downloading the rest of the drivers, I just need mouse/keyboard/internet to work to do this really).