DELL XPS M1330 help

Hey all, long time lurker, first time poster.

I found a Dell XPS M1330 refurb online on eBay from a reseller. Got a great deal. Unfortunately I clicked and purchased it so quick that I didn't notice buried deep down in the fine print of the auction was that the external color was PINK!!!! Now, being in the Army 13 years can't carry around a pink laptop (LOL), so I've found a female co-worker that will buy it from me for what I paid for it.

I installed XP for me over vista premium and it worked great. Problem is co-worker wants it factory restored back to original settings. I accidentaly reformatted the recovery partition/media direct partition. I reinstalled Vista into a single partition and it works, but none of the drivers are installed for all the bells and whistles, IE video card, wireless, remote, etc etc.

So basically, how do I get it back to as if it came from factory??? I have all disks and really need help. Thanks

 

I would do the following, but I take no responsibility for anything.

1. Boot from the MediaDirect Disc.

2. Tell it you want to erase everything and, if it offers, that you want 2 partitions. If it does offer an option, leave 15 GB or so on the second partition. Either way, the recovery partition is already history.

ALL DATA ON THE ENTIRE HARD DRIVE WILL BE GONE IF YOU DO THIS!

3. When done, pop in the included Vista (or 7) DVD and install.

a) if the SATA Controller is set in the BIOS to AHCI/RAID, then when you want to click on Drive Options early on in setup and point Setup to a USB or other drive containing the latest Intel SATA AHCI/RAID drivers.

b) if the mode is ATA then just do a simple Vista installation with no tricks needed.

4. You may wish to image the freshly-installed Windows partition to that
second partition so you can always image it right back if it's needed later.

 

If you otherwise like the laptop you can change the color of the LCD back cover. You can get covers in black, dark blue, crimson red and white. Swapping it out is not too difficult and there's how-tos and guides online.

Another option is that you can buy new 'skins' that you stick over the existing back cover. I've seen faux wood and leather look ones on eBay. FYI, I've never seen a skin in the flesh and they might look really tacky.

 

Everything need for M1330 can be download from here http://support.euro.dell.com/suppor...atid=&impid=&os=WLH&osl=en&SystemID=XPS_M1330
Also you might want to flash the bios to the current build A15 Just that the M1330 has an history with over heating well most laptops with the nVidia GPU. Good luck and why not carry around a pink laptop Mr Army man
Color lids can be sourced on ebay just make sure you get the correct one to fit your screen ie: LED Back lit is the slim line screen and has a webcam with 0.3Megs pixel, standard has something like 1.3Megs and is the thicker screen..