Everything going wrong with Studio XPS 16

As the title says, everything is going wrong with my new studio xps 16, and I was wondering if any of you could help.

Issues:

1. I had just recently installed windows 7 (which replaced windows vista, because I was planning to use this as my primary OS), but I then realized that windows 7 was not compatible with most of the programs I use, so I reinstalled vista on a different hard drive partition. And now for some reason whenever I use vista it will never let me set the display's resolution to 1920 by1080... (the maximum resolution it will let me set it to is 1440 by 1050) Is there any way to solve this and change the screen to it's native resolution in Vista? (It works perfectly in windows 7 BTW).

2. As I mentioned earlier, I had installed Windows 7 and re-installed Windows Vista. After I did this, all of dell's programs such as the facial recognition and video chat had completely vanished. Is there any chance of getting these back?

3. When I first plugged in the X-fi Xtreme notebook audio card that I had ordered with the laptop, it was working flawlessly. The next time I inserted the card, It said that the device was not working properly and reinstalling it's driver might fix the problem. It then tried to reinstall the driver but it said that it had failed to install it. I then got a new driver off some site for it and tried manually installing the driver, but it said it cannot detect the sound card. Could this be a defective driver or is the actual sound card broken?

EDIT: I think I might have solved this issue



4. I cannot connect to the internet through a wired or wireless connection. I have no idea why this is happening, but whenever I connect my lappy directly to the modem I can connect, which makes absolutely no sense at all. (Just to let you know my previous laptop was connected internet wirelessly and is still working, which means that my router (D-link DGL 4500) and my modem are working fine...)

Thanks in advance!

 

Installing the Windows 7 BETA over your main operating system wasn't the brightest thing to do.

I'd just reinstall Vista. The installation of vista probably screwed up somewhere. Are you sure there's no driver CD for your dell programs?

 

i think i've read this somewhere but i may NOT be completely right. I've heard that once you upgrade to windows 7, you cannot downgrade back to vista. I think that can be the problem, because u went back to vista. but again, i may be wrong on this, i dont remember where i have read this.

 

I suggest you format the whole disk and then re-install vista again. Also, I still disagree on using a beta version operating system as primary =)

 

I would recover the drive back to it's factory image. If you want to try that, there is a little Dell booklet that will tell you to put in the recovery disk and press F8 several times when you see the Dell logo on upon rebooting. I did this about 5 times when I was a Studio XPS 1640 user.

Good Luck,
Thraak

 

I'd start with just going back to the factory image or just doing a clean install. Most of the drivers and programs are available on the dell support site, you'd have to do some digging though because I don't exactly recall where fastacess is. For the internet problem, I had the same one, and as dell support run me through it, it looks like it's either a conflict within your firewall (Defender had to be disabled for mines to work), or your drivers.

 

yes in order to back to vista you must do a fresh install of it after using windows 7, no matter if you used it partitioned or main OS. its what i remember seeing on the windows 7 beta faq. I wonder how much the OS will be. How is the studio xps by the way? other than these failures which seem to be attributed to trying to use windows 7.

 

ROFLMAO

It sounds like the two OS's have interfered with each others files. I would do as already suggested and reinstall. You may want to install Windows Vista first. It's usually a real pain to install the newer OS first with Windows. So I would create two partitions, install Windows Vista, then install Windows 7 on the other partition.

During install Windows 7 will realize that you already have Vista and add Vista to it's boot menu. That is normally how Windows Installs behave. For example - If you install XP first, then install Vista on a separate partition, Vista will see XP and add it to the boot menu. Then you don't have to mess around with Easy BCD and all of that stuff.

Edit:
I should be a little more clear. I would install Windows Vista, use a third party or Open Source utility, resisize Windows Vista, create a new partition, and install Windows 7 on that one. You can use Vista's built in utility to shrink Vista but it won't let you downsize Vista past a certain size (a built in size lmit). I used Acronis for everything that I did on my Vista/XP dual boot.

 

Windows 7 will stop working on August 1 this year. Do NOT make it your primary (and only) OS.

 

Dang. They put an exact time of discontinued opperation inside Windows & beta?

krionX, are you 100% certain on that?

 

Yes, the Windows 7 beta expires at the end of July 2009 and will stop working. It says this part of the way down the page at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx.

Obviously it's possible that a release candidate or full version will be available to download or buy and upgrade to at this point, but it's also possible that it won't. Microsoft always put time limits on beta software - they obviously don't want people using them permanently.

 

oh wow hah that sucks lucky i didnt update, thats why dual booting is probably the way you wanna go.

 

Grabs popcorn to see how many other fools screw up a brand new system with a Beta primary OS install.

 

As I said earlier, I had already did a clean install of vista. And the driver CD does not come with any driver supporting the X-fi sound blaster card...

That's not true at all, I recently installed vista while in windows 7... Although I could try installing vista again...

The truth is, I just was so eager to install Windows 7 (and for some reason it wouldn't let me partition my hard drive at first) that I just replaced Vista, thinking that most programs would be compatible. But sure, I'll try formatting the HDD and reinstalling Vista.

I actually have tried this multiple times, but no luck... Thanks anyway though!

I've searched for hours now but unfortunately have found nothing. BTW I actually ended up doing a clean install of Vista while I had windows 7. Thanks for the internet advice though, I'll definitely call dell about that.

Like I stated before, I had done a fresh install, which makes no sense why I cant change the display to it's native resolution.

The OS (windows 7) will be aproximately $99 for an upgrade from Vista (sorry I would tell you more about the pricing but I signed a contract saying I wouldn't...)

Everything else though is working absolutely great! I love everything about this laptop, and especially it's screen! The only other minor issues that occurred were that I got 2 BSOD's in windows 7 (I've had windows 7for 3 days).

Thanks! I'll try that right now.

It's fine, I have a version of windows 7 that does not expire (since I work with microsoft)... Or at least I think it doesn't expire...

Yes, unfortunately that is true for the average user.

 

Like I said before, the version of windows 7 that I have does not expire

 

These kind of sound like driver issues. If you haven't already done so, go to dell.com, support section, drivers & downloads, select your laptop model, and download the display driver, network drivers, and any other drivers you need.

Oh yeah, those extra programs should be there too... facial recognition and whatnot. And maybe you need network drivers too, I don't know.

 

Ignore the driver CD and get the latest drivers from dell.com, support section.

I can't either, until I install the right video driver. That's normal.

Interesting. Kind of similar to the XP->Vista upgrade pricing, eh? I would've hoped they'd do a little better for the recession...

 

There aren't any applications on the Dell support site. It only contains drivers that have been updated.

I was just able to get logged onto the new media download site. The facial recognition software is there. But you have a limited amount of times to download it.

 

I don't use Beta releases for my main OS since it'll be a pain to reload everything when the real thing gets released.

 

Thanks for the link.

I don't think I phrased my first question very well. What I was really wanting to say was that in the past, Microsoft has always used a 'time bomb'. It starts when you install and expires normally in 6 months.

I was just blown away that now MS has hard coded an exact date for Windows 7 beta to expire.

 

its a beta.
Its scheduled to stop beta-testing August 1st
Will Microsoft extend it? Possibly.
But remember its not a full OS, its a Test sample.

 

I don't understand why people screw with new systems, i mean i had xp i liked it but then my new desktop had vista and i hated it until i learned it and now i love it better than xp now my sxps will come with vista and i already know i like it so why do some of you guys feel the need to mess with a brand new system? especially for something temporary and not even fully tested or established

 

I remember I used to copy the old File Manager exe from Windows 3.1 onto my Windows 95 systems. Not that it was so great, or Explorer was so bad, but simply because I was familiar with it and it worked fine and Explorer didn't add any functionality that I wanted at the time. How about I come rearrange all your furniture for you everyday? Or how about if all the roads to the places you go regularly changed? So all the time you've spent choosing the best routes and becoming familiar with traffic patterns is now wasted. And now you get to get stuck in traffic jams and get lost while you become familiar with the new system. And by the way, the traffic signals and signs are all different, now too. But the roads are all painted pretty colors, so it's prettier while you sit in traffic, and the cops have really cool uniforms and cars with flashing lights. OK, so they had flashing lights the whole time, but not cool uniforms. - Windows Vista, when you don't need get where you're going, but want to look good while you don't get there.