So I've just got my first XPS 15... What do I do?

I have just got delivery of my XPS 15 - XPS L502x

Details: i7-2820QM, 8192MB 1333MHz, Backlit Keyboard, 2GB NVIDIA GT 540M, 750GB (7,200rpm) Hard Drive, Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium 64bit, 8x DVD+/-RW Optical Drive, Wireless-N 1030 (1x2 b/g/n+ Bluetooth Combo Card), 15.6 FHD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080).

I have read a few posts and can't get a definitive answer. Some people choose to format and start again; some only update drivers, some BIOS.

What do you think is wise - Where and how do I do these things if I need to?

Thanks for all your help!

 

Use it hard for a few days.

If it ain't broke don't fix it!

 

When I got my M1530, I just used it until it needed a reformat and then started anew with a clean install.

 

Ok, great tips - Thanks. I have found that the Dell site offers the same BIOS as already on there so I guess it is pretty up to date.

I've come from an XP laptop so getting used to Windows 7!

I'm amazed how quick it was delivered too - Ordered on 23rd April and delivered on the 27th! The date they gave was 9th of May - Shocker!

 

Welcome to the club! I got mine on Tuesday, first thing I did was rip the palm rest off and installed an SSD and moved the 640GB 7200RPM drive to a caddy where the DVD drive used to be.

Installed Win7 Ultimate from scratch and haven't looked back. By far the best laptop I've ever owned.

 

I think its best to format it. I know alot of people say it but it is almost necessary . My boot time dropped and my # of proccess open went down by almost 50% ( about 1.15gb ram and 57 processes)

 

Where did you buy the caddy to put the HD into where the DVD drive bay used to be?

 

This one:

NEW! IBM 12.7mm SATA 2nd HDD Caddy Bay R400 R500 DV16 on eBay (end time 17-May-11 09:17:54 BST)

Bezel pops off the DVD drive and fits like a charm

 

Thanks! Do u know if this fits XPS 17's drive bay too?

 

Hi guys, this may sound stupid but how do you do a clean install?? Is that the 'restore factory settings' option?? Plus if I receive my l502x it won't have a Recovery cd for the OS.

 

hi, i actually ordered almost same configuration as urs on 25th april. my estimated deliver date is 11- may. can u tell me whether ur notebook has intel my wifi technology & WiDi? is it possible to change that wireless adaptor later?

 

Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

Above is a forum clean install tutorial.

If you are unfamiliar with this terminology and process it may be best not to try this since you are not having any problems.

A clean install (selective install) will just install W7 and not unwanted applications suchas McAfee and other trial versions of software.

You also can just go to control panel - programs and features and uninstall what you do not want then run CCLeaner to remove what is left behind in registry.

A more concerning issue would be to detect if Dell shipped your notebook with the faulty B3 chipset? Just google Dell B3 chipset for more information and to download a chipset information utility ; )

 

Don't see why not! Might want to ask over on one of the L702X owner threads or something though to double check.

 

I did the same thing uninstalled all the unnecessary softwares and used CCcleaner to clean up registry, and turned indexing off, this got down the processes to 60 ,including MSE and spybot search and destroy. System is very fast.

 

I had a win 7 dvd with my one....the recovery partition seemed to be made of concrete because no program could delete it and partition the disk (neither acronis, neither other applications) or add the size to an other partition....finally the only way was doing a clean install by the given win dvd - the default win 7 setup (which I think, is a dumb one) could format, erase, partition the disk where all professional 3rd party applications failed. Kinda LOL.
I did not recognize any significant change in boot time (I dont have an SSD) or number of processes but at least, it is managed as I want and like it...

 

Thanks! I'll be doing that but I'm not sure if I have a Windows 7 CD. I have to wait (been waiting for 15 days now) and see what comes with my laptop.

But if not I'll just manually uninstall them one by one.

For the dual drive though I don't think I can transfer my OS to the SSD without the recovery disc/ windows 7 installer right? i'm gonna mod this after my 30 day return guarantee, if.

 

Dont get much with the laptop, In india it comes with a driver CD,Windows 7 cd, utilities Cd and a roxio installer cd. the packaging is very simple nothing much to rave about, but the system is worth the wait, finished playing darksiders on ultra and playing crysis 2 in very high(advanced) mode, no lag, one awesome laptop.

 

Good job Vishnu. I'm from India too.

+Rep for your efforts