Windows 7 Beta on M1530

It might have to do with having a 5400 RPM drive instead of a 7200 RPM drive. Mine is 5.9 with a 320GB Seagate Momentus 7200RPM drive.

 

What is the best way to BACK UP my IMPORTANT files guys?

 

Easiest way to make sure you arn't missing anything:

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/data/backup.mspx

If there are not that many, just use a USB key, burn to CD/DVD.

 

No, its a 7200rpm drive I was using, and it scored around 5 (or +) previously (in Vista).

I tried two clean install's and got the same 'problem' both times; everything worked ok but disc performance was reduced somewhat.

I have seen a lot of M1530 (and other) owners see the exact same issue, so I will research it again shortly and see if I can solve it. Probably it is just something simple.

Yes, this is the same as me, and several others on the thread. Follow the thread and hopefully we will find a solution shortly. I believe it is related to ACHI drivers

 

Probably mentioned at some point, but just to make sure...

1) Drivers under "SATA Drive":
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...ibid=1&releaseid=R193896&formatcnt=1&vercnt=4

2) Dont forget to set hard drive AHCI in the BIOS.

3) Uninstall Intel Matrix Storage manager if installed.

If those are alright... then it might have something to do with drive performance or brand. Just redoing the Windows Experience test on Windows 7, I am getting 5.9 for my Disk Data Transfer Rate. It could be that the combination of 7200RPM with a 320GB drive gives it a higher speed because of increased density on platters and is no fault of the system itself.

 

On page 9 of this thread, i have my data management snip tooled. Other than recovery, is their any other i could delete... i have all my pics and videos in my recovery...i don't want to lose that...

 

I have the exact same HDD than you, and I get a 3.0 ratting, I didn't install the ACHI driver at the beginning of the installation and now I trying to install the driver you just posted and says that the current OS is not supported..

May I ask you, have you installed the ACHI driver at the beginning of the installation????, or did you installed a different driver than the one you posted???? or maybe you didn't check the rating of your computer?? or maybe you installed x86 version and don't have this problem???

 

I only used ACHI ( http://support.dell.com/support/dow...0&servicetag=&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=-1&impid=-1) when I reformatted my drive to install Windows Vista which I got off of the Dell M1530 drivers page.

Rating like I said for that particular part is 5.9.

I use the 32-bit version.

I did not reformat and install the Windows 7 Beta. I simply upgraded the existing Vista installation to Windows 7. No I did not select AHCI drivers again from USB stick when upgrading to Windows 7 beta.

I DID NOT install the Seagate hard drive drivers on the Dell Drivers page though. Unless of course Windows Update picked it up and downloaded it.

Hope that helps.

Below is a shot of my Performance Index. Specs of my system in my signature.

 

I'm getting a 5.3 for disk data transfer, and I have a 5400rpm drive. I didn't install any AHCI drivers (or any other special drivers for that matter), I came straight from my previous Ubuntu install.. I think the 5.9 that Forte has might be because of the 7200rpm drive (sounds reasonable).

 

Thanks for the fast answer!

Ok I get it now, all those who did a CLEAN install of the 64bit version will have this HDD problem, the only solution is installing the ACHI driver AT THE BEGINNING of the installation.

Now i was trying to install this ACHI and the dell driver says OS not supported, I also try the driver of Intel (this one http://downloadcenter.intel.com/det...All&OSFullName=All Operating Systems&lang=eng ) and didn't work either.

So I think my only solution now is installing the OS again with the ACHI at the beginning... (I already know that, why I did this mistake!!!!)

or maybe somebody have a diferent solution...

any help??.

Ps: thanks forte!.

PS: also i had on windows vista a 5.9 score on my HDD... I'm sure this is a problem for the 64Bit version only

 

I upgraded Vista 64bit to Windows 7 64bit got a rating of 1.9 for my drive you can make the dell drivers install my right clicking on the installer and run Troubleshoot Compatibility and select Vista however seems to make no difference witch annoy me seen as the rest of my rating is great
6.2
5.9
5.6
5.0
1.9 :-(

 

Don't think that's it. I installed clean and didn't load any additional drivers at install. I score 5.3 with a 5400 rpm, 250 gb drive. I've installed both x86 and x64, and my hd scores have always been over 5 with no drivers other than those that came with Windows 7.

 

I have also tried a clean 32bit install with no drivers and my drive still scored 1.9

 

im going primary with windows 7, and im gonna extend its life with a certain thing witch i cant mention here since NBR frowns upon such actions

if you are interested, you will have to google it...

i find windows 7 to be great and i have already made various tests and it came up to be as stable and as compatible as vista.

 

It's my primary OS now after the POS that was Ubuntu. God, it's good to have my games back.

I have to agree with FrozenDarkness as to the durability/reliability of this beta. Microsoft really screwed the pooch with Vista and I think they've finally got their act together. Also, the response to the beta was much bigger than Microsoft imagined (as evidenced by the morning rush to download/get a key) and the 2.5million limit no longer holds (the same keys are being repeatedly distributed now). I'd be shocked if Microsoft left all of us in the dark if a security hole came up.

As for unofficially "extending the lifespan", I say hold off on that. The beta lasts for a good while on it's own and it would be interesting to see what upgrade options are revealed (undoubtedly before the beta is to officially expire).

 

OK.. bad news, I just REinstall Windows seven 64 Bit again, this time I installed the ACHI driver before the OS and now I get a 2.9 score on my HDD.. (means ACHI is not working)

I have o clue now what the F*** is happening....

My HDD is a 320 GB Seagate momentus 7200RPM

we must solve this issue guys.

Maybe somebody have some driver that we can use..

I tried dell site drivers and intel site and didn't work.

 

wanted to try the beta and spent a long while downloading the installation iso (twice) and burning a dvd (3 times) and installing it (removed the restore partition so I could dual boot, all that good technical stuff) only to have the stupid install fail (twice) with the dreaded error code 0x8007017 -- which means that all that work floundered because the dvd had to have an iso image burned and despite good media (Fuji dvd+Rdl) and the use of Active iso 1.1, and a chunk of time I'm never going to get back, I still couldn't install the stupid beta.
ok enough, MS can conquer the world without me, I will cease to aspire to being the Brain, assume my role as a computer Pinky and wait for the release of the commercial version and hope Dell can negotiate a cheap upgrade cost for those of us running Vista Ultimate....

 

I just took delivery of my 1530 this morning. Spent the day loading up 3DMark and running benchmarks in Vista Home Premium. I made a ghost image of the drive before first boot-up in case I want to go back I also left the recovery partition in-tact.

I blew away Vista and just finished loading up Windows 7 x64. I plan on using 7 until it is released. I hate Vista. 7 is what Vista should have been.

CW

 

How is Gaming?

 

Where's the Tri-boot? (I use XP Vista and windows 7 as my mains. I boot into what ever one I need)

 

Thanks for the update.

 

I downloaded the 64-bit version and got a key.

Now I'd like to try out a dual-boot with my current Vista install and the new Windows 7 install.
How do I do this?

Can I just shrink size of my primary NTFS partition?
And which partitions can be deleted? I don't really use MediaDirect, so can I just delete that?

Do I need special programs to select which partition to boot from?

Thanks in advance...

 

I too am suffering from poor HD performance.
I do not believe that it is an AHCI issue. To verify, could some of you chime in?

Those with good performance:
x64 or x32?
HD make and model?
SATA driver version reported in Device Manager?
Did you use the ISO from Microsoft or one from a Torrent? (there is a difference)
Do you still have the Diagnostic, MediaDirect & Recovery partitions intact?

If AHCI is set as default in BIOS, then it will install with AHCI enabled. Otherwise it would BSOD after initial copy and reboot.

To answer my own questions:
x64
Seagate 7200 @320 G-Shock drive
ICH8M SATA AHCI Controller 2829 Intel 2/20/2008 6.9.0.1001
12-29 BT ISO with same name as M$ Iso
All three partitions are still there + OS

 

x32
Samsung 5400 250GB
Intel(R) ICH8M Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 2850 6/21/2006 6.1.7000.0
Torrent, but the ISOs are 100% identical (hashes match)
Deleted all my old partitions

I'm slightly confused about my sata driver.. theres no mention of AHCI and it's an older version, yet I get a high score in the WEI and AHCI is enabled in bios

 

Paperkut, I posted in another thread, but yours is exactly like mine. Samsung 250, showing Ultra ATA Storage Controller with the same driver, but getting good scores in WEI (5.3). My BIOS is set to AHCI, but I did not load any additional drivers at install.

 

Really strange.. maybe there's a benchmark we could do that would indicate we're actually running on ATA instead of AHCI (even though it's set in bios). I also did not load any additional drivers on install, I figured since it was Win 7 all the drivers would already be there. I don't want to get screwed over on performance in any case though (still confused over the WEI score). EDIT: I also noticed another controller called "Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller" in device manager.

On a different note, what graphics driver have you all opted to use? I'm running on 185.20 since it is the only one that is natively supported on W7 but I'd be interested to hear about performance (becnhmarks/temps) on other drivers.

 

As mentioned in the x64 thread, we could all do HDTach from here:
http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

Run in compatibility mode as XP. You will get a prefetch error but it will run fine.

Edit: Just added one with ReadyBoost enabled..

 

Ok, I'm pretty sure the WEI needs some fixing because CheezWiz definitely has a high performing HDD than I do yet his WEI is lower. I think it's just the 64-bit seagates that show the incorrect scores.

Ignore the WEI and move along folks

 

Now if someone had an answer for my largely unusable wireless, I might be able to actually use this OS for something. Am I the only one with this problem?

 

I'm on x32 and my wireless is perfectly fine. Did you try some of the older Intel drivers? Like 12.1 and before, because I know the latest version just came out (I'm using 12.1.0.14).

 

Yeah, I've tried a number of drivers, both x86 and x64 installs. It's just unusable more than a few feet away from the router with any of them. I have both G and N access points, and it's the same with both.

Here's what happens:

For reference, I have 15 Mbps service (FIOS). On my desktop, which has an ethernet connection to the switch I can go to Speakeasy and get consistent 15,200 kbps rated speeds. Everyday all day. On my notebook booted to Vista and sitting next to the router, I get the same numbers over wireless. Booting to Windows 7 and next to the router, it's more like 13,000 kbps. A bit of a hit, but really not a big deal.

But, when I take the notebook to the bedroom (a common place for me to use it) and boot to Windows Vista, I get a signal strength or about 80%, and Speakeasy speeds of about 10,000 kbps. Just fine. Boot into Windows 7 and I still see about 80% signal strength, but the speakeasy test comes out about 300 kbps. Yes, 300 under Windows 7 vs 10,000 under Vista. And often the test won't even finish under Windows 7. And occasionally the connection just disappears completely.

I've tried both x86 and x64. All sorts of drivers from Intel, Dell, and of course the ones supplied with Windows 7. Always the same. Always uinusable.

I can accept driver issues, i's a beta after all. What annoys me is that no one else seems to have any problems. Where's the company for my misery?

 

But does anyone else here have that card?

 

Hi, I have the same WLAN-intel-4965AGN, and I am going to try W7 next week so I will let u know.
PS. how did u measure the strenght of signal [in kbps] . I have tryed : http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
and it shows me big differences from different citys. I live in Ireland and I am using this http://speedtest.magnet.ie/
But i think speed betweem PC nad router have to be measured some other way.


About the problems with ACHI driver for Seagate 7200 rpm 320 G for 64bit.. did u try both SATA drivers {32 nad 64} from DELL web site?


Is the Intel turbo memory - robson working for u fine? W7 supposed to support more then one flash memory. Has anyone try it yeat?
http://winse7en.blogspot.com/2008/11/windows-7-flash-readyboost-cache.html

 

I use the Chicago speakeasy site, as it's very consistent for me. I also use speedtest.net, though that one seems to vary more. But for my 4965 wireless problem you didn't really need a benchmarking site to tell it was hosed. (For example, transferring a 5 MB file from my server in the next room would take maybe 10 minutes, or often simply fail completely.)

On the upside (and I noted this in a different thread) I think I discovered my issue. After rebuilding the notebook the last time, the wireless continued to work fine UNTIL I paired by Dell bluetooth stereo headphones. The it crapped out. Nothing to do with the headphones actually being on or connected, just the act of pairing them seem to break something. I reverted to an Acronis image I'd made earlier, and the wireless was fine again, and remains fine now (I didn't re-pair those BT headphones).

So for now all is working fine. In the spirit of beta testing I should probably pair those headphones again and see if I can duplicate the issue to be certain. Maybe I'll make another backup image in a day or so and try it.

 

I had Toshiba notebook before and when I started Wifi it shows attention that bluetooth and wlan cant be used in the same time!!!
just bluetooth or just wlan... I dont use bluetooth in this xps so I dont know if this dell's one is different.Probably they works on the same frequency.

 

I don't think this is the same type of issue, partially because it all works fine under Vista, and partially because you don't have to actually be using the headphones. Just the act of pairing them seemed to permanently wreck the wifi performance, even with the headphones turned off and stuck in a drawer.

All I can figure is that pairing the BT device makes some change to the network stack that in my case manifests itself in wonky wifi.

 

I also installed win 7 but I do not know why it took about 70 secounds to boot. In win vista it takes around 45 sec to boot. Why?
After installing for the 3rd time vista it took ore time to boot as the previous one, around 60 secounds. I installed xp and also about 60 sec to boot.
Why?/? How can I make it boot faster, like the previous vista in 45 min.
Now I can not obtain the 45 sec booting time not even with xp

xps m1530, 1,8 ghz, 3gbram, 160 hdd

 

regarding the disc score in WEI, disable the write caching of your disk to get your score back (as it is disabled by default in Vista, enabled in W7).

if you don't know where to do that, you shouldn't be installing W7 and post your climax from placebo effects of +2 hours battery life and 100% incresed performance here in the first place...

 

what kind of HDD do u have?
cause i have score 3 and under vista was 5.9..
i have seagate 320G 7200.3 ST9320421ASG

 

nope that doesnt fix my score!

 

Rather than install on my XPS 1530, I first installed it on my old Inspiron 6000. Somewhat worked but couldn't find drivers for most of the hardware. Then it locked up and wouldn't get passed the loading windows screen. Understand it is beta, so guess rather than screw up my 1530 will just wait and see.

 

I cant get my fingerprint reader working, I have tried the W7 upek driver as well as the one on Dell.com - help?

 

Hey I am getting a lower score for my processor calculations per second with W7 then I did with Vista, is there a specific driver I need to fix this issue? Also I cant use my U3 drive as it tells me that windows has already assigned the drive to something else, I have tried to change the drive letter but that didnt fix it either!?

 

I have a quick question as i am slightly confused from reading a variety of posts on the topic.
Basically i want to remove my D:\Recovery drive, extend it to be 30gb, and install the Windows 7 beta to be dual booted with my current Vista install.

First of all, if i have the Windows Vista install disc that came with my M1530, there is no need for the D Recovery Drive?

Second, is all i have to do is such: download a partition program such as GParted, then:
- Format the D Drive (this step can/should be done while in Vista?)
- Open up GParted (or this is step 1 if the above step is done in this program)
- Shrink C Drive by 20gb (as D already is 10gb)
- Extend/Add/Allocate the 10gb to the D Drive

then the next steps are more obvious:

- Quit GParted (or other partition app)
- Install Win 7

is that all? or have i just confused myself thinking that i need the MediaDirect disc for some reason?

thanks

 

same here, Windows 7 is great, everything works in my pc except the fingerprint reader.

 

i dono, my fingerprint reader works great and i'm using 64-bit too. u have to install the suite and not just the driver.

 

Your problem may well relate to the recent Seagate firmware fiasco, was reading about it last night on Engadget. Do a google.
I installed W7 x64 on my rig XPS m1530 T9500 (product red) with all the then available high end specs, only mod is a WD 7200rpm Black Scorpion with 16mb cache. Had no issues whatsoever in this regard WPI is same as it was in Vista, although the usual failing is the nvidia 8600 gpu.
However WPI aside, machine runs so much more efficiently, have even undervolted to (hopefully) improve its lifespan, and keep the gpu running a little cooler.
And, yes this is now my primary OS.

 

Hi! I'm having problems in installing the soundblaster audigy advanced MB on windows 7
It tells me that it cannot find the audio drivers
Could someone help me on this
ThX

 

I have everything installed and working, only driver I needed was the Windows 7 UPEK drivers. http://www.upek.com/support/downloads/windows7/w7x86.asp

The Ricoh, nvidia 179.23 and webcam drivers came down via Windows Update.

I optionally also installed the Intel Matrix storage Manager as I wasnt certain that my Hard drive was running in SATA mode, I have a feeling it was running UDMA5 but cant be certain.

My Windows Performance scores are generally higher than Vista.

 

Hi All,

Been running Windows 7 for a good few days now and so far so good. As to be expected it's not been flawless but overall I'm impressed.

I recommend you check out this article for some excellant tips;
http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx

I have decided to persever with ie8 as well for the time being just to get a feel for it. I have to admit being a die hard Firefox fan again I pleasantly surprised. In particular the accelerators are very good.

One question for someone though with a tech nature. I went to install my disk management software and was informed that it was not capable of dealing with dynamic disks. I quick check using the disk viewer in computer management confirmed that my drives are set up as dynamic(I did a completely fresh install and used the install process to create my new partitions). Is there anything I should be aware of regarding the dynamic drives now?

Cheers all.