Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

Yep, I know, I did fix it, and mentioned it in the other post.
But that just makes the MD button acts like a power on button.
Takes me directly into VISTA....

I have another idea... I will try later ... and update my results.

 

Did a reformat on my 1530 and didn't need to load up the achi driver when I did the install. The drive was visible without the achi driver. Should I reinstall the OS or is everything ok? I just loaded all the drivers and everything is working.

 

You will require the AHCI driver. Soon you will probably start experiencing warm boot BSODS. The AHCI driver is not a "I'll install it if I have to" driver. To not install it, your asking for trouble and Murphys law dictates that it will ocur just when you don't need it to happen most.

 

This might sound basic but how does one know that the installation has gone okay, apart from something obvious like a bsod?

 

Sorry to butt in with my problem here. I am not accustomed to forum posting and had difficulty in starting my own thread. Im also quite new to computers so i hope you can bare with me and forgive my ignorance. I bought a dell insp. 1520 at christmas for my girlfriends 13yrold daughter. It was working fine until this week, it wouldnt even start up. it gives windows error recovery page. This tells you it failed to start maybe because of a software or hardware change. After a little more blurb, it gives you 2 options . Launch Startup repair(recommended) or Start windows normally. Both outcomes are the same. A blue screen....

STOP: c000021a Fatal System error
the session manager failed to create protected prefixes system process terminated unexpectedlywith a status of 0xc000003a (0x00000000 0x00000000)
the system has been shut down

I am very worried by this but a friend told me to press f2 as soon as you power up and enter setup. I did this, and went to maintainence tab. This gave an option restore to factory defaults as i was told to do. It did this, and when i pressed the on /off button to turn off and back on again, there was no difference, except i caught a glimpse on the blue screen before the fatal system error message Crash dump and several numbers changing rapidly.

My friend told me this is no probs, just everything being deleted that the user had saved. Now he instructed me to reinstall vista.

I found instructions here how to reformat, so tried to foillow the instructions given here but nothing happens. I also tried to do the same thing before i restored the computer to the factory defaults. tried to reinstall the OS using the disc provided with the notebook. No difference. Nothing happens

Im really worried now. It cost me 1000$ a few months back and it is guaranteed. But im almost certain the guarantee would be null and void because of the advice my 'friend' gave me and perhaps ive now done more harm than good. Also the 13yr old im certain had been using a p2p file sharing site which often voids the guarantee.

She told me she hadnt added any new soft or hardware before it broke down and said she had juist been using bebo social networking. But i know she was very slack on doing anti virus and spyware scans and was getting a lot of popups using IE or firefox. She had avg free on it, but i have a notebook myself with no probs fopr the last 2yrs. Could a virus/trojan be responsible for causing the fault in the first place????

I would be happy to send it back to dell if i thought they would fix it free of charge but am not very hopeful the guarantee wont be void??

Am i down $1000 or is this repairable? If it was perhaps easier than i think, i could leave it in the local computer store if it wont be that much cost?? But i need to know how bad the problem is before i waste my money.. Please can anyone help.

Please guys, im not a techie and sorry for not knowing all the jargon. please please help before this girl ends up wrecking my notebook too.

All i know is its a 1520inspiron with core duo processor with media direct3.3 and vista. god i hate vista so much already. good ol xp

 

Your not down. Software does not void your contract with Dell nor does p2p downloading.

Please tell me how your attempt at following this thread went? What did you see when you entered the MediDirect disk and repartitioned? I am believing you have a hardware failure but just want to walk you through some things first.

Actually. Check out the diagnostics by holding down the FN and pressing the power button for 10 seconds. Let us know the resule of that. That will answer our hardware concerns.

 

Discs with the 1520

Dell mediadirect3.3 reinstallation disc
Operating system reinstall disc
2 Drivers and utilities discs

There is no recovery disc which i hear people mention. Has this been lost or should there even be one. Vista is very new here in uk???

 

Yea, when i press f12 one time boot with mediadir disc in, a menu comes up

internal hdd
onboard nic

bios setup
diagnostics

sorry wasnt expecting such a quick reply

should i just go to diagnostics and press enter as its an option here, or press fn and hold power button down for 10secs like you said before. I think i may have lost you so i sent a pm to see if youre around

 

You still there Les??I took so long to notice your reply that you must have thought i 'd left? I'd really appreciate it if you can get back to me. its 11.45pm over here right now but i'll be about for another hour or so. Hope to hear from you. thanks mate

i decided to try to run diagnostics from the menu i described, and it actually done something?? great. colors horizontal and vertical came up. it asked, colors y/n? i pressed why, then

pre boot system assessment build 4106

a series of tests ran until

error code 0142
msg: error code 2000-0142
msg:unit 1: drive self test failed. status byte = 79
the given error code can be used by dell tech support to help diagnose the problem.

do you want to continue testing? yes or no or retry

its beeping loudly. i wish i knew what to do now

behind the grey error box, i can see its the

device: hard drive
test: dst short test

i think it first tested memory and it was fine

i can see at the bottom

hard drive dst short test
test results : fail

it wouldnt let me retry the test, so i pressed yes to continue test but then it tried to reboot the system, and ive just went back to the fatal system error blue screen. i didnt have time to press f2 to enter setup once more

so i take it i can safely say it IS a hardware problem. so whats your advice now??? get back and let me know at some stage as i see you aint around. thanks for helping me diagnose the problem

im off to bed now, but will check in morning to see if you can advise me about what next. looks like a trip back to dell, but would like to hear from you again Les. Thanks again

 

Your hard drive is dead. Call Dell and explain that you did the test; they will run you through it again anyway.

Hard drive is minimal...and covered by your warranty.

 

Les. Thanks for your help. I had a feeling it was the HD. My girlfriend was actually pressurising me to go buy a new one. Great stuff. One of the cats has just picked 2 of the keys off the keyboard since i was last chatting!! wonderful

 

Went ahead and installed it AFTER installing the OS. Hope everything goes well.

 

Sorry guy im a noob.

but i dont understand the start of the post (step 1.)
what egzactly do i need to put on my usb and how do i
do it.

thanks guys i just dont understand the first part

 

Hi ScottBenntt. First, you need to download the AHCI driver for your m1530 located here: http://support.dell.com/support/dow...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=41&fileid=224400.

Second, double-click the downloaded R166200.EXE file. It will ask you where you want to extract the files to. Extract them to a USB FLASH drive.

Then continue with the reformat procedure.

 

Hi I'm looking for the AHCI drivers for my m1330 and was wondering if someone could confirm:

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...ystemID=XPS_M1330&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=

under SATA drives the second one - matrix storage manager

So once I download the .exe to the flash drive and unpack it there there's a bunch of files..how will this work during the clean install? what do i select

 

OK nevermind restarted a 2nd time and it's fixed all this mess continueing with the procedure will post back if any additional problems!

 

I have searched the Dell website and my Driver CDs for the AHCI drivers but cannot find them. Can anyone help me out??

 

Yes. You should format a partition to install vista to. It can be your primary partition, or an isolated smaller one.

Go to the Dell support page and traverse to your specific notebook. The AHCI driver will be under the Storage section and it will be called Intel matrix storage driver.

I posted links to the Dell AHCI drivers for the m1330 and m1530 several pages back in this thread if you have one of those and you want to search for it.

 

No you don't have to partition it. Vista install will take care of it. Just point to the partition you want and choose install.

 

All went well until I tried to re-install MS Office. The drive just doesn't want to read my installation CD, nor the MS Works CD that came with the my M1330. I downloaded the CD/DVD drive firmware from Dell but it wouldn't run.

I've been on the phone to XPS support for about 7 hours today. After running all the diagnostics and a fresh install of Vista it's no better. It's actually worse as I've lost bluetooth!

They told me it was a firmware issue with the drive so I tried to reject the machine as I've had the LCD replaced and there's a bulge in the keyboard but they just cut me off!!!

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

 

Is step 7 (copying/installing of the AHCI driver before Vista installation) an absolute must? Before reading this topic, I simply did a clean install of Vista (on my month old 1330) and installed the drivers afterwards and everything seems to work fine. Just wanted to make sure that I wasn't somehow compromising performance by not installing the AHCI driver first.

 

Alright... so I plan on removing bloatware and performing a few easy tweaks (not QUITE as much of a computer genius as I'd like to be honestly)... however I already have a few programs ie. Office Home and Student, the preloaded Trend Micro Security antivirus software as well as tons of music on it already... and these have keys that allow only so many installations i believe... would it be best to find somewhere to put my music and then just try to reinstall Office and Trend Micro (I still have the discs) after removing the bloatware? I don't really have any money to buy an external HDD or anything else to store for that matter, but I could partion my Creative Zen Vision:M to be a storage device... so I might do that with the music (I have about 20 GIG) and maybe with Office too... would that work? My Zen is 30 GIG total... any help/pointers are greatly appreciated, and the more detail the better...
Thanks in advance, and sorry about the scatterbrainedness of the post.


Edit: I have an M1530... and I think I'm ditching Trend Micro for AVG.... so would it be a safe plan to
1. backup music
2. download AHCI driver to external drive
3. follow instructions at beginning (most likely picture instructions)
4. redownload Firefox/Office from the disc, uTorrent, HL2... basically everything I've added so far
??

 

Hey guys, just got my new Inspiron 1720 and have attempted to format it using the guide. I'm able to do everything correctly, but after the Copying Windows Files, Expanding Files, Installing features, Installing updates, Completing Installation, the system doesn't finish up the installation. It completes all 5, then goes through a 10 second countdown to restart. Once it restarts, the Dell logo appears, and once the little progress bar completes at the bottom, the system displays a black screen with a flashing underscore (_) and nothing else happens. I can't do anything at this point.

If it helps, I have two 320GB hard drives, of which I can use 298 in one and 295 on the other. I load the AHCI driver onto the 298GB drive, and then continue installing Vista on it too, but I don't know why it hangs!!

ARGH!

 

What do you mean "I load the AHCI driver onto the 298GB drive" ?

During the CD boot, before installtion when you are at the menu for choosing where to install windows is where you specify to "load driver" and point to where you have the AHCI driver.

From what you write it sounds like you partitioned the drive and just put the driver on there? That won't do it. I may be misunderstanding but that is my take anyway. I have a 1720 and decided to copy my vista install CD to a 8.5GB cd along with all my other installed app installation CD's and expanded ahci drivers and that is what I point to when I tell it to load AHCI. Are you telling the install where to get the AHCI driver from?

 

Yeah, I was clicking load driver, but I decided to try it once without loading the driver, the the install actually continued correctly and finished. It was all well until I placed the Media Direct 3.5 DVD back in the drive upon installation of Vista. When I tried to install MD, at around 4% it says Installation Errors and I couldn't complete it. Anyone have THIS problem?

 

Alright, so it's currently expanding my files... and everything has gone swimmingly so far... I have this almost giddy feeling... I put in the AHCI driver with no problems... and after getting this stuff setup it's just going to be a matter of downloading FireFox/AVG/AdAware08 and installing Office H/S and my other stuff. Les and Bamaster are definitely getting some rep (as soon as I make sure it worked ).

 

On the Help Protect Windows Automatically

Do I want:
use recommended settings
install important updates only
ask me later

Edit: I'm just using recommended settings

 

This may be a dumb ques, but sense i'm going to repartition my OEM software from Dell, will this void any of my warrenty on my 2 day old xps1530??

 

Hello Mikey. No, doing this reformat procedure will not void the warranty with Dell.

 

I am pleased to join this forum. Hello everyone!

I was browsing the web in an attempt to find directions to Clean Reinstall Windows Vista on my Dell Vostro 1500 laptop, and came across this post which apparently has attracted tremendous amount of people. Anyhow..

I have one question here: I am stuck at the step when the OP suggests to choose the AHCI driver option when I am prompted to choose a partition. I inserted my Dell "Drivers and Utilities" DVD into the drive, but failed to find that driver. Is this AHCI necessary to do the vista installation? Can't you just choose one of the partitions (I have one 146 GB and the other 3 GB), I mean the 146 GB partition?

I see that this post has more than hundred pages, so please forgive my laziness to go through the posts if this issue was already covered

 

Hello, I'm new, but I think I know what to do: Find your drivers on Dell.com by typing in your service tag, and look for the Matrix driver... download it... and then since it is a .exe file it will ask where you want to expand it to... expand it to a USB drive (a disc may also work) then when it gets to the part before Vista installation where you can search for drivers, plug your USB drive in and browse for it. It should find it!

 

I just reformatted and installed fresh Vista on my laptop. Removing the bloatwares really made my laptop faster especially during startup.

I have one question. What is Intel Storage Manager? I understand that Intel Storage Manager is some kind of storage controller but my HDD working perfectly without it. Any advantages when installed Intel Storage Manager?

BTW if possible I prefer not to install it because Intel Storage Manager will become one of the background programs.

 

I just got done with my first reformat of my XPS 1530 and I have the exact opposite experience! Startup seems much slower now I'm gonna have to figure out what is going on here.

 

It still doesn't seem right after messing with it a bit.

3dMark is also 400 points lower using the same drivers I assume, I got them directly off Dell's site. Was 4779 now 4368.

 

You can be sure there is something you have not done correctly. Most discover, after the fact thgat they missed either a driver installation or forgot to install AHCI drivers or something...

 

I removed my bloatware yesterday, and so far I'm extremely pleased. I did end up doing it twice however, but that was only to see if it got rid of a problem I was having trying to install update KB969777 (or something like that) and getting the 8000FFFF error... which a thread in the Windows OS part of this site helped me take care of... So even though I never run 3DMark tests or any of that, and even though my m1530 was fast out of the box with the bloatware, I can safely say that this guide has helped me.
The biggest "pain" for me was not having a backup HDD of some sort to keep my music and downloaded programs (Firefox, AVG, AdAware, etc).
Anyways, thanks for the guide.
REP to Les and the guy who did the picture edition

 

Thanks for the step by step. I had been trying to reinstall Vista for two weeks, getting stuck at "completing installation". I'm a nurse, I fix people, not computers:"), but was completely frustrated. Just registered so I could say THANKS!!!!!!

 

Glad this thread could help you.

 

Hi Les, thanks a trillion for the wonderful re-installation guide!! the engineer who came home to do the partition messed the whole thing up big time and rendered my pretty 1720 useless...and thats when i sought for help in here! u rock!
just one smallish problem that im trying to figure out if someone can guide me...or refer some links.
I was trying to install the driver for bluetooth. the files were expanded but during installation a message box shows saying 'press Fn+F2 or select from radio button...' and i cant seem to get past this...please help! **

 

Hello Surbhin. Others have had that bluetooth issue as well. Try going into your BIOS setup screen at boot and find the bluetooth settings to make sure it is enabled first.

 

Again, i need to clarify this: Is AHCI necessary for reinstallaion. I skipped choosing the AHCI driver and went on with C partition only (all HDD capacity is dedicated to C). Now it seems OK and all the bloatwae is gone. However, the Windows evaluation is giving very low score, I wonder if the AHCI driver absence has anything to do with it???

 

Again I will state that to run in AHCI mode which results in a significant performance increase, YOU REQUIRE THE AHCI DRIVERS. Just because the installation completes does not render your system stable. It will be unstable as observed by many before you and...yourself since you are experiencing drastically diff results now.

I have said it several times within the thread and even in the post that you quoted.

 

Thanks for the info! Was gonna rep you but could not figure out how to do on this forum (if it is possible at all).

I found the following in the "drivers" page of the Dell support webpage under
SATA Drives:
Intel - Driver
Applies to: Matrix Storage Manager - Notebooks

Is this what you meant?

 

Thanks, Les! Another thing just happened which proves your point
After I reinrtalled Vista yesterday it seemed OK and I reinstalled all the drivers successfully and it was runnig alright until windows downloaded the updates for Vista. now after the restart it starts loading the OS and crashes instantly which causes the the restart of the comuter over and over! Now I have to reinstall it again!

 

Yep! That's the one!

P.S.:
Rep is at the bottom left of a post... the balance/scale shaped icon b/t report and online/offline

 

I tried that but it didn't work. I found it finally from the Drivers and Utilities DVD that came with the laptop. I do not understand why it could not find it when I inserted it yesterday, but now it found it and worked.

thanks for the reply though!

 

Yeah, I found it on my disk too, but I wanted to make sure I basically followed Les's words exactly, cuz overall I'm still a newb at this stuff.

 

OK, I am honestly trying to go through this entire thread (104 pages... ughh..) so excuse me if this has been brought up.

[Edit] Yeah, it's been brought up. Please excuse this post

 

Just wondering about the drivers posted on pg 87 by Darthsat- do they work for all Dell m1530s? cause i just wanna make sure that Dell don't have different drivers for different countries- as stupid as it sounds :S

Thanks in advance.

 

Hey guys, should this work the same with the 1330 XPS product red?

I have all the disks that came with the laptop, as I got it today.

Thanks in advance!