Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

Yes, those m1530 drivers will work.

 

I've tried looking on all these pages; but there are too many. So I'm sorry if someone asked these questions already.

Is there any way to order the computer with the bloatware removed?

I've only reformatted with the help of a Dell tech. I want my system to run quickly, but am scared I'll screw things up. Any way I can get walked through the process??

Reformatting newbie.

 

No, you can't order them that way, but you can't really mess up your hardware... so if you're planning on doing a clean install.. just print out Les's directions in the first post, and follow word for word... if you mess up, pop the MD disc back in and start over

 

I've got everything but can not find the AHCI driver anywhere. I have dell inspiron 1520, so does anybody here know where is this AHCI driver?

 

I THINK this is the one, but I'd wait for confirmation:
SATA Drives (4)
File Title(s) Importance Date Size Download & Options Description FileSizeBytes DeviceID VersionCount LibraryID FileID Is this in my List? ReleaseId Title FTP Url Format Url NumberOfFormats IsSecure
Intel - Application
Applies to:
Matrix Storage Manager - Notebooks
Optional 6/26/2007 20 MB
Download Now
Add To My Downloads

 

Hello Boris. The AHCI driver download for your model can be found here:

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=41&fileid=205611

 

I'm pretty sure that's what i had, I just couldn't figure out how to link it

 

Is there anyway to check that we have correctly done the AHCI process? I had 2 options when I reformatted my laptop.. one had a more advanced number so I clicked that one.. wasn't sure which to go with... just want to check if its been installed.

 

Hm i have a question about the AHCI driver this is for darthsat again- does the AHCI driver= to the Intel Matrix Storage Manager that you linked for the m1530 drivers?

 

Yes, it is the same thing.

Go to Control Panel > Device Manager > Click the + next to IDE/ATA/ATAP controllers, and see if there is an item that says Intel...SATA AHCI Controller.

 

Guys-

I have the Windows disc and the drivers disc that came with my laptop, should these suffice for a reinstall without the need to download drivers from DELL?

Thanks

Jeff

 

Maybe it was just me, but I have Dell's wireless G card, and I had to download the driver for that to work from my home desktop... so make sure you have your wireless card's driver.

 

Hello Tram. Yes, the vista disc and drivers disc supplied by Dell should be sufficient to do the reformat procedure. However, several of the drivers on the disc may in fact be outdated, while the newest ones are posted on the Dell support page for your specific notebook model. I have done several reformats to my m1330 to keep it running fresh, and I honestly have not used the dell drivers disc since the first time I did a reinstall which was way back in September.

I just download all the up-to-date drivers and store then in a folder on my external USB HDD. When I do the reformat procedure, I use my Vista disc, my USB FLASH drive with the AHCI driver loaded on it, and my USB external HDD for loading all drivers after the Vista installation.

 

Just wondering, can this method be used when installing XP? So instead of a Vista cd, you use an XP cd (while following the XP guide provided on this forum)

 

Hi,
I used a USB to load the additional drivers (R166200) but the problem is that Vista during installation complains that the driver "iaahci.inf" cannot be installed.
I have reset all my BIOS Settings so my SATA operation is in AHCI and Flash Cache Module is enabled.

This is happening because I have Vista Ultimate 64 bit while the driver doesnt support X64...For X64 i found an .exe from INTEL site...which I can install after installing vista on it ...right ?
Should I run the installation in the current settings(mentioned above) and later install the driver ?

Thanks

 

Hi, I forgot to install Dell MEdia Direct right after booting the OS. Is it possible to install it after the having installed all the necessary drivers?

 

As long as you did setup the MediaDirect partition using the MD disc prior to vista installation, you can install the mediadirect program after vista installation.

If you forgot to setup the partition using the MD disc before installing Vista, then you will have to repeat the procedure to get MediaDirect functionality.

 

need help with a new vostro 1400...

i'm making a clean install of xp on the system, but i have some trouble installing the bluetooth driver... it keeps telling me that the device is not found.. i tried the patch from dell to turn the BT radio on but it didn't work plus i noticed that the usb ports were not working either... i tried linux(ubuntu, opensuse, and debian) and everything worked fine so i know there's nothing wrong with my hardware...

does anybody have a solution for this?

 

Great guide Les. I got a couple questions though . .

1. Is MediaDirect 3.3 a CD? I just recently finished chatting with someone on Dell's site, and he told me it came standard with Dell systems but there wasn't a CD for it.

2. He also told me the machine would come with a re-store disc, and he told me that's what I needed to preform a clean install. What do these discs look like and what are the chances it'll be shipped with my Vostro 1400?

3. Dumb question . . How do I download a driver to a USB flash drive?

4. And finally, how hard is it to install the drivers once the clean install is finished? Is it something fairly self explanatory?

I will +rep if you take the time to help me out. Thank you

 

Great guide.

I took the plunge and followed the guide step by step - just as Les explained and everything went fine.

Only problem I came up against was having finished installing Vista I put the Driver and Utilities cd into the DVD drive only to find that the only driver on there was the webcam driver. Great! Luckily I was able to download all the drivers I needed from the Dell website from my home pc.

Edit - I also got a 100 increase in 3DMark - bonus!


adcavalier20 I can answer some of your questions as I've just done it.

1. Mediadirect is a CD, mine came with my laptop (M1530)

2. I have two discs that are used, both blue in colour. One say Media Direct and the other say for Re-installing your Operating System.

3. To download the driver to a USB you simply extract it directly to he drive - make sure its empty before doing so - I've got winrar and I copied the driver (.exe file) to the USB, right clicked and select 'Extract Here'. Then deleted the original .exe file. It worked perfectly.

4. Go to the Dell support site here ----> http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen
Then select your laptop model and you will be taken to the driver/downloads for your specific laptop. Download them and then run each file in turn by double clicking on them. Thats it.

 

I dont see anything under drivers for M1530 that specifically state AHCI.

 

It is called Intel Matrix Storage Driver.

Here is the link to it:
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=41&fileid=224400

 

What did you guys do for Partitions on the M1530? Option 1 says allocate all to C, Option 2 says specify partitions and some to D.

When I do option 2, it says how much I want to allocate for C, which default says 153GB though I have a 250GB drive... seems a bit low?

When I check the C: drive under my computer in windows it shows 215 out of 220GB available.... does this mean I will be stuck after reformat.. with 153GB of free space... seems sketchy.

When I select option 2, I attempt to put 220GB for the C drive and the rest for D drive.. but it says the number can only be between 2-207... does this mean reformatting will actually shrink the amount of space I have??

 

Could you please link me to the one for the Vostro 1400?

 

Here you go adcavalier.

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=41&fileid=205611

 

+rep man! Thanks

 

OK. Forgive me if I do not read thru 148 pages.......I am going to do a clean install of vista. i also want to shrink my c: drive and create a new partition for data. I did not get a mediadirect 3.3 cd. i have had 2 systems w/ media diredt and have not used it yet. so I am not to concerned about this but it would be nice to still have since it is a brand new machine.

Is it possible to use gparted. Format the C: drive. resize c: partition. create a new partition. reinstall vista from my dvd all the while leaving the diagnostic, recovery (not really needed) and mediadirect partitions all in untouched?

 

i followed all the instructions and everything went well repped OP...

but now when I open webcam center, the blue light next to the camera turns on, but I just see a black screen instead of myself

After the clean installation, I had downloaded the latest drivers from dell and had installed webcam manager from the CD which came with the laptop.

when i found out that my cam isn't working, I removed and re-installed the drivers as well as webcam manager software...but still i get the black screen.

i searched this forum and found a thread involving a similar issue, but that guy just had his brightness low...i've checked all the settings (brightness, contrast etc) and they seem to be fine.

Even when I see the black screen, photos and videos are recorded perfectly and I can watch them. I can also see myself in the doodle application of webcam console.

msn messenger is also displaying my webcam image...it's just the dell webcam center that shows a black screen.

any suggestions??

 

If you are going to do a clean install, you can as well delete the existing vista partion and create according to your convenience during the pre-installation tasks. But I do not know if it will have any kind of impact on the booting directly to MD...

 

Will the drivers on the CD work if I decide to go for the x64 version on clean install? Or are they only 32 bit?

 

They are only 32 bit, as far as I know, on the cd. However, going to Dell's site and seeing what 64 bit drivers they have should do the trick. And if there is a similar laptop to yours (say the 1330 and 1530) they often have the driver on one list but not on the other so check both! Also, Windows Update will download a lot of the drivers.

 

Yes, if you want to go the 64bit route, you will have to download a completely separate set of drivers that are designed for 64 bit vista.

 

I went to the Vostro 1400 drivers and all I saw was Vista 32 bit :/

 

I am about to receive my xps1530 and want to do this:

Clean install Vista to rid the system of the bloat ware, etc. using the OP's guide so that I will have a clean HD and Vista newly installed.

Next, I want to set up a dual booting system with XP and Vista using this guide:

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives...boot-vista-and-xp-with-vista-installed-first/

My question is will both OS's recognize programs like Microsoft Office, Norton, Firefox, etc.? Or will I need to install those programs individually to each OS? What about files such as mp3's, word documents, and games?

If they do both recognize all the programs and files, which OS should I install the programs on? Thank you in advance for any help!

 

Problem. Following the instructions, repartitioning using the Mediadirect and even after specifying I want Drive C to have 207GB, after following instructions, Drive C ends up with about 23GB and Drive D gets the 207 GB after windows is installed.

 

I am facing a problem with installing applications (Insufficient privileges to update registry entries) & with Windows Update (Error 80070005)

Background Info:
I have been using E1505 for the last 1 year and couple of months back i used Acronis TI to clone my existing 80GB HDD into a 320GB HDD, where i still have the 4 partitions. I removed the dell diagnostics, Media Direct & the recovery partitions and was left with a 10.06 GB unallocated space & 2GB of Free space, between these 2 is my C Partition of 62.4 GB where my vista is installed. Apart from these, i have a 223 GB Logical partition.

yesterday i decided that i would do a fresh install of Vista (using the disc that came with my E1505) and at the partition selection screen, i decided to delete the existing Vista partition and was left with 72.5 GB of unallocated space apart from the big 223GB partion. I split that into 2 partitions of 50 GB & 22.5 GB, 50GB partition for installing Vista. Please note that I did not install the AHCI driver here. Please also note that i did not install MD, just Vista.

The installation took around 30 minutes and I ended up extracting all the necessary drivers (there was a problem with this too, when i ran the Resource CD app, i couldn't extract the drivers directly from the app, i think this has got something to do with the UAC, i had to manually extract the drivers and install) and after i updated them, i tried windows update, it said i had to install the latest windows update installer and that always fails giving an error code of 80070005.

I turned the UAC off at this point of time.

After this i tried installing Office 2007 and got the "Insufficient privileges to update registry entries".

Please let me know if anyone has faced a similar issue or has a solution. I would be really grateful to those who can help me out.

 

Can someone suggest any free Partition Tools that work great?

 

if i wanna do this on my xps m1530 will i need that AHCI thing b/c i cant find it on dell driver site for xps m1530?

edit: nevermind found it

 

Yeah, that threw me off too. Intel Matrix Storage Manager...

 

Thanks a lot for the wonderful post I am getting a new XPS M1530 (please look at my signature).. and I am so excited. And I dont want to mess with the base system, and so I am planning to get used to Vista.. and I have tried Vista Ultimate with a friends comp, and its not all that bad with the tweaks. Now I just cant wait to have one for myself Thanks again for this thread.

 

and yeah btw, in any case, there is always VMware whenever I miss XP Pro !!

 

Hi, in that case you have to make a list of all the componants (chipset, touchpad, wireless, ethernet, etc...) and then find the companys who made them and go to their website to download the 64 bit. Sorry, it is a bit more intensive but Dell apparently only had 64 bit drivers for their newer (flashier?) models.

 

I did this w/o the media center. A great help was to copy the driver's folder to a thumb drive first. then when I installed them back from the thumb drive. only thing i needed from the dell cd was the software for network cards, webcam, and something else easy. oh yea, silly finger tip reader

 

Hi. I have a XPS m1330 with Vista Home, I want to do a clean install of Vista. Is this AHCI driver on the CD given "Drivers & Utilities" or where can I download it? I went to Dell.com, saw the list of drivers for my service tag but none were listed as "AHCI" so which driver am I supposed to be looking for?

Thanks

 

Hi Jim, welcome to NBR.

The AHCI driver for the m1330 is located here: http://support.dell.com/support/dow...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=41&fileid=205611

 

AHCI Drivers = Intel Matrix Storage Manager

Remember that, it will be useful for the future!

 

The driver, and all the others you will need, are in the drivers folder on your c: drive. Copy them to a cd or a usb driver prior to format and it will make like easier.

 

I'm getting an XPS M1530 soon but I don't want media direct on my laptop at all really.

What would be the most efficient way of me getting a perfectly clean HDD with just Vista and all the best drivers on it when the M1530 arrives at my house? I don't want any partitions or anything but I do want the snazzy AHCI thing if it is going to give me a 15% performance increase.

Thanks

 

You'll render the home button laptop useless....

but what you do is right click on your Mediadirect partition and delete it. Then you proceed with reinstall of Vista just by sticking the Vista DVD in. Its very simple. Just dont forget to download AHCI drivers to USB so you can load them.

AHCI drivers = Intel Matrix Storage Manager.

 

What I did worked for me.
Copy your driver folder to a thumb drive
Put in the vista reinstall dvd
bood to dvd
do not do a repair but a new install.
it will ask you about partitions and the ahci driver. click the driver button and install from thumb drive. it will automatically find it.
this is where you can nuke MD and recover (who wants to go back to OEM)
I would leave the small ~56mb partition. is dell diagnostics. not even sure if they will still work but so small it does not matter
create (and format) the new c: patition to merge the deleted partitiion space
install vista
update drivers from the thumb drive
install remain drivers and software from the dell resource cd (prosys wireless ect)
install avg anti virus and comodo firewall
check for all updates, vista and drivers.
uninstall dell resource cd software
install ccleaner and clean the drive and registery
defrag a couple times
create a restore point and or image of OS.

you will have a clean machine ready to abuse. you have a perfect restore point and/or a OS image backup