Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

I am courious. if i do not reinstall my MD, which i probably will not, can I map the MD button to some other program?

 

Yes...there are threads that discuss that.

 

Hey,

I'm looking at buying an XPS 1530 this weekend while the 25% sale in on and I had a couple of lingering questions regarding the product key and x64.

First of all, I plan on following this guide to install a fresh copy of Vista. I have the choice between the media that the laptop comes with (ultimate x32 SP1) or my own copy of Vista (x64 SP0 + SP1 standalone install). If I chose the former, is the product key already written into the Dell Vista disc? Or would I need to read off a sticker on the bottom of the laptop? Or if I chose the latter (my x64), is there a sticker on the bottom that has the key I should use? (Given that Vista keys are independent of x32/x64)

The second part is regarding 64-bit support. Given I don't need Dell to actually provide the discs, what is the driver support like for all the major components (don't really care about fingerprint reader)? There was another thread on the forums claiming that Dell were offering 64-bit media for a few days so surely they must also provide the drivers for it somewhere?

Edit: Also one more question. I like to keep all my drivers at the latest, can I install the regular NVidia drivers from nvidia.com for the 8600GT M?

Thanks.

 

Product key is basically built into your bios in freeze frame, so nothing can get rid of it, not even if you upgrade/downgrade your bios, not even if you reformat your entire hard drive.

 

That only partially answers my question. So if the key is hardcoded into the bios what do you enter during the install off either the Dell Vista install or my retail Vista install disc?

 

Nothing. You do not have to enter anything whatsoever.

I've tried this myself using different Dell Vista Home Premium discs, each time for installation, it never asks me to input any key and after installation and reformat, both turn up to be identical product IDs that are already activated when I load up windows.

 

Great. Thankyou

 

That sounds good.

What do you mean by "Copy your driver folder to a thumb drive" though?

Let's just imagine the worst comes to the worst and all I have is the Vista CD. Can I still download all the drivers including AHCI?

Also I don't think I want that Dell Diagnostics thing. No major problems can come from that going right?

And I hear most people don;t use Media Direct anyway so what is the point? I'd rather just turn the laptop on and run in from that anyway. I'll try and find the thread where it tells me how to map the Home button as Les said you can.

 

Yeah, just go on support.dell.com and look up your computer, download all the drivers there.

 

ok, DELL support overnitght my MD 3.5 cd (i have been impressed so far). If i put it, boot to it, select option 1 does it repartition my whole drive so I am hosed and have to start my vista install over?

 

Yes. You are correct.
Also keep in mind... by default when you first receive your M1530, the Mediadirect takes up only 2.5GB in its own partition. If you reformat, which you have to to install or upgrade mediadirect, it takes up 3GB in its own partition which is 500mb more. Not that it matters for some people, but just FYI.

 

I just made an ghost/image of my hard drive. If i run the md install then do a base install of vista I should be able to put the image back on. I think i need to go to another forum to see if the image will reinstall on a .5gb smaller partition.

 

I think if I would have just put the MD cd in and ran the dellkit it would have worked w/o reinstalling and repartitioning my HD. I had to reinstall from vista from scratch after all. i wanted to repartition my drive and this gave me an excuss to start over. Les is right you will probably do it a couple time till it is perfect.

 

Um, if you want Mediadirect to work properly, you have to follow the steps Les specified. Running Dellkit is after you have Vista installed which is after you first use mediadirect to repartition.

If you do not repartition first with mediadirect cd, then reinstall vista, then stick in MD cd and run dellkit, you can still use mediadirect, but it will be like running windows media center. You wont be able to actually use the home button to boot up into mediadirect because you did not first repartition with MD cd.

 

Say if after I get my XPS and I do a fresh install of vista and set up a dual booting system with XP and vista, will I need to reinstall the Nvidia card drivers on both OS's? Where do you go to reinstall them?

 

Hi, I was working 20 minutes ago on my DELL which I have for about 4 weeks when a window popped up and told me google-toolbar was installed on my computer. I was still given the option to 'recline', which I did. Then, apparantly, the already installed application was uninstalled.

The window had a header with a dell logo on the left and on the right it said 'incorporation with google' or something. I think it's legit and not spyware or something but I am angry that a thrid party can actually download and install software without my consent. You may find this ridiculos but this derailed my train of thought and since I am under pressure to finish an essay it was most unwelcome.

Looking up 'dell' and 'google tool-bar' I found that both companies had come to some agreement or somesuch and I assume I witnessed the ugly child of that alliance.

I'm really sorry I am making you read my ranting but this is something not acceptable. Is this really legit? Has anyone of you experienced this today?

Seriously, this makes me want to complain somewhere. But that'll likely be futile anyway. Sorry for the rant.

Oh, is there any way to prevent any more software installed on my system? Thanks.

 

Seems like you have issues/questions that belong in their own thread, not here.

 

Alrighty, reformatted a few times and got my new xps1530 haulin', i also read somewhere that when you do a fresh install a ghost folder shows up under C drive as a "saved windows" folder, which is around 6-7 gigs. Anyone hear of this or have thoughts about it??

 

Why would you need to reformat it more than once?

 

Basically some people like to do multiple reformats to set up their new laptop in a way that is perfect to them.

 

I forgot to install AHCI driver. Can I still install that driver right now after all windows installed (currently running ATA)

 

Hello Handai. Yes, if your vista installation was succesful and vista starts up, you can still install the AHCI driver.

 

Heres a little tip.

If you delete Media Direct, pushing the home button instead of the power button makes it load up about 5 seconds faster

 

Hi All
This is my first post
I really like the forum...Thanks for such a grt forum

Recently I purchased a Dell Inspiron 1420 Laptop. The hard disk I suppose has a number of hidden partitions which I believe contains the recovery (OS) software. I would like to copy these hidden partitions software DVD so that I can use it to restore the OS and media direct and all other hidden partitions when I format the hard disk. I am looking for advice as to how the partition is located(viewed) and the method of burning to DVD.

I want to know this as I want to remove VIsta and put XP
But there is no OS CD given by dell

Thanks in advance for the help

 

I have a basic question & The thread is too long for me to scan/search. I am recieving my laptop on Monday. Wanted to check if DELL provides the VISTA DVD(for reformatting) or how else do i get it?

 

Hi,

When I bought my xps 1530 I used the Paragon Partition Manager and reformated the hd. So, now I have the C: (Vista OS), D: (Recovery), E: (Data)
All of these are Primary. There is also a Logical one which is hidden and I can see it only though Paragon.

I have Media Direct and I can see it by pushing the home button.

Now, I want to make a clean install and I would like to make a clean install without Media Direct (i dont' want it) . However I have one question. Did this will delete the newly created partition I made (E for my data or not? Did will remove only the D: (Recovery) partition?

Thanks,

Denis

 

they do. it has SP1 too

 

Darthsat, can you please show me how?

TIA

 

1. Download the AHCI driver for your notebook from the Dell support page.

2. The downloaded file will be of the format R******.exe. Just double-click that file once it has been downloaded, and it will ask you where to extract the files to. Just click OK to the default location(defaults to C:/Dell/drivers)

3. The setup will automatically start. Just go through it and it will finish the driver installation.

4. Restart.

 

TL;DR So, what is the value in using AHCI? I can glean sparsely anything coherent from Intel on this.

 

It increases system performance by about 15%

 

I've just bought a Dell Inspiron 1420 with the following specs :

Intel Core 2 Duo T8300
4GB RAM 667MHz
128MB NVIDIA 8400M GS Dedicated Graphics
Intel Next-Gen Mini Wireless Card
250 GB 5200RPM HDD

I would like to install Windows Vista 64Bit due to the memory mapping problem associated with 32Bit OSs in order to utilise my 4GB RAM. I wonder if 64Bit Vista will run fine as i've heard that it occupies a lot of system resources, so even though i'll get more RAM, it'll actually run slower than a 32Bit OS!

Also, Dell's support web page hasn't got drivers for Windows Vista 64Bit, will Drivers Like Intel Matrix for AHCI and DELL QuickSet of XPS work with my Inspiron 1420? If not then from where can i get these for 64 Bit Vista?

Thanks

 

Vaibhav...the 64 bit wud work just fine..no issues what so ever
As for as for the drivers..Its on this forum..i saw it somewhr...will revert if I find it

Well what CDs did u get with your new Dell 1420...Did you get an OS CD, Recovery CD, Media Direct CD...

I hv just ordered a 1420 today ..so was wondering..the thing is not so clear on the quotation and I cud not get to spk to the Dell guys too.

 

I did all that above but after restarting and change my sata bios to ahci, I still have problem booting to OS. I am still running at ATA

 

I got the CDs but they have Drivers for Vista 32Bit, some work which are for both 32 & 64 Bit like Bluetooth and Wireless. I wanna be sure of having all the required drivers before i format my system.
The system is decent enough, this configuration will keep me happy for 2 more years i hope.

 

Can u tell me if you got the OS CD...any recovery CD...media direct CD

Im sure the drivers for 64 bit is there....will try to look for them
n yes...ur lappy wud mast you more than 2 yrs..its a power-horse/house

As for the 64 bit drivers
Hv a look here
Sm of the drivers must definitely b same

Or what you can do is download a driver recognition software like this
Try to find out the installed components
Go to the manufacturer's site...
Download the drivers manually

It may be a long process but will be worth the time invested in

 

Got a question Les that might be stupid, but anyways.

If I get a new hard drive, I can do this process once I swap to it as if I was still on the old hard drive right? I might be getting a bigger 5400RPM drive but I wanted to double check since I don't want to lose the MediaDirect functionality.

 

Hi warrior, yes you can do the full procedure with a new HDD.

 

Problem fixed.

 

What's the difference between going through this cleanup process and just manually uninstalling unwanted bloatware from the control panel and using some of those performance tweak tips?

I really don't feel like going through this crazy process...

 

It really is not a crazy process at all. The steps are simple if followed step-by-step, and should take no more than 2 hours. Just un-installing bloatware can be tedious and it will still leave remnants in several hidden areas of your computer as well as in the registry. Doing a clean install is the only way you know that your new computer is fully clean and your's.

 

I can vouch for how rediculously easy this procedure is.

I just did it and took it probably at worst 30 mins before I was sitting at the desktop (tbh, it was probably much less than that but I was watching TV while Vista was installing and such.)

After letting it finish, I checked out the shutdown, restart, and cold boot-up times. Cold boot-up time was easily cut in half. Restart is blazing fast.

I couldn't believe it myself, cause I didn't see too much bloatware on the system to begin with, but man is Les right. There's a HUGE difference. I strongly urge people to do this instead of just uninstalling the bloatware.

 

Nice to hear your success Warrior.

 

Hello everyone!
i just got my NEW xps 1530!!! and im so damn happy about it.
i saw that guide and im about to remove my bloatware but i have a questation. i got mcafee antivirus for 15 months and i want to keep use it after reinstalling vista, i cant find a cd key or something like that and i just got an installation cd for the antivirus. what should i do?
and do i lose other content that i cant retrieve like backgrounds and stuff like that?
is there anything else that i need to backup or to do before the format?

 

Quick message to say this worked perfectly. It's a lovely feeling to have a clean install on a new laptop. Everything is zipping along nicely (although, inevitably, the anti-virus software is slowing things back down again. Oh well.)

 

hey guys, have cut down my process to around 49 running, but through msconfig i stil have 4 nvidia process at startup. I've read a few posts that have opinions that contradict each other...what are your thoughts. Do I need any of these startup process, or should I just dissable them all:

NvSvc
NcCplDaemon
NvMediaCenter
NVHotkey

Thanks for the thoughts.

 

Also, my windows rating was at 5.6 but now its stopped working totally, I've done what the websites say about getting back up and running, but still no completion...just a failed msg at the end. Any thoughts on what might cause this to just crash, or is it even worth my time to figure it out?

 

Ok, I'm sorry if this question has been asked more than once already... But... When I purchase my Dell Xps m1530, I'll be ordering it with:

McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 24-months
3Yr In-Home Service, Parts Labor, 24x7 Phone Support
Add Accidental Damage and LoJack Theft Protection to 3Yr Warr.

Basically my question is: "Will doing this clear any of these services as well?"
I don't really care too much about the anti-virus stuff, just the Theft Protection.

 

had the same ques, just got off the phone with dell xps support, they said the lowjack is firmware, despite what most people think, which means its already in the comp, so no need to reinstall anything for the lowjack. After the fresh install your good to go. Enjoy

 

Hi Dreon, Remember to register your Mcafee before doing the formatting. I spent 2 hours to get the subscription again, first with Dell(do not need), then With Mcafee, provide your service tag. they can renew your subscription. You can save your 2 hours, by registering yourself first & then doing the formatting