Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

Recieved my new Dell XPS1530 Laptop 2 days back, Followed Les's guide to reformat. It was a Breeze. Thanks Les. I had one concern, that my RAM is underutililized. This is my Configuration

XPS M1530, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.5GHz/800MHzFSB, 6M L2 Cache)
Tuxedo Black Casing XPS M1530
4GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm, for XPS M1530
15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ TrueLife LED LCD with Camera for XPS M1530
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive for XPS M1530
Creative X-Fi Sound Card.
3 Yrs Warranty

I have the Following Questions.
1. Only one USB Port out of 3 is USB 2.0?
2. How to know if my monitor is an LED LCD Screen?
3. Will my hardware support 64 Bit VISTA Home Premium. I Need 64 Bit Home premium as my RAM is underutilized.
4. Which all generic software not work in 64 bit.

Folks, who have already installed 64 bit, please let me know, if all the softwares like, Media Direct & the camera, fingerprint reader work in 64 bit or not. How to get the 64 bit drivers?

 

These processes are NVidia processes. It is safe to get rid of all these startup items. The one caveat to this is that if you have a custom display settings profile using the NVidia control panel(ie. digital vibrance, brightness, contrast, etc.), you will need to keep the NvCplDaemon one on. The others you can disable.

Hi pattanbd. Your machine will definately support 64-bit Vista OS. As for software and drivers, there are 64-bit working drivers for all that you mentioned. The one exception is that the fingerprint reader currently can only be used for windows logon in 64-bit. It cannot yet be used for entering username and passwords for websites.

 

no all 3 usb ports are 2.0

dell website says "3 USB 2.0" under " I/O Ports"
on this link:
"http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1530?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs"

its for the uk but they are all the same

 

Hi Darthsat,
Dell Drivers site doesnt show me an option to download 64 bit drivers for XPS1530. It only shows 32bit & Bios as an option. Do i need to look into some specific sites to get the 64 bit driver versions.

Can the Windows update take care of Driver updates?

Thanks much
Bibhu

 

Darthsat, thx..appreciate the speedy reply.

 

@pattanbd: Thank you. That will save me some trouble.

 

For many of the drivers, what you have to do is to go on dell support pages for other models which they do offer 64bit driivers for(such as the m1330). Find 64-bit drivers for other machines that use the same devices and parts that are in your laptop.

 

So I went through the guide and everything seems to be working great. Few questions though since this is my first vista machine -

1. Before I reformatted, I noticed that when my mouse would go over a task on the task bar a mini window showing what that task is would so up. That doesn't happen any more(not a huge deal since I guess it takes more system recourse's to do it)
2. Before the reformat when I clicked the "find wi fi signals" button on the right hand side of the XPS a window would pop up showing me all the signals the comp picked up. Now I have to manual go into "Networks" and find the signals.(I'm I missing a driver and if so what one is it)

 

Great guide. I reformatted my m1330 the day I got it. I did get a little too anxious and forgot a few important details.

1. My m1330 came with 4 years of Lojack included. I didn't activate it first, since I removed the recovery partition and an install disc isn't included, it's now gone. I called Dell and they put in an order for a disc but I see it's canceled so I'm not sure what they will do now.
2. I didn't register the 3 year subscription to McAfee, I don't really care because I probably wouldn't use it even though it is free.
3. I didn't back up the recovery partition. This could have solved all my problems.

Other than that, I was glad to rid my laptop of all the preinstalled crap.

Does anyone know who to contact or what to ask for to get my Lojack registered and working? I sent an email to Absolute software, who makes Lojack for laptops. I can't be the first moron who has done this.

 

Hello StutteringBilly, welcome to NBR.

For the taskbar previews, right-click the taskbar and click properties. Check the box that says "Show Window Previews(thumbnails)." Click Apply, Ok.

And make sure you have the Dell quickset application installed for additional Dell functionality such as the wifi detector.

 

im just about to reformat my computer and you can save me some time what i need to back up?
i just got it and i dont have anything of my own on it... and if you have more advices, that would be great...

 

Hi everyone

I followed this guide very thoroughly, and also tried the various tips about letting the system cold boot after installing Windows, and yet it still gives me a blue screen of death upon booting into Vista for the first time, even though the correct AHCI drivers have been installed before beginning the Vista installation.
A bootup in failsafe will also give me the BSOD, and the system crashes once it starts loading the crcdisk.sys file.

Is there some sort of a workaround for this? I've spent 5 hours today trying to get it up and running, with no luck as of yet. I'm somewhat reluctant to reinstall the Dell OEM version of Windows, as I have acquired a retail version of Vista Ultimate =/

Any help and/or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

 

Hi, I'm new here, but thanks for the great post!
I've read upto page 85 or so, then tried reading backwards and then decided to just post here.
I'm fairly confident of getting through this and will give it a shot next week when my laptop arrives.
If someone has a list of drivers for an Inspiron 1525 that are not available on the drivers and utilities disc that comes with the laptop, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Also, I'm not entirely clear on whether I should get the Intel Matrix Storage Manager AHCI Driver from the DELL website and put it on a USB drive and point to it during the OS installation or if it has to be done while installing all the other drivers.
Thanks in advance!

 

Hello mindspaceindia. The Intel Matrix Storage Driver is different from all the other drivers. It should be installed during the vista installation (just after the partitioning phase). All other driver installations are done after Vista has installed and is up and running on your machine.

 

Thanks for the quick response darthsat!
I'm not sure how this rep thing works but +1
Also I read in a previous post of yours that I didn't have to wipe out the 10GB recovery partition even with a clean install. Is that possible if I follow Les' original instructions? And how is it done?

 

Well, in the partitioning phase, you will see the 10GB recovery partition. You can simply ignore that partition and just setup the main partition to be formatted so that vista can be re-installed onto it. Basically, the clean install procedure can be done without touching that 10GB recovery partition.

So you can set up the partitions such that there is a big primary partition that will be reformatted with vista, and the untouched 10GB recovery partition, and the mediadirect partition if you wish to maintain that as well.

 

Could you point out what exactly you mean by "in the partitioning phase" with reference to bamaster pictorial guide here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3314842&postcount=1291

I thought if I decided on option 2 (allocating certain amount to C: and rest to D , all data (including recovery partition) would be erased.

Also is there any point in retaining the recovery partition? Will it let me restore to factory settings as it were before the clean install? Not that I would want to, but with a 250GB HD, 10GB is not an issue.

 

Remember that the 10GB recovery partition, the 3GB Mediadirect partition, and the primary partition are set when you receive your notebook.

In this image, choices 1 and 2 will both leave the 10GB recovery partition alone. These choices are just for balancing HDD space between a primary partition and a mediadirect partition.

Later on in the process, it is in this image that you will see the 10GB recovery partition. Simply leave it alone if you want to keep it, or click on it and click delete to get rid of it.

 

I'm off to bed now! Maybe I'll see a reply sometime tomorrow. Thanks a bunch darthsat. It's incredible what one post can do to boost your confidence, I'm all clear with the AHCI issue now.
You have been very very helpful. Wish I could rep you further. Night

edit: Just read that reply. Thanks. All doubts clear. I think I read that the recovery partition becomes obsolete after a clean install, and can't be used to restore to factory settings, when I first received the laptop (bloatware etc included) . Can you confirm that sometime later? Thanks again

 

I'm glad I could be of help to you.

As long as the recovery partition remains intact, it can be used to restore your laptop to factory settings(with bloatware). But after a clean install and getting the system setup how you like it, you can back up your laptop data. I personally have no use for the recovery partition because I have all my important files backed up, so if something goes wrong with my laptop, I just do a reformat and load up my files.

 

A question which may have already been answered (Very long thread, sorry )

I just got a reasonably standard kit xps1730, with the dual 160gig 7200 sata drives. One thing I have little to no experience with and have never used before is raid.

If I follow this guide to the letter, using media direct to format the drives, what is the best way to go about getting optimum performance? At the moment I am doing a fresh install, and I just told the software to format it so that the whole c drive is one partition (which I assume will leave the rest of the space as another partition, and the 3gig left over from media direct's partition.

Will this be running in raid if I set it up this way, or do I need to format from the bios, or what?

Basically my question is what should I do partition wise to get the best performance from a 1730?

 

Doesn't the Dell quickset count as blotware? I thought the reason I reformatted was to clean out all the dell "software".

 

Quickset may be counted essentially as a driver as it provides the laptop instructions how it is to use certain hardware. For example, without quickset installed, there will be no on-screen indicators for brightness or audio level.

 

This may hv been discussed before but plz look at this again

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.

Also if I do a clean install will all the hidden partitions be deleted.I want to know this as I want to remove VIsta and put XP.But there is no OS CD given by dell.

Looking forward for some help

 

Sgx100, I am not sure how you would go about burning the recovery partition to dvd. The recovery partition is hidden and thus not viewable in Windows' My Computer. There might be a method, but I am unaware of it.

Regarding the clean install, you can delete all hidden partitions during the clean install process. There is a partitioning phase in the Windows installation process in which all partitions are viewable and deletable.

 

darthsat, Maybe Norton Ghost or other cloning programmes might see those hidden partitions..Im not sure...just wondering.

I really want to know what lies in those hidden partitions
Mediadirect Partition - MD software for playing DVDs without booting
Recovery Partition - The OS backup n Softwares n Maybe Drivers

Does that mean that if I remove the recovery partition I cant restore to factory conditions with the preinstalled OEM OS and software settings

Am i correct wen I say those?

 

I recently purchased the notebook in my sig and really want to do a clean install, but I am afraid of losing the additional desktop backgrounds and screen savers that you get from buying that RED product thing. Does anyone know if it is on the windows disk dell provides or if I have to save it to another disk first.

Sorry If this has been answered before, I got to about page 80 on this thread before I gave up hope and figured I would ask.

 

Yes, if you get rid of the 10GB pre-setup recovery partition, you will no longer be able to do the automatic restore to factory settings. There is no recovery disc that laptops used to come with years ago. You can use the included vista OS disc and the drivers disc to do a clean install.



Wolfeborne, you can download all the special product red stuff in the .zip file in this site: http://www.askvg.com/windows-vista-...ets-wallpapers-screen-saver-dreamscene-video/

 

Great and simple guide to make a clean install. Congrats.

First I installed Vista on my M1330 with this guide, then I made my XP/Vista dualboot. All works perfectly.

Thanks Flamenko

(Repped as well)

 

Thanks Darth, you've made it so I can have a clean machine and not lose a thing.

 

Hi, I am sort of confused with something and have a question about partitions. I was just looking at the "Tips & Tricks" thread in the Dummy Forum and read that it was better to have two different partitions for the OS and for other files. So after doing a total reformat, I looked into "My Computers" and saw that my C: partition is 26.3gb with the windows folders and OS on it and then I saw that I had a D: partition of 207gb. Did I do the partitions correctly? So once I reinstall my programs do I just keep selecting my D: partition to use? I am sort of confused on this whole matter.

UPDATE EDIT: So I decided to reformat again and allocated 15gb to the C: partition where the windows OS is installed. I'm assuming that I just place my data/files and install my programs onto the D: partition

 

My Vostro 1710 doesnt seem to have mediadirect, i assume this is still a straight forward process without it?
Also i am confused about where, or exactly which AHCI driver to download. No such driver shows up when i use my service tag on the Dell site and when i manually search for ACHI, several options show.

 

I also had this problem but figured out that the ACHI driver is located on one of the discs provided by dell.

 

The AHCI driver can be found by looking for 'Intel matrix Storage Manager' after choosing your laptop model at the dell website.

 

Typically, it is better to put vista and all program installations in the C:\ partition, and all data in a separate partition if you prefer partitioning at all.

 

So would you recommend me to reformat to make my C: partition larger? I have a 250gb hard drive. Any general guidelines for splitting up my hard drive or recommendation for how large to make the C: partition? I am thinking that it is just preference on how big I want to make the vista partition but I'll just ask anyways.

Is there also a way I could expand the C: partition without having to reformat?

 

I mentioned earlier that I lost the Lojack software by formatting before activating it. Dell wasn't really sure how to help when I called so I contacted Lojack for Laptops tech support and they were very helpful. They just needed an invoice or proof of purchase for my laptop and they sent me a registration code. Just wanted to post this in case anyone else did this.

Lesson: Activate any preinstalled software that you actually want to use BEFORE formatting the hard drive.

 

Yes, it does boi down to personal preference. You should make the C:\ at least 30GB for vista and programs. You have plenty of space, so 40-50GB for vista and progs may be better for you.

 

does not doing this affect the laptop alot speed and HDD space wise?

im going to delete crap like norton and stuff right away anyway

 

Can anyone make a list of programs/software that I should register BEFORE doing this reformat so I don't have to deal with trying to get it back with Dell CS?

I know I need to register my mcafee virus software and the lojack service...is there anything else?

 

I dont want to install media direct, I dont use it.
So can I just boot to vista dvd, delete all of the partition, then create a new one and install from there?
xps m1330

 

Lojack and Mcafee are the only two that came on my system, but it depends on what your purchase options.

 

Yes this is exactly what I did for my m1330.

 

In that case, what would happen when you press the Home button?

 

I think my home button just boots my computer just as the power button does. There are guides out on the net that show you how to remap that button to do something else, but it is something that I never bothered to do.

 

Is it possible say to make a new vista partition say 20GB but leave my old installation on the other 280GB and if all goes well delete the old Installation and use the new partition format the other 280 and put my programs on that?

bit of a mouthfull sorry if its hard to understand but you get the point right?

 

whats your thought on this...do fresh install, but keep the recovery partition. After fresh install use Acronis, make image of fresh install, and then format that over the dell recovery partition. You still keep recovery on hand but no bloatware. Would this work???

 

I followed the guide and at first everything went well. Vista loaded so much quicker and I was very satisfied. However, about a week later, I had the blue screen pop-up. I tried the option of repairing Vista. I thought it worked, but the blue screen came back again. I ran a diagnostic of the system and it said the following two files are corrupt:

c:\wmlib.sys is corrupt, and c:\windows\system32\drivers\acpi.sys is corrupt.

Now when I turn the system on it will only go to the black boot screen. I have tried reinstalling Vista using drive boot option with the Dell disk, but it will not complete reinstallation, it stops halfway through and gives a message that installation failed.

I have called the Dell support and the person I spoke with seemed to know less than me about trying to get the system working again, so I wasted an hour with them.

Any ideas? right now I have a laptop that is useless, which is worse than the bloatware and slow Vista system that drove me nuts before.

Thanks for any help.

 

Is it possible that your Dell disc is bad?
Have you run any hardware diagnostics?

 

I'm afraid to do this entire reinstallation.
What's the best software to use once you get a new dell notebook that will remove as much bloatware as possible without taking any risks?

Thanks!