Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

Is it ok to format and install WinXP Home instead of vista. Will media centre still work ok? Any instructions please?

 

hmmm...i tried the usb method. its essentially a cheap mp3 player...but it cant find the file. i installed it in ata anyway coz school is starting soon and i have to get my computer back running.

another question is that, can i use an acronis image created iin ata mode in ahci?

 

Media Direct is its own bootable program, independent from windows (any version). The process is the same for all installations, as well as the outcome. There is a thread in NBR that goes over this specifically.

 

Hum..not sure about that, but if your creating an image from on older xp comp in ata, there is a trick to enable AHCI on xp, then image that, and transfer that to vista.

On a side not, media direct is not a cheap mp3 player, its a system that allows you to play just about all media types, without loading windows, which makes video playback much faster, smoother, and wont kill your battery time. I travel for business all the time, and its the only way i can watch several movies without bringing several batteries when traveling outside the country.

 

The AHCI is known as "Advanced Host Controller Interface", stoy is correct it is a driver interface that allows the comp to prefore at 15% increase.

 

Monk.... Try to stay to one post (even if you have to expand it by editing) if you can to keep the wolves down...eheheh Tx.

Lotta....

Picture your hard drive as an apartment. I partition is simply a room within the apartment and as we know, storage of things becomes easier as we can organize more effectively with several rooms...same as a partition on a hard drive.

Next, the medium is where you downloaded and expanded the AHCI driver originally. It can be on a usb, sd card, dvd or even cd. The AHCI driver allows your system to run in AHCI mode, vice ATA, which gives your system a 15-18% boost from if its running in normal ATA mode.

 

Will the clean install have an impact on the fact that I may have to upgrate my BIOS due to the NVIDIA card problem?

How do you check what version of BIOS you have? I ordered my XPS on July 15th, so I don't know if it has the newest BIOS with the GPU fan fix

 

Your bios should be fine if the system is brand new. I actually found upgrading caused a problem with mine...I am back at A09 and its running fine. When I moved up, as suggested, the system would not recognize 2 sticks of ram believe it or not.

 

When you start up your laptop, it starts with a Dell logo screen. At the bottom, it says "Bios revision ___". Check f that (A09 or whatever it is) is the latest by comparing it to the revision that is on Dell's website.

 

So Les,
How would I know if I am at A09?

 

One way is to do as crash said, BUT, you can do it without rebooting also (if u wanna reboot now just to see the version of your BIOS)

Open Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Information > System Summary on the left and its contents on the right where the BIOS Version displayed.

 

Please see my previous post Cheers.

 

Hey guys is there anything I should activate on my laptop before Reformatting? Maybe lojack or antivirus? Or can everything be activated after clean installing? Thanks.

 

Thanks for the benchmarks. The above differentials seem to be negligible. In lay terms, what does this really equate too in terms of performance improvement. I've managed to uninstall all of the unneeded programs off of my system but I am considering going through the full process.

Is the effort really worth the end result based upon the scores above?

Cheers
B

 

can I download the AHCI driver directly from Intel?

Intel® Matrix Storage Manager

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/fil...dows+Vista*+32&lang=eng&strOSs=164&submit=Go!

this will either be for a xps m1530 or studio 15.

PS: under which category can the AHCI driver be found at dell.com ?

thanks a lot !!

 

Its under the SATA cat. at Dell's page

this is for the xps 1530
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...ystemID=XPS_M1530&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=

 

Where can I get the ACHI driver?

 

for your 1720 the driver is at

http://support.euro.dell.com/suppor...D=INS_PNT_PM_1720&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=

it's under the SATA category and it's the last one, Intel Matrix Storage Manager (driver). Once you download it, you need to extract the driver to your medium and follow the instructions.

 

ummm, so i reformated my laptop yesterday, and installed the achi driver too (when i had too). Now the only problem i having is that im not sure wether or not it installed, i mean my laptop is running fine, but i dont see "intel matrix storage manager" anywhere
please, help?

btw im on a m1530

 

If you go to Device Manager via Control Panel. Then look under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers there should be something like Intel(R) 82801 HEM/HBM SATA AHCI controller. The specific numbers or letters will probably be different, but it should include AHCI somewhere or something to that effect. lol

 

thanks! hmm, i was just wondering, how long vistas hould take to start up, i know on my laptop its takes anywhere from 30 secs to a min.... somwhere in between

 

yeh mine takes about the same. If I get about 35 secs I'm happy.

 

hey monk, thanks for the reply, i din mean that media direct is a cheap mp3 player.

i meant i placed the ahci driver in my mp3 player so that i can install the driver when im installing vista. but it doesnt detect my mp3 player to install the driver. hehe

so what seems to be a problem? mayb i will jus burn it onto a cdrw and load it from there.

 

I hope this hasnt been addressed yet. (188 posts are a lot to read through)

FYI I did not have to boot the media direct CD first on my Studio 17, I went straight to the Vista DVD. This is verified on the dell support website. I tred to use the media direct disc first but it wouldnt boot from it, it went straight to booting my old OS.

Anyone reformat and remove bloatware on their Dell Studio 17?

 

marphtwo : u meant 188 PAGES!

 

MediaDirect is bootable. Are you choosing the one-time boot menu then selecting CD-R? If that's not working, try changing the boot sequence in BIOS

 

Yes the MD disk is bootableeven on that system. Follow direcs or get the disk exchanged.

 

I haven't received my S17 yet, but just got the packing slip emailed to me.

I noticed: 330-0496 F223D MEDIA DIRECT 4.0 For DVD RW on the packing slip.

Will the instructions on this thread be the same???

Thanks in advance.

Buzz

 

any ideas from you guys. Did my reformat, everything is running fine, then I noticed my network was dropping connections. I restarted comp, and on the dell screen it said bios 08, even though i have been running 09 for weeks. What would cause it to flash it back to 08?

 

I don't know what would cause it to 'backflash' to A08.. but did you try flashing it to A09 and see if the issue with the network was resolved?

 

yeah, flashed back to A09, but network issues still persisting. I'll call my IT guy and have him take a loot at it, but I've just never seen a comp flashback to another verison of BIOS. I'm fully stumped.


Buzz Cii

I haven't received my S17 yet, but just got the packing slip emailed to me.

I noticed: 330-0496 F223D MEDIA DIRECT 4.0 For DVD RW on the packing slip.

Will the instructions on this thread be the same???

Thanks in advance.

Buzz


From what i understand, media direct 4.0 ops diff than 3.3 or 3.5. I think 4.0 is an application within windows that doesnt use a seperate partition, and gets installed after the fresh install of Vista. Only downside to it, is that when you use it, it starts up windows instead of just using its standalone sys outside of vista. Anyone else use MD 4.0???

 

Hey guys, I was just wondering if I reformat my laptop using this method, will it delete the "Restore to Factory Condition" option that came with my laptop? I'd like to keep that just in case I need to restore my laptop on a busy schedule.

 

Yes it will delete that. This is why you should make a backup disk set which will allow you to restore your system to as it is now which would then enable you to restore to factory settings once restored.

 

Sorry, how do I do that?

 

you can use Acronis to make an image of your entire system. although if you were to restore your system to factory settings you would bring all the original bloatware. what I would do is reformat and set up everything as you want it. then use acronis to back-up everything. That way you'll have a back-up without bloatware and can easily use if needed.

 

Ah good idea, I'll do that. Thanks guys.

 

yeah I meant 188 PAGES haha

So I reformatted my Studio 17 and it works great!!!!

Still didnt have to boot from media direct first. The dell web site says to boot from the Vista disc first then after Vista is installed to install media direct.

I love my Studio 17.

Now onto that other post about disabling uneeded services.

Anyone recommend a good Vista defragmenter?

I tried O&O and i think it sucks. Whne I analyzed it, it said it was 30% fragmented then after I did a SPACE defrag, it was 47% fragmented?!?!?! and it would never go below 47% again.

Anyway I am using the included defrag at the moment.

 

guys I have a problem....
Im at the the step where you load the ahci driver.

For some strange reason the installer cannot find the driver in my USB flash drive.

Im at a standstill. I dont know what to do?
Can you guys think of anything?
thanks.

 

When you downloaded the driver, did you extract it to your USB drive? Because if you just copied the .exe file it wont work. You need to extract it and you'll get some .inf files and text documents.

 

OHHH!! =)

See I dint understand where guys kept saying "expand to USB drive"......

But extract works for me .
thx

continuing my reformat, be back in a few.....

 

Hey, my m1530 was just shipped, and I'm looking at ways to improve performance when it arrives.

I really don't know anything about computers, so I'm a bit concerned about fiddling around with this.

Is there a chance I could mess something up following this guide and the pictures on pg 130 word for word?

Also, just to be clear, the AHCI driver is called iastor when the download from dell is unzipped, right?

after reading a good portion of the thread, I won't do a clean install unless I'm bothered by the performance. I hope to be able to manually delete some of the bloatware, and I'll live with the rest unless it starts to bother me significantly...feel free to leave any advice though.

 

I´ve made 2 screenshots of the AHCI driver and uploaded it... The first one shows the page where u have to download it and the second one the downloaded file plus the extracted files



Hope I am right, if not please correct me

 

you are absoutely correct, but the other point i would like to make is that you dont need to download the AHCI driver from dell, if you have thier "driver" disk. when it askes in the windows page to load drivers, pop in the "driver" disk, and let it search your CD, when it installs, then pop in the Vista disk and continue with the install. Its much easier of a process if you just load it from the disk, this will help many more of the new guys that dont understand how to import and extract.

 

Ah okay, i didn´t know this =)

Another question from me:
If u follow the posted guide at the beginning of this thread, will everything work fine, e.g. the media button? Or can there be any problems?

 

You can't break your laptop by following this guide. And even if you don't know much about computers I still reccomend that you do a clean install. It's really easy if you just follow the steps. And if you use the MediaDirect disk, the media button retains its functionality. It'll be fine. Worst case scenario, you get one of your mates to do it for you.

 

Well, thanks for giving me some more safety I´m not a n00b, but it is my first laptop, so I haven´t got any experiences in this field and i think the Media Direct button is something special which u don´t have on a normal desktop pc Furthermore i´ve read a lot of about bluescreens and non-function Media buttons, so i was a little bit sceptic

 

No worries, it's worth doing. BSOD are usually due to people forgetting the AHCI driver.

 

Questions about partitions.........

My status: S17 in production, 530 desktop shipped.

Looks like I will be removing bloat from the desktop first and I'm not sure if media direct 4.0 comes with desktops, but at any rate, I would like to ask the following.....

Do I need to partition the HDD when doing the bloat removal procedure or is it just a personal preference thing? Is there an advantage to partition?

I habitually keep my OS and programs on the Primary HDD and put all other data files (i.e. docs, Pics, Video) on either an addition internal or external HDD.

Thanks!

Buzz

 

It's just a preference really. If you've got a separate hard-drive for your data there's no real reason for partitioning the primary hard-drive unless you need another partition for dual-booting etc

 

Hi Guys
At first I’d like to say hello
Last week i spend on reading this thread and must admit that huge work has been done.
Forgive me language mistakes – I’m Polish.

My XPS1530 is on the way and I’m trying to gather all necessary info concerning reformatting and clean install.

My wish is to have :

- Diagnosis partition
- MD partition
- C: - system partition
- D: - data partition (divided to 3 logical partitions)

From info which i’ve read i should follw the instructions from the first post as follows:

1. Install Acrronics and make backup (as here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838&page=167 )
2. Use MD disc with option 2 to create MD Partition and C partition (the rest of space)
3. Use Vista disc during instalation to shrink the C partition and allocate the free space for data partition
4. Instal AHCI
5. Instal System
6. Instal Drivers etc.

Is that corrcect ??
My questions arme maybe silly bu want to be 100% sure:

a. What is the difference of backuping the whole system (all partitions with Acronics) from only backuping the “Restore partition ??” –is it possible to backup only “Restore” one and in the future have original config just from this image or should I have the entire (all partitions backup) ?

b. If I make the full (all partitions) system backup with Acronics, than remove the “Restore” partition, instal system and in the future would like to hav system as it was “from factory” – will this image made by Acronics restore the partitions , their volume and all settings as they were before I removed the backup partition and re-allocated free space ??
c. the brand new Dell system install looks like this http://img370.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vistaee4.jpg the first is “Diagnosis” and last is MD – as I suppose. What partitions are installed during installation from MD disc - is it “Diagnosis”, “C” and “MD” ??

d. When I boot the Vista disc , I’m able to create a new one partition (Data by shrinking the C: partition) – as I understand this partition will be primary and I can divide it to 3 logical partitions ??or I need to allocate this free space to Extended partition and within that create the logical ones??

e. What is the Intel Chipset Driver and when should be installed (first after the system installation or it doesn’t matter?)

f. Is there any order in which the drivers should be installed ??maybe there are some dependencies ??

Thanks for all!!!