Excellent experience with Dell so far

I ordered my Inpiron 1420 on 11/6/2007 over the dell website and got the shipment delivered by DHL on 11/12/2007!! 3 days prior to the estimated shipping date I initially had. Thats simply amazing......

I had ordered a Remote Control for Vista Home Premium not knowing exactly what it was. But when I received it, I realized that its way too big for me and not at all portable... So I called up dell today and asked if I can exchange the same with a ExpressCard Media Remote that will go into the express card slot? Dell rep told me that they cant issue a straight exchange but can receive a return of the item from me. After some time the rep informed me that they will credit the amount of Remote Control for Vista Home Premium ($29) back into my account and I can keep the remote control with me. (Don't have to return it to dell!!!) If I need I can order the other remote separately...!!! I was simply overwhelmed...


I have a couple of questions on vista clean install.. can someone direct me to some link or advises if possible. Along with my shipment I received 5 DVDs.

1)Windows Vista home premium
2)Driver CD for drivers
3)Driver CD for the Webcam
4)Dell mediadirect 3.3
5)Roxio creator DVD

With this if I need to do a clean install, will I have to order a separate anytime upgrade DVD for vista from microsoft? or my current vista home premium DVD sufficient?

Is installing media direct necessary?

Will the driver CD be complete and upto date with all the necessary drivers?

All I am looking for is a clean install with absolutely no bloatwares....

Someone please help.....

 

No, the Vista DVD that comes with your system is the one to do the clean install with. It is pretty easy and straight forward. You do not need mediadirect at all.

Install Vista, install system drivers from the driver DVD included, install webcam software, then install any other software/games you want

You should reboot if windows prompts you to for good measure because some device (like modem and sound) are on the same board in the system. It takes longer but at least you are doing things right!

 

That's some excellent customer service! As for your question, all you need to do is simply reboot with the Vista CD in the cd drive. Follow the on screen instruction. After doing so, the drivers' cd will handle the rest. I personally prefer uninstalling all the bloatware, but it's your call

 

Thank you guys.. Are you saying this mediadirect is of no use? Since I already have all these DVDs with me can I also format my drive and delete all the hidden partitions including the driver partition that is occupying almost 7GB space?

Will not installing media direct only deactivate my dell media direct button, which I guess would not be of much use to me any way? What else may I lose if dont have that media direct active in the machine?

 

By doing a clean install you can either wipe the entire drive or keep the recovery partition.

By not installiing medidirect your mediadirect button won't function - thats all....

 

While installing Vista, does it allow me to partition my HDD. I remember, XP allows me to do that. Not experimented with Vista so far.

 

Yes, you can partition just like in XP.

Just give it a try. Your not going to kill your lappy by experimenting - that is the best way to learn. If you screw up, start again!

 

thats great customer service indeed !!!

ive just ordered an inspiron 1720 this morning, hope it arrives before the 7 days they told me , im itching to get it, im going to buy the travel express slot media remote too probably from ebay for £10, and the media direct sounds like a great new feature form dell, why would you not want that installed ?


anyway,i have been reading the posts with regards to re-installing everything straight away, il wait and see what bloatware i get on it 1st and if it all can easily be removed without a complete install and how everything is, and i also saved the guide someone posted about how to do it, as this machine will be my 1st vista machine, ive only had quick goes on a mates and my brothers vista,so dont know much about them, il probably get updated/latest versions of al drives i need ready before i recieve the machine so im good to go


what i was wondering really....what exactly does everyone mean by bloatware ?? what sort of stuff and doesnt it just easily uninstall ? and if i have a 7gig partition on one of my hard drives (i am getting 2x 120 gigs in it and presume one will have the windows etc and one will be empty ?) ,what is this partition for ?? i saw something about media direct, surely that doesnt need 7gig ? doesnt media direct just run the stuff in my music/pictures/videos etc ?

if necessary il re do it on day 1, but if not il keep it and have a play and use it for a few weeks and get used to vista and the machine, then do a brand new install after a little while, theres nothing like a god re install every now n then, and like people say..its a learning expirience, the acer i just sold, 2 of my mates had them also, i ended up doing about 10 installs of them machines over the last 2 years and just did it again the weekend for the mate i sold it to !


i just want to be fully prepared so i know what to look for and expect etc and be as ready as i can be so everything goes smooth and great

this forums been a brilliant help for me so thanks to everyone !!!

my last dell was an inspiron 8200 a good few years ago, and had no problems with it and it was the very best laptop available at the time, dell were also brilliant on the rare times i had to call them, the dvd drive locked up once, and they came out next day with a new one, that was the only prob i had with the machine, i loved that machine !! im looking forward to getting my new dell !


respect !

 

Hope you get your baby soon. I am now having after thoughts about removing mediadirect. I learnt that it occupies only 3GB of your HDD. Regarding bloatwares, inspite of the fact that I ordered my machine without any productivity softeares preinstalled, it still shows more than 70 processes running when I turned it on for the first time. Even if you uninstall a couple of softwares that you may not need, it will still leave registry traces and many other junks which may affect the machine performance in someways. I will always want to do a proper clean install with only those softwares I want. Basically I dont want any softwares in my machine that I dont know of. Thats the whole idea behind a reinstall. I did it with my previous machine (XP) me to going to use vista for the first time..............

 

70 ??? OUCH !!!

i know what your saying about knowing exactly whats in it, im the same, il just weigh it up when mine arrives and see the state of play, if i have loads il probably just do a restore too so i know 100% how it all goes and whats on it

i dont know about vista, but in xp you can click start/run/msconfig , and shut down any not needed start up programs, is vista the same with that ? , but 70 is crazy !!

also..how come media direct needs 3gig ?? thats still a lot of space isnt it ? whats does it need 3 gig for ?

keep us updated how you get on and any problems with the re install etc !

good luck

 

What is media direct?

 

Media Direct is sort of a way of using WMP without turning on the rest of your computer... I think

Great costumer service... and 3 days early!!! I would've paid money for that...

 

guys, what's a bloatware and where can i find it? hehe, sorry for this noob question^^

 

That's a nice machine, but there is something wrong with your sig. How can a 17" ws have a resolution of 1400x900? Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Bloatware are software preinstalled on your system by Dell, or whoever you buy your PC from, which are most of the times hassle and usually unneccessary. For example, bloatware may include 15-day trials to Norton, some random DVD program, and such. Ususally, people don't want them. If you do, just download demos and trials of every kind.

 

For some reason, the number of processes has now gone down to 64 right after booting. I have not installed or uninstalled any programs. But needless to say, my old XP still would have only 34 or so processess running after the machine boots.

By the way even in vista the mscofig will work. You can disable startup programs from msconfig. However, I want to clean them up totally.. so I will certainly do a clean install.. may be tomorrow. Will post more details after that.

 

thanks man, i cant wait to get it !!!
ive just double checked, and its 1440x 900 !!

 

As far as I'm concerned, it defies logic to have such a bulky laptop if it's not going to have a higher resolution than that, but it seems to be quite common, actually. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

If you go to the Dell (uk) site now and configure a Vostro 1700, you'll see that it has 1440x900 as default. If you select 1920x1200, it comes up with a warning that the 128mb 8400m is not compatible and you have to upgrade that, too.

 

1440x900 on a 17" is fine for me, a lot of the time its plugged in to my big hdtv anyway, on the big screen for gaming and movies etc, small screen for internet etc while watching tv , or playjng games round mates linked up

for the last 2 years ive had a 1200x800 15" screen, the size/weight of the laptop is irrelevent for me,as its rarely used in a mobile on the lap senario, always used in homes and on tabels etc, i sold my old laptop for £300 i got for free that lasted me 2 years, and only paid £600 for this, so ive got a brilliant upgrade for just £300, and if this lasts me 2/3 years before i sell it, i would of had 4/5 years computing for £300, and this new inspirons gona be a hell of an upgrade from what i had , and if bought from the dell main site would of cost me over £900 !

plus il still get £300 or more for this new machine in 2 years which is what it cost me in cash on top of a free machine,so i simply cant go wrong !

 

It sounds like you've done pretty well, but I wouldn't tempt fate too much if I were you...

 

lol what do you mean ?

my ideal was a wuxga screen, but i had a budget, and it came down to a 1900x1200 with a 1.8 core 2, and 160 hd and no camera and vista basic

or the 1440 screen , a 2.0 duo, 2x 120 gig hd and camera and vista premium, and £60 cheaper !!

having all that extra, lus vista premium was a must for the media stuff, and cheaper just for the sake of a higher res, that i cant run on my big tv anyway, was the right and only choice to make !

 

You haven't even got the machine yet, and already you say you "simply can't go wrong". I thought I got a pretty good deal when I got my 5150; on the face of it I did... but I also had major problems with that machine over the years, which was not fun especially as I was basically relying on it for work.

You can't predict everything; one person had their house burned down by a Dell laptop... not cheap at any price

 

I hope Complete Care covered it! LOL