Inspiron 1720 w/Vista 64 bit

New poster, please be gentle.

I ordered an Inspiron 1720 Certified Refurbished from Dell Outlet the other day, & being that it's through Outlet I had no customization options. The lappy is pretty well appointed (copied over from my confirmation email):

1 Inspiron 1720 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
1 Certified Refurbished
1 90W AC Adapter
1 8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
1 Operating System Label
1 Service Software
1 Crimson Red
1 Sound Blaster Audigy ADVANCED HD Audio Software Edition
1 9 Cell Primary Battery
1 Shipping Material
1 1390 Wireless Card
1 Software CD
1 Dell Support Software 1.0
1 Bluetooth Wireless Card 355
1 Documentation
1 Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
1 Software
1 Support Software
1 Resource DVD
1 Notebook Keyboard
1 Microsoft Works 8.5
1 Processor Label
1 160 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
1 17 inch WXGA+ TrueLife Glossy Laptop Screen
1 Base Assembly
1 Reference Guide
1 Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Web Camera
1 Shipping Material
1 ISP Search Assist
1 Operating System DVD
1 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 677MHz (2 DIMMs)
1 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
1 Roxio Creator LE
1 Image Restore Software
1 MEDIADIRECT 3.3 Software

Anyway, I went this route because after about a week of searching & researching, this seemed like a really good deal at $749. This is replacing my old HP dv8333 that my husband will now be using.

So here's my dilemma. I'd like to install Vista 64 bit. I've searched a bit on Dell's site for 64 bit drivers, but I can't seem to find any for this laptop. Has no one done this? That seems a little far fetched to me, but I guess that since this isn't a high end lappy then maybe that would explain it. Still, I'd like to be able to do this so if anyone has some good ideas on obtaining drivers, I'm all ears.

One other question....I placed the order on 4/30, it says that it shipped on 5/1, but the tracking info has said "Data Temporarily Unavailable". It does give an estimated delivery date of 5/6-5/8, so is this normal? It makes me nervous, with all of the Dell horror stories that you hear. I've never ordered a computer in this manner before, but I've known enough on both sides to make me a little sketchy.

 

If you want tracking information, you'll have to phone up Dell.
They can get you the tracking number.
Sometimes it never shows up on the website at all.

 

The 64bit drivers for the Precision 6300 should support some of the hardware that is in your Inspirion.

 

Thanks guys. I think that I'm going to attempt this next weekend, the lappy should be here by Thursday according to tracking info (thanks chelet!). If all goes well, I'll post a rundown of what drivers I used to pull it off.

 

sooo, how did you get on with the installation? i'm trying to do the same thing

 

Okay guys, sorry for no update. I had no real problems for the first couple of months, but a random freezing issue showed up in late July & although it doesn't happen very often, I'm going to do a clean install this weekend in an effort to clean that up. I suspect video, although I have nothing really to base that on.

I had to piece together the drivers, extrapolating based on 32 bit drivers that were shared among laptops. Here's the list of drivers that I used:

Chipset: R153997
AHCI: R154201
Wireless: R174292
Touchpad: R165805
Cardreader: R146465
Bluetooth: R140135
Webcam: R173082

Anything else, I just let Windows update handle it. Additionally, I used the 17493 nvidia driver off of the laptopvideotogo site, but I'm thinking about using the nvidia driver off of Windows update. Haven't decided on that one yet. When I did the install, I used the instructions laid out in a couple of the other threads (the bloatware removal guide was particularly helpful in dealing with AHCI). It wasn't too bad, not really all that different from installing XP. I elected to stay with Mediadirect & I've found that to be a nice little app. Anyway, I don't really have anything else to report. I'll try to check back in with more updates as I have them.

 

So, everything went fine this time around, & I had fewer problems since I didn't try as much tweaking right off the bat. The one issue that I did have was that I couldn't get SP1 to show up in my updates, so I had to manually download it. After some searching, it looks like others had a similar problem that turned out to be related to the audio driver. The common fix for it is to download the Sigmatel driver available here. If you install it after installing SP1, apparently that's the way to fix it.

 

I once received the tracking number from Dell 2 days after the computer got here.

 

I should clarify the following statement in that my previous installation included Office 2003 w/ 2GB of RAM. With this new install, I upgraded to 4gb of RAM & went for Office 2007. Everything is so much faster, I can't believe it & now wish that I had done both initially.

I'll report back in a couple of months, after all time is always the best measure.

 

So I have installed 64 Business and the only driver I can not find is the one for the ethernet controller. Thought it would be the chipset, but that driver did not load drivers for the ethernet controller.

Does anyone have a link to the proper driver?

Thanks.

 

Stezzus,
I'm currently running XP Pro x86 on my Inspiron 1720, thanks to a thread I found on this board some months ago and David Reed online.
However, have this afternoon received an x64 Vista Business retail disk (an upgrade from MS for the princely sum of AUD16.40).
By my reckoning the solution to your problem might be as simple as using the x86 controller.
Will add to this in about 90 minutes or so as I'm about to install the aforementioned OS.

OK! Installation went very well indeed, am now adding to the post on the machine referred to above. Worked a treat, did not have to install an ethernet driver x64 has a native driver. Indeed, also have wireless.
After running "autopatcher" the only recommended drivers' were for webcam, Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT & Ricoh drivers.
Hope this is of some assistance, if not please post a reply, I'll help if possible.

 

For ethernet I just allowed Windows Update to handle it & it's been solid.

So far so good. I use this computer a good 8-9 hours per day, & on this install I've had no freezes or any problems at all, she's just running along like greased lightning. I couldn't be more pleased.