Just got my e1705 and...

my thoughts were to immediately re-install the OS. so i did. popped in the red cd that came with it, and installed it on the largest partition. and it all went well until after installing windows, it came up with a big flashing red/orange box saying it was installing software. was this all the pre-installed software again or what? cuz i canceled it, and found like, 3 programs it had gotten installed before i could stop. i then installed all my drivers and etc. so its ok now. my problems are this.

1. i cant boot to the system recovery with the ctrl+F11... i thought i'd be able to still, as long as i didnt mess with partition sizes.

2. i used the MediaDirect repair feature, and it worked, but now in windows, when i try to open Media Center, it comes up with an error and crashes.

3. It says its running at ~970MHz... i paid for the 1.8GHz processor. how do i force it to run at that speed when im on AC?

otherwise, im completely happy with it so far!

any ideas on where i went wrong?

 

When you don't need it, your processor is throttling its speed to conserve energy/heat/etc. If you do run something more intensive, it should run at full bore. The speed will be there for when you need it, and is just taking a little nap when you don't.

 

anyone else know number 1 or 2?

 

I just let those big ugly red orange boxes do thier thing...

it seemed like forever, but after some time it finished.

 

yah, but what was it installing? more windows files or preloaded software? i've never seen any other version of windows installation with that box.

 

It was really clean after the install...I was freaking out too when I saw that, made me want to hit the panic button.

Now I have all the drivers installed (no little yellow question marks)...

There was no sound so I pulled that one off Dell's site.

I have not tried to fix media direct yet, I'm at work.

I have done benchmarks, 5489 on 3dmark05, looks incredible. Drivers from tweaksrus.

 

when that box came up, i canceled it with ctrl+alt+del and got out of it. i noticed it had already installed some other stuff. didnt look like windows things though. maybe..... thats why my media center doesnt work, cuz that box was it? i dunno, maybe tonight i'll re-install it all and let the box go.

im still curious about what happened to my system restore partition. if its gone for good, i might as well add it to the main partition, cuz as of now its just wasted space if i cant get to it. If there's a way to get it back, then i'll keep it. any ideas?

 

I'm in the same boat, I'll wait for others to help...

Lord of the rings looks sweet on this baby

 

No.... it is installing a service pack roll-up for Windows MCE.

I think your destined for another Windows Reinstall....

And you'll have to do the MediaDirect 2.0 REPAIR once again...

Did you try the 'restore' before or after the MediaDirect repair???

If you've done the repair, restore 'should' work..... [Assuming all the partitions have been left alone]

vr

Mark

 

yah, when i get home i'll re-install windows and let the box go.

As far as trying to restore, i tried to restore before i re-installed XP and it worked. tried after the XP install and it didnt work. I also tried again after the MediaDirect repair, and it still didnt work. Its ctrl+F11 right?

 

Yes... at the appearance of the www.dell.com 'blue bar' screen

Someone else reported that the Dell Restore function was 'repaired' along with MediaDirect, and that does make some sense, but why not in your case.... ????

All the original partitions in-place still????

I guess I should ask if MediaDirect from Power OFF works or not...

Mark

 

yes, media direct works from power off. and all of my partitions are original.

 

My e1705 should be arriving in the mail any day and my dad just got his. If I don't touch this MediaDirect partition when DBAN-ing the rest of the drive, will I have to do anything special to it or will it still function after a fresh XP install?

 

Give Restore another go when you get the chance. When you do make note of how long the www.dell.com 'blue bar' is presented. It will either be about 2 sec or it will be in the 'blink of an eye'...

Mark

 

It will be broken... You will be missing the necessary Dell boot code and the Partition Table will be 'non-standard' from a Dell MediaDirect point of view...

wrt DBAN... that seems to be a bit 'over-the-top' in terms of getting a clean install done. But to try and answer your question... I don't know for a fact, but it shouldn't 'see' the MediaDirect Host-protected area [HPA] as it is not a partition really. You might have to do some research to find out for sure....

Mark

 

1st 3dmark05 score with mobileforce drivers

5489

 

the blue bar appears for like, maybe a second or 2, not really fast. then goes onto booting XP. im gonna just re-install XP again, let it do its thing, and see what happens. then fix the MediaDirect, and see if that works.

 

Mike I have Media Direct working now...got the file from dell website created cd with iso and booted from said cd....

use ISO Recorder

 

Well that's a good sign that the Dell boot code is in reasonably good shape...

For the reinstall -- should be the same as before...

Leave the Dell partitions alone

Load 'new' XP OS into existing system partition

Let it finish install....

REPAIR MediaDirect

Let us know how it goes, as I am surprised wrt the Dell Restore not working at this point....

vr

Mark

 

I've re-installed the OS and the MediaDirect, and now i have my media direct and dell restore partition back. YAY!!!

 

Now I've got another problem... somehow, i have driver issues with (in device manager) SCSI/RAID Host Controller. what drivers do i download from support to fix it?