Vista Ultimate 32-bit Studio 1737

I want to blow out all my existing partitions and put Vista Ultimate
32-bit on my new Studio.

I have been trying to find threads that might help...I'm an old salt at
OS installs but these fancy new machines sometimes need drivers
for SATA or what have you during the install.

Has anyone successfully installed Vista (any version) from scratch?

Did you have driver issues? Did everything work when you were done?

I plan on putting in a different HDD and trying the install just to see
how far I can get.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanx!

 

The Vista DVD will recognise any SATA drive out there. No need to integrate drivers .

 

formatted and reinstalled Vista Ultimate the day my machine arrived, then used the Dell website to download the latest drivers for my components - no issues at all so far.

 

These drivers you are referring to are when you try to install XP on your studio.. No problems with vista ;-)

 

As long as you're using a Vista SP1 install disk you are good. Otherwise you will have to do SATA drivers (if you are in AHCI mode).

 

Thanx guys!

I went ahead and installed it today and so far so good.

I guess I have to install the webcam software off the restore
CD since I can't find the software on Dell.com.

Otherwise, it went very smooth!

Interesting that my Windows Experience level went from a 4.8 before
the re-install (with the OEM software) down to a 4.4 after the install.

I just hate the gunk and the muck that OEMs put on their machines. I'd
rather know everything that has been and will be installed.

Thanx again!

 

What are the specs on your Studio 17 ... CPU, GPU, RAM, etc..?

 

The specs of my Studio 1737 are are --

T5800 Duo Core 2 @ 2.0ghz (800Mhz FSB)

4GB DDR2 memory

320GB Sata 5400rpm hard drive with 2MB cache

GPU - AIT Radeon Mobility HD 3650 (256MB)

 

I have noticed a quirk since the re-install.

If the laptop is turned off (or rebooted) and the wireless switch
located on the left side rear is switched off, when Windows boots
up, the Wi-Fi light remains lit. The Bluetooth light is off. I have to
turn on the wireless switch and then turn it off again for the
Wifi light to go out.

Other than that one small issue..it's all okay So far, anyway.

 

Do your eject soft touch button and Fn+F10 key combination still work? I blew away and installed Vista Ultimate and now the only way I can eject DVD's is through my computer, right click then select eject. Funnily enough they work fine in BIOS and if I boot up into the Diagnostics Utility.

 

What is the need to run Vista Ultimate? do you need extra encryption or something, and why 32 bit?

Ultimate has so many extra services and process running in the background eating up battery juice.

 

Thanks for your contribution "Ice Cold"...as much use as breasts on a fish or a screen door on a submarine.

For anyone else who's experiencing the issue of the eject soft touch button and Fn+F10 not working in Vista, the engineer turned up today and replacing the hinge cover DID NOT work. However downgrading the BIOS to A00 (mine shipped with A04) did work and I can now eject CD's without going to My Computer.

Unfortunately you can't get A00 from the Drivers website, the only BIOS you can get is A02 and I didn't try that. Working on the principle that if it isn't broke then don't try to fix it and now I've got it working, I'm happy to leave it on A00.

Cheers,

Ry

 

I know that Dell never makes mistakes but if I was a suspicious person I would almost think that they installed the wrong BIOS on your Studio 1737 possibly the BIOS for the original 1735 which is now up to A05.
The Studio 1737 is only up to A02 and it wouldnt make sense that they would be so far behind on posting a new BIOS on the website.

 

"What is the need to run Vista Ultimate? do you need extra encryption or something, and why 32 bit?

Vista Business, Enterprise (volume licenses) and Ultimate, like XP Professional, are the only versions of Vista that "properly implement" permissions; whether this is for a LAN or simply as a power user/programmer/etc who needs to protect, e.g., their webserver--which comes all Windows OS's. Another reason is just as stated: bitlocker drive encryption.

32-bit support is occasionally required when a person has old (legacy) applications that won't run on a 64-bit system, because the 16-bit subsystem has been REMOVED from x64 implementations. While running a virtual machine is certainly possible in this case, this is usually outside of what the average end-user knows.

Ultimate has so many extra services and process running in the background eating up battery juice."

An experienced user can turn off what isn't being used. There are many tutorials online that describe how to do this.

The Studio 1737 is only up to A02...
It is now up to A05. Visitors: check product pages to be sure.

...I'm happy to leave it on A00.
N.B.: This is a dangerous choice; generally one wants the BIOS to be running at the latest available version. While there is wisdom in leaving things alone, BIOS can be an important--even critical--upgrade. In my case, I was able to fix nonworking items after an upgrade to Vista Ultimate by simply making sure I had the latest Dell drivers (most of the 1737's functions are driver-controlled). Same goes for the person who stated they were having "wireless switch" problems. I had no issues after obtaining the correct drivers.

Finally, a comment directly for Orlandotek: If you have not tried the external video connection for your system (specifically, for 1737's where the ATI Radeon 3650 HD is installed), you deserve a heads-up. ATI (now owned by AMD) occasionally exhibits BSOD/STOP errors in atikmdag, specifically:

STOP 0x00000116 in atikmdag.sys

and the message indicates that the display driver stopped responding and (if you're lucky) has successfully recovered. An Internet search will reveal that this problem has existed since at least 2005. Dell will not support the issue unless the original OS is installed...and even then, it may take a VERY long time to get to someone who can help you (it took me 12 hours and I have 25 years of experience). In the end, my customer support experience and a number of apparent hardware failures mean I will be returning the machine. Anyone else with a Dell Studio 1737 should consider this closing as a forewarning.

 

Display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered - is software problem for me.
Dell support very often replace something or other thing just because It is easiest way and save time (to you and to them - Dell)!
I have my computer since november and in first 3 months I was with 0 "Display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered"!
Now for 1 month I have 3 "Display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered" - and all 3 was with Driver Version 8.512.0.0
atiumdag 7.14.10.0597 - ATI Catalyst 8.7!
It is common error and for nvidia - GeForce!
So the link between Ati and ""Display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered" is bull.
It happened 2 times after I upgrade to new SP 2 version Candidate Release...So i firmly believe It is software related problem!
NOTICE: During games and hot temperatures I am problem free.

 

That's reasonable; the problem is reported in, and by, software. Below, I provide a link to Microsoft's documentation on the hardware interaction that leads to this.

Rant: It isn't the replacement that bothers me; I touch thousands of machines a year and replacements are routine. We even have a business contract with Dell. No, the problem is that it shouldn't take anywhere near several (full business) days on the phone, in more than 24 calls to technical support, to effect a return, which only became the final outcome because of the rude, inconsistent, and remarkably inappropriate treatment from nearly every Dell representative I had the lucky chance to finally reach.

To compare, in the same week, Sony took a total of 15 minutes--start to finish--to understand and arrange for a technician to visit us, who personally verified a day ahead of time, replaced the equipment on his own, showing technical competence throughout. NetGear's support started out the same way as Dell's, but quickly understood that their (overseas, like Dell's) reps weren't prepared, escalated to Tier 3, and 15 minutes later, agreed to write NEW FIRMWARE for their device, which they emailed back to me for testing. That's how technical support is done. (end rant).

Sure; I just got to "bad" more quickly. My computer was fine for exactly 1 week, then the STOP errors corrupted the file system, which led to total system failure by the 3rd week, at which point I ran afoul of Dell's tech support nightmare.

Yes. But common isn't the same thing as OK. In fact, it highlights why it's unacceptable. A rudimentary Web search shows a lot of frustration (at least since 2003), which is understandable, since vendors seem to be playing "it's someone else's problem." To ATI's credit, the phone rep was clearly sorry that he couldn't support the issue--because it was Dell's problem--after I gave up on Dell and branched out to the other companies as a last resort.

That's a strong statement when the STOP (BSOD) occurs in their driver--which is software--that information is heavily documented within easy reach, and several of those sources quote the hardware source.

So as to remain professional, perhaps I misunderstood the statement. I guess I'm having trouble with not seeing the research you've done to back it up. Assuming yours was at least as deep as mine: I spent two weeks researching the problem, on the Internet, on the phone, and independently; applying my own 25 years of technical experience to the debugging tools, such as verifier.exe, and the kernel-debugger and crashdump utilities provided by Microsoft. My research pulled up, e.g.:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/wddm_timeout.mspx

which is, and I quote:

and if one carefully read the article, we see that the GPU state (so, hardware) causes Windows to inform the DRIVER (so, software) that it must reset. While my STOPs could be caused by the software driver after being told to be reset, the problem appears to initiate in the hardware, so I do admit experiencing some surprise at your assertion.

But who's fixing it?!?! ATI doesn't support the problem and points to Dell, since Dell includes the hardware as a 3rd-party vendor. Since both nVidia and ATI experience the problem, regardless of OEM or 3rd-party drivers in use--and especially when dual-monitors are used--we are left with everyone pointing fingers at each other. Is it (Microsoft) Vista? This would seem to be indicated by people finding success by disabling Vista's Aero theme. I support this, but only in reduced occurrences. Is it ATI's drivers? This seems to be indicated by choosing NOT to use dual monitors, and the subsequent discovery that one can prevent the STOP (blue screen of death) by QUICKLY unplugging the second monitor as soon as the driver resets. I also support this, as it also reduced occurrences. Is it nVidia's drivers? (similar causes...but I don't have empirical proof; in fact I only have a contraindication)

Ok, but a basic search will reveal that the problem appears to be random and not related to temperature; instead apparently in pattern of use and user's choice of features. To wit, known applications reliably reproduce the problem, especially when dual monitors are in use. As an unfortunate contraindication, I have been using dual monitors on Windows 2003 Server R2 SP2 with nVidia drivers...consistently on latest drivers, without a single BSOD...for years. Sp I can't verify nVidia-caused crashes, because the 1 or 2 driver resets I did experience stopped over a year ago. That said, I'm typing this response on that system, and on my second display.

Finally, I'd post a crashdump report showing the error in the drivers, but I think I've posted enough already. To be clear, the system also had real hardware problems; I just happened to research the ATI crash at the same time as it was the most destabilizing issue, which quickly led to ntfs corruption. In the end, in my opinion polite, professional, and willing to work with technical support, Dell blew the deal: they misrepresented the situation, sometimes conflicting in the same phone call, refusing diagnostic data, refusing mitigation, refusing to look at steps leading to a software solution, and left me feeling that Dell's support is, at the moment, appalling; even horrifying.

So in a sense I agree with you; ATI isn't directly to blame, and I had a good experience with them. But they have contracts with system manufacturers to provide drivers for their systems, so I must disagree with the digression of focus. It doesn't matter if the problem's in the hardware or software; it only matters who's dropping the ball. Unnecessary filesystem corruption that occurs due to known problems in hardware that has conspicuously absent software updates--from vendors contracted to address the issues--means we're knowingly sold (in some cases, dangerously) unstable machines.

While my immediate problem finally resulted in a return--and I had critical backups--I would not be at all surprised to see this issue appear in a class-action lawsuit.