What to do with my new freshly reformatted 1505

So i went through the whole reformatting process of windows XP, and im about to install drivers. Quick question about drivers- should i use the cd they gave me or manually download them all from the website. If i should download them how do i know which ones and if i should install with cd then dl them later, do i have to uninstall them first?

ok i got a little sidetracked, back to the topic. Now what sould i do? What are some programs that you feel are neccesary to my laptop. I guess i should run a benchmark, maybe check to see if everything in my computer is waht i ordered. uhh what else? you decide

 

Umm, try getting this program called CCleaner, is realy useful in cleaning up your system
also get ad-aware

 

well i'm about to reformat myself, my discs arrived today and my external hd enclosure is on its way But for me at least the neccesary files in my C: partition are

-Windows
-Adobe Creative Suite 2 (namely because I dont have the discs, just an unlimited license copy from a friend, and because the install takes forever)
-Call of Duty (simply because it was such a pain in the ____ to install it the first time (see 13+ install failures) it was like inventing the lightbulb)

Once i do that, i'm just going to create a restore image and burn that to disc or something like that.

if you won't be doing the whole backup thing, or for that matter the same programs as myself, i'd say go with

-firefox with NoScript for active x controls (its tedious but worth the extra security of stopping ad companies on every website you go to)
-whatever internet security you plan on having (i would suggest AVG anti virus free, zone alarm free, ccleaner free, ad-aware free, spybot search and destroy free, spywareBlaster free, you get the idea)
-itunes or whatever you'll be using for media
-i believe that cyberlink dvd is required though you probably installed that already

other than that i don't suppose much else would really be necessary

Oh and installing the drivers from the disc or downloading, i dunno but a response would be nice given that i'll probably have the same question in a little while.

 

Chances are Dell sent you the wrong CD, for the 6000, not the 6400/E1505. At least they sent me the wrong drivers CD with my E1505.

If you have P/N Y2986 Rev A29, its for the 6000, start downloading.
If you have P/N UF634 Rev A00, use it!!!

The way to know if you have the correct drivers is to open Device Mgr, if you have any yellow "!" next to your devices, then it needs a driver. I found them all using this search term: "E1505 Drivers"

HTH,
Hermit

 

thanks 21st hermit:

you were right, i got the wrong drivers cd. SHould i jsut download everything on the dell drivers page? i see there is a bunch of different options under each category, how do i know which ones i need.

 

CD's are usualy old, often (but not always) you can get the newest drivers by downloading them directly from the manufacturers web site. Understand though, some manufacturers build their hardware to a resellers specifications and specific drivers for those specs can only be found on the actual resellers web site.

A good example of this would be Intel, NVIDIA, and Dell. You can get good drivers that work on like the Intel or NVIDIA web site, but they'll usualy also alert you on the manufacturers web site that the drivers they are providing are generic to the product they manufacture (usualy these manufacturers "generic" drivers are less buggy though).

When I'm installing an OS on a new system I always go to the manufacturers web site first and check for newer versions of drivers (I don't consider Dell to be a manufacturer, but instead a reseller). Then, if the hardware device was repackaged and resold by a reseller, I'll check that resellers web site for their specific drivers for it they offer and try to make a well informed or best guess decision on which drivers I want to use (you can always change drivers in your device manager don't forget) either which ones I think are going to be better, or which ones are newer. If you want to get really carried away with it do some Internet searches, just be leary about non professional or moronic issues being claimed by private people. There are a lot of people out there with limited to no experience, screw something up on their own accord or simply don't follow basic directions well and when things go wrong for them they are quick to play everything but their own ignorance for the problem.

By a general rule of thumb though, I don't install any drivers off CD's, these are usualy outdated, if you need Dell drivers go to their support site and download fresh ones from there.

 

I just did a E1505 reformat and driver install today,You need these:

R114946.EXE 945GMA
R114075.EXE Audio
R114079.EXE 945 Chipset
R105921.EXE Ricoh 5-1 flash
R114200.EXE Modem
R113310.EXE 10/100
R113921.EXE Touchpad
R115321.EXE Dell G Wireless

Your E1505 may be configured slightly different than mine, so you may have to adjust. Just click on the .exe, it will unzip, then click again to install. Don't bother rebooting until the last one. Open Device Mgr to be sure you have no "!".

Hermit

 

I wish I could break the old school habit of not rebooting after I install something, it'd sure save me alot of time, but I just can't bring myself to not do it even though since Windows 2000 came out you were no longer required to do it everythime for most installs.

 

good info!