Precision M4500 Owner's Lounge

I've got Vista 32 bit on my M4500. I'm wanting to do a clean install with Win7 64 bit. The Dell Win7 manual Reinstall literature is here:

Windows 7 Manual Reinstall | Dell

The prescribed order of driver installation is:

1. NSS
2. Chipset
3. Video adaptor
4. Network interface card
5. Audio adaptor
6. Modem
7. Wireless Network card
8. Touchpad, pointer etc.
9. Other devices

However if I reference Dell's E-family reimage "How-to" guide, the prescribed installation sequence contradicts the one above:

1. Chipset
2. NSS
3. PCMCIA controller
4. Intel Storage
5. Audio
6. graphics
7. Intel Turbo Boost
8. Integrated Wired Network Controller
9. DCP
10. WLAN
... up to 20

Which one is correct? The manual installation of drivers does seem to be a PITA. Thanks.

 

I've used the sequence described in the E-Family Reimage How To Guide with good results. Revision 2.11 A02.

Presumably the "NSS" item in your list is the Dell System Software?

The Intel Turbo Boost driver is required only for certain CPU's. Which do you have?

Step #0 on a fresh Win 7 install is to configure the BIOS for ACHI, unless you have a reason not to.

Depending upon your needs, it may not be necessary to install all of the software drivers/utilities. The tables in Appendix B are very helpful in understanding the functionality provided by the various software components.

HTH.

 

What is AHCI going to do? Shouldn't the BIOS already be setup for it with Win 7? Doesn't it have to be on AHCI for the SATA to work? Maybe I misinterpreted how the Wiki defines AHCI.

 

The BIOS is probably set to IRRT by default. IRRT is AHCI + a simple RAID technology to facilitate cloning the HDD.

John

 

just ordered mine

i7 940xm
256 gb ssd
fx1800m
8gb ram
1080p display

Hopefully the battery will last at least 1 hr 30 mins

 

I have the same problem. My screen got a 1/2" diameter spot. It happened the same day I got it (4 days ago). Since I used a port replicator (docking station), the lid was closed while I was setting it up, at the end of the day that spot was very hot and the damaged looked a lot worse than what it ended up being. I'll be taking some temperature readings tomorrow to see which is hotter the screen or the keyboard.

 

Mine's an i520.

I've installed Win7 clean, and am now doing the drivers. All installed in the correct order.

Edit: I have an issue with one piece of firmware, and I haven't proceeded:

R271111 (532MB) Dell Flash on.

When I click on the executable files, I get the message:

"This self extracting zip file is part of a multidisk zip file. Please insert the last disk of the set."

Goes on to give error code 190. I've downloaded the driver twice now and it looks complete.

Has anybody experienced this? Am I missing a 5 1/4" floppy?
Thanks,
Mike

 

I've tried to unzip the executable but Winzip says it is part of a spanned zip file set.

 

Thanks, its not an option for me not running encrypted as it is the company policy, maybe using an external drive though. However the truecrpt process is always at a minimum, 1% at max.

 

I found that if I uninstall the Multi-Touch Touchpad driver my system doesn't freeze. I used the A07 revision of the driver.

What drivers are you using for the TouchPad? How deos it work?