Questions about restoring M4600

It looks like I have no choice but to restore the OS to try and cure the BSOD problem on my M4600.

I read the Dell reimage guide and I have some questions.

The guide doesn't say much about the installation of the OS (in my case, Windows 7). Should I install all Windows 7 updates before installing any Dell drivers?

The network drivers are installed fairly far along in the process. Is the guide assuming the drivers have already been downloaded onto a USB stick or will the LAN work using a Windows driver?

The Dell Drivers and Downloads website has two file formats. One is an "Update Package" and the other is a compressed zip. The latter seems to be the default. Why are there two formats? Is one preferable over the other?

Where do I get the Dell Webcam Central software? It's not available in "My Dell Downloads".

Any sage advice from someone who has restored an M4600?

 

Was tempted to do the same - but thought it was too daunting so am soldiering on with a couple of niggles with my system. As far as I know the Dell Webcam Central (Business) that the m4600 ships with isn't available from Dell. I've been in contact with someone trying to get Dell to sort this out, but not heard anything back so far.

Good luck! Would love to hear any feedback on the process or tips!

 

Unfortunately, the system has a BSOD when I watch video so it's pretty useless to me like this. I've got no choice but to wipe it.

 

if you do a restore from the backup image the drivers should already be installed, in which case you would only have to do the windows updates.

if you do a install using a Windows install disk, then you would load teh dell drivers first, and then do the windows updates

Chispset drivers should be the first to be loaded, then I usually do Network, Audio, GPU etc.

 

Thanks for the reply. Since you have an M4600, how do you do the restore? I went into the bot options and there is no option for restore. F2 only goes into bios setup.

 

Windows 7 has class drivers for the network card, so plugging into ethernet will almost certainly work. I'm not sure about wireless, but it's possible.

 

Would someone with an M4600 please confirm what F key invokes restoration at boot? I'm being told its F8, but that does nothing on my computer. F2 invokes bios setup and F12 invokes boot sequence, but I can't find anything to invoke restoration.

 

Okay, it looks like restoration is not invoked at boot time. The M4600 has the Dell™ Backup and Recovery Manager which is started from within Windows. It allows backing up from a factory image.

 

I blew my restore partiton away the first day,

I have windows setup on a USB drive along with my drivers etc.