Alienware 15 Clean Win8.1 install

Hello folkz,

I got my AW 15 (i7 / 980m / 512GB m.2 + 1TB HD / 16GB RAM) 2 days ago and i been trying to figure things out with a clean install! I read allot of guides that are pretty good but they leave bits and pieces out and all are not "Clean" install as i would call it. One guide that is pretty good is this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/how-to-installing-fresh-win-8-1-on-alienware-15-2015.771894/

Even if it covers allot it is still not what i usually like to do when it comes to a clean install. So here i try to share my findings so that maybe someone else saves a few hours of headache

First thing i wanted to do was to create a clean USB stick! I knew i do not get a full install with my AW so i wanted to use my existing license or my MSDN account for a license.

I divide my so called problems under different parts called "Questionmark"

Questionmark 1:
The problem i encountered first was that my AW would not find the USB when i created it using "Microsoft Windows Media Creation Tool".
The reason was the system was set to UEFI boot. This part took me a while to figure out (ok i'm a noob on this whole thing). If i changed the bios to legacy and used F12 i could find the USB media and start the windows installation. I really wanted to figure out how i could create a USB media and be able to boot it using UEFI!
So after lots of research i figure out this was not possible using windows's own DOS and the command DISKPART. Allot of guide use this method but i only got errors.
The only way i could convert the USB media from using MBR to GPT (which can be used with UEFI bios) was to use this wonderful tool called Rufus: https://rufus.akeo.ie/
Note: when using this to format the USB media unckeck the option for using ISO. Once your USB media is formated then you can simply use the "Media Creation Tool from Microsoft" and create a bootable windows installation USB media. Now if your Bios is sett to UEFI the USB is found!

Questionmark 2:
I ordered mine with a 512GB m.2 SSD + 1TB Disk. I dont remember but i had allot of partitions and stuff but being a perfectionist i wanted to really make a clean install and know what is what so i basically removed everything and created a new partition table.
Next funny thing i run into was that when i tried the Windows installer everything was super small, the resolution was set to the max as you can see in the picture. I also include the partition table from within windows so you can see how it looks like.


Questionmark 3:
So once I had installed windows (used my MSDN account to download an iso) i noticed windows activated on its own after some digging i believe my key is stored somewhere in the bios. I re-installed several times and each time it activated when i connected to internet.

Questionmark 4:
Once in windows i installed all the drivers from Dell, Intel and nVidia to remove all the unindentified hardwares in device manager. Below is the list of all items i installed:

1.Intel Rapid Storage technology
|_Downloaded from Intel
2.Intel Management Engine Interface
3.Intel Dynamic Platform - Thermal Framework Driver Intel
4.Intel HM87 Chipset Driver
5.Realtek RTS5227 Card Reader Driver Realtek
6.Alienware On Screen Display
7.Kionix Free Fall Sensor Driver
8.Dell Touchpad Driver
9.Intel Iris and HD Graphics Driver
10.nVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M965M970M980M Driver
|_Downloaded from nVidia directly
11.Dell Airplane Mode Switch Driver
12.Qualcomm Killer Wireless 1525 (Do not install the full package if you already installed LAN E2201 Driver package or they will conflict, i now install only the driver for both WLAN + LAN through Device manager)
|_Downloaded from Killerwireless
13.Qualcomm Killer LAN E2201 Driver
|_Downloaded from Killerwireless
14.Qualcomm Killer Wireless Bluetooth 1525
|_Downloaded from Killerwireless
15.Creative Malcolm chip+Recon3Di AP Driver
16.Command Center 4.0

NOTE: some posts claim that you need .NET 3.5 for some installers but i never needed it for anything. On the other hand some of the installers (the ones downloaded from Dell) failed to install right away when i double clicked on them. I figured out the problem! I think there is a limit to how long the filepath can be (much shorter then the 255 windows standard i think)! I moved the installers a bit higher up in the folder and it went smooth. Also i saw in the logs where the installers extract the actual setup files (somewhere under Windows folder (check the logs when it fails as it will give away the folder, although make sure you save the files before continuing the installation as the installer remove the files once the installation is completed)

Now i noticed that when i created an account at the beginning of windows welcome page i was not given a chance to connect to my microsoft account as usual, instead i could only make a local user account. Once logged into windows i could however go to the user management and "Connect to microsoft account". Once i did that i found out i ended up with 2 home folders :/ . One that belongs to my local account and another that is created when i connect my local account to my MS account (basically my first name and last-name is the home folder, hate that).
Right now i'm trying to read more on this point. It seems my local account is used for everything but not sure how windows will divide everything between these 2 folders. Its really annoying how MS has done things. Its a big mess in my opinion.

I will continue to test the laptop and see what more i find. So far i'm pretty happy with it (beside all the stuff thanks to MS). I played some Diablo3 last night and it was all smooth. There were some screen tearing but my FPS was around 120ish so its most likely a driver thing. I also enabled the VSYNC so it could hold a steady 60FPS but it was not very good as the screen froze sometimes for like half a second from time to time.
The screen is really good and touch is useful.
Overall its a good laptop. I have only 2 complaints.
1) the edges of the laptop is a bit to sharp. Even the edges around the keys below the touchpad has a sharp edge. Not sure why the buttons go so much down really. A stiffer buttons would have been better but anyway i will be using mouse most times so no bigy.
2) When the fan kicks in there is a annoying sound at the start. Almost as if there is a cable nudging the fan just when it starts up. Once it starts then its the usual fan sound. Even i can live with that. Its not that bad or i would ask for repair..

Will update this page if i find more things that can be helpful.

If you guys have any questions put them here and i try to answer best i can.

 

Thanks for sharing this guide! It'll be helpful for many others.

 

No problem glad to share.