The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Just curious about AlienRespawn

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by FreddeN, Mar 5, 2011.

  1. FreddeN

    FreddeN Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    131
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Just a noob question, when you run AlienRespawn and tells it to go back to out of the box stage, will 'all' drivers including Intel and BIOS drivers I updated before doing the recovery be gone?

    If the answer is yes, I'll be happy. Because I can see some folders in my C drive which was created when updating my Intel/BIOS driver before I made the recovery and I'm curious if I can delete them since they are empty.

    The reason why I ran AlienRespawn is cause of that drivers, just want to make sure if they're gone after the recovery. And when running AlienRespawn I also maked sure to select the option to NOT keep any newly changed files.

    Thanks
     
    FreddeN, Mar 5, 2011
    #1
  2. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    2,354
    Messages:
    4,449
    Likes Received:
    476
    Trophy Points:
    151
    (1) Intel drivers will be gone. BIOS will remain updated at whatever version you are currently using.

    (2) If those folders are empty, yes, safe to delete.

    (3) AlienRespawn will restore your computer to factory configuration. If that is what you want, then AlienRespawn is the way to do it.
     
    kent1146, Mar 5, 2011
    #2
  3. MasivB

    MasivB Guest

    Reputations:
    58
    Messages:
    542
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I've done a factory restore once. Is there a big difference in a fresh OS install on the M11x? (Or is it just as good as removing all AW Services?)
     
    MasivB, Mar 5, 2011
    #3
  4. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    2,354
    Messages:
    4,449
    Likes Received:
    476
    Trophy Points:
    151
    Yes, there is a difference between clean OS install vs. default Alienware install.

    When I received my machine, I first started by uninstalling all of the applications that I didn't want, until I got my desired software configuration. Then I did a clean format and installed all the apps I wanted, until I got my desired software configuration. The clean format was significantly faster in bootup (33sec vs 17sec on an SSD), and used significantly less memory on idle (1100MB vs 800MB), despite both machines having "identical" software configs.

    It probably is not worth doing a clean install for just the performance. But if you're like me, and like to do clean installs because:

    * You do clean reformats so often, that you can do them half-asleep
    * It's "fun" to do them, just to see how fast your new toy rips through the Windows install process
    * You're obsessive-compulsive about keeping your computers performing as well as they possibly can.

    ... then, the clean OS install would pay off. But just a reformat for performance? Wouldn't say that's worth it.
     
    kent1146, Mar 5, 2011
    #4
  5. MasivB

    MasivB Guest

    Reputations:
    58
    Messages:
    542
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I have a W7 Ultimate key lying around and was thinking of putting it on my R2 (using HP) but it has used up 3-licences already. Is there a way to renew it without getting a crack online? I think someone told me call them? but then I have to send in P.O.P right and stuff like that?
     
    MasivB, Mar 5, 2011
    #5