m11x - Drivers?

Hi everyone,
I know this has been discussed before but as I'm getting my m11x this week and planning on a fresh ssd install, I'd like to have this summarized again. I remember that there were issues with the drivers so I'm wondering which drivers you woud suggest ?

Can I download the latest nvidia,intel, etc drivers from the official websites or do I have to use the dell drivers?

Thank you!

 

I would recommend the ones from Dell. I did a fresh install from the Win 7 disk. I downloaded everything from the Dell website and put them on a thumb drive prior to doing it. To include the AlienFX Software. I'm happy with my install and everything works properly. Just remember to remove the intel storage driver for the SSD.

 

Thanks for your reply. But is it possibe to use drivers from official sites (nvidia, intel,etc) or wouldn't they work like catalyst drivers prior to 10.3?

Once I did a fresh install of win7 I remove the Intel storage drivers from uninstall programs menu?

Thank you!

 

Those drivers are for ATI cards not nvidia cards. You can use the drivers from the Nvidia website, but you'll lose the ability to switch GPUs. As far as uninstalling the driver, you'll find it in the "Device Manager"

 

Yeh, I was only referring to th fact that the official ATI driver's prior 10.3 couldn't be used unlessed with a mod and if it was the same with the Nvidias but good to know about the switching abilities..

Are you using all drivers off the dell website or any others as well? What about the Synaptics driver?

 

Just using the drivers off the dell site. Actually going to do a full install tonight, after I do a secure wipe on my SSD. I'm just going with all the old drivers, including the GPU drivers. For the touchpad I installed Synaptics Scrybe. I like it and it works really well.

 

Would you suggest a "secure wipe" of the SSD even if it's new (got a OCZ Vertex 2), before a fresh install of win7? Synaptics Scrybe is off the Synaptics website I take?

Thanks!

 

Not at all. Purpose of a secure wipe is to restore it to it's "like new performance" I need to do it because before I learned a few things about the proper way to restore performance I did all kinds of wipes that write randomly to each block, ones that write "0" to everyblock, tons of wipes. A proper wipe can be done through a bootable ubuntu stick. It marks each block as empty. With a new SSd you'll gain nothing. You should be good to go.

The Scrybe program is on the website. It allows you to set up gesture shortcuts. Like on my M11x, a three finger tap opens Scrybe, then I draw an "N" with my finger, and it auto launches NBR Alienware forum. If I draw a "@" it auto launches a new tab for my email client. Two finger scrolling, pinch zoom. It's a nice program and I use it a lot. I can open a bunch of websites without typing anything, just using gestures. It will also install new drivers I believe for the touchpad. I've never had a problem with it. Here is the link for it.

 

Sorry but I'm not sure I found the right one.. I'm not on the m11x right now but does the entry look similar to: Intel(R) 5 Series 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller ?

Thank you!

 

Uninstall that driver, windows should uninstall it and install it's own default driver. From what I was told that driver won't work with TRIM. Not sure if that is actually the case, but I did it anyway on my M11x.

Should look like this after.

 

Thanks, will give it a try!

 

One more question.. In the manual of the SSD it states:

So when I do a fresh install on it I'll need to format it before right? Would you suggest the secure wipe you wrote about previously for that?

 

Nah, since the drive isn't used, I wouldn't bother with a secure wipe. Once you put it in there should be an option to format it. Once it's loaded and formatted, it should be one large unallocated space. Just hit "new" it'll bring up a window, hit "apply" and it will make a 100GB partition. That is your diagnostics partition. Then just click on partition 2, the larger partition and click "next" or "install" Cant remember what the option is.

 

Finally managed to get a bootable external hdd.. now when i launch from the external hdd it shows the 100gb ssd as 93gb, which i know is normal but should i still format it through the windows installation before installing?

 

Nope, doesn't look like it needs to be formatted if it can read it. I wouldn't bother with it.

 

I installed the Matrix Storage Manager now but I can't find anything besides my SSD and my external HDD under "device manager"? Under IDE ATA/ATAPI-Controller I see Intel(R) ICH9M-E/MSATA-AHCI Controller, am I supposed to uninstall that? Thanks!

 

I uninstalled the Intel thingy and now it shows:

ATA Channel 0
Standart AHCI1.0 Serial-ATA-Controller

that correct or do I need to uninstall anything else?