HOW TO: Clean Windows 7 Install (Driver Install Order) Guide for Alienware Systems

Prompt response!

So should I be flashing the vBIOS before all the drivers, or just the video drivers. I've flashed the vBIOS once, but I forget how to do it now.

Also, there was a separate driver for 3D, are you saying that the 460m video driver will already have this included?

The reason I'm doing a fresh install is because I've got a 128GB Crucial M4 SSD coming tomorrow. I've come across a thread regarding different things that must be done when installing SSD as the primary drive, but I forget. Do you know what I have to do different?

Thanks again!

 

If you already flashed the latest vBIOS for your card, there's no need to do it again.
As for 3D, if they are reference drivers (from nvidia.com), 3D drivers are included in the package. If the ones you are trying to install are separate, install display drivers first and 3D after.

Regarding the SSD, there's nothing special, except some tweaks that are not crucial. Just make sure it has the latest firmware.

Regards

 

Did someone say not to install rst or somethin, and also to install ssd in a specific slot?

 

I would install Intel RST personally - no real reason not to afaik.....I'd put the ssd in port 0 to see if it holds sata III speeds (which you will be able to use RST to check under the advanced tab in the RST console)

 

Doing a fresh install of windows as I'm typing this. Just a few quick noob tier questions about stuff that I may need to know once it comes to installing the drivers.

I did read this thread quite carefully as I want to do this right, but I am somewhat confused about a few things: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...install-order-guide-alienware-systems-26.html

So here are my questions

1. Should I install them from the Dell driver website, or the resource CD? Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

2. Do I need to "flash VBIOS". I got my R3 around last June if that is relevant in any way.

3. Lastly, and most importantly, I'm looking at the order that the drivers should be installed, but I can't make any connection between the drivers listed on the website, and the corresponding drivers in OP's post. Heck I can't even find the USB 3.0 driver.

If it's not too much to ask for, can someone could be so kind as to put down the name of he corresponding .exe file from the website, to the names of the drivers listed below? I'm a serious newb at this.

1. Chipset Driver
2. USB 3.0 Driver
3. Intel RST Driver / Intel Management Engine
4. I don't want this one
5. Alienware On-Screen Display Driver (what is this?)
7. LAN Driver
8. Wireless Network Driver
9. Audio Driver

Also, I'm installing this on a RAID hard drive setting. I already "installed" the RAID drivers before the Win7 installation began from a USB, so I assume I needn't install the .exe file version from the website, correct?

Thanks

 

Couple of questions regarding this thread...

LINK: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html

What the heck is...

3. Intel RST Driver / Intel Management Engine....12. Media Card Reader Driver....And 13. Remote Control/Infrared Driver?

I know what the Infrared Driver is. Is that the same thing/driver as the Remote Control? I can't find Intel RST Driver/Intel Management Engine, Media Card Reader Driver, and Remote Control.

*Not in the Reformat install guide from the link but what is Intel Turbo-Boost under application on Dell Drivers if I have to install, in what order from the Link? I'm reformatting but not from original factory format should I install DataSafe Local 2.0? if so what order in that Link? And what is it?


System Specs:
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Edition
Intel Core i7 740QM @ 1.73Ghz Clarksfield 45nm technology
8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 660Mhz (9-9-9-24)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 Series
488 GB Seagate 7,200 RPM HD
Blue-Ray drive
IDT High Definition Audio CODEC
Intel(R) 82577LC Gigabit Network Connection
Intel(R) WiFi Link 5300 AGN

Also, these drivers on the dell website seem to be very old. Has anyone updated them from an alternate website or have moded drivers of these specific drivers that are much newer that I can install?

Lastly, Should I install the AMD-BIOS for my ATI 5850 video card? I plan on installing the newest video driver from ATI's website.

After I reformat I plan to update my BIOS to A09 but let's take one thing at a time for now.

 

Get the Intel drivers from Intel's website, same goes for Intel rst. The turbo boost program is completely unnecessary. I wouldn't install data safe unless you plan on using it. Your 5850m probably already has the latest vbios on it (A02 if I remember correctly). Get the newest it drivers from amd's website.

 

After a clean Windows 7 install with a M17x R3 & AMD Graphics card...
can I install the latest AMD drivers or I need to install the old Dell drivers?

 

Sooooooo I just reinstalled windows 7 and I followed the install order, restarted when it said restart, and i was flooded with about 4-5 bsods. I have the m17xr3. Is the install order the same? <--- stupid question hehe. And to make it worse, i can't for the life of me finish these windows updates. It will not install a couple of them and they are required so i can download the service pack. Called MSFT and they wanted me to pay so they suggested i call alienware. I called alienware and they "emailed" me the install order which hasn't popped up yet.

 

I am attempting to install an old system image to my M17x R2...I did a clean install using a factory Windows 7 64-Bit disk...but did not reinstall all of the Alienware drivers because I just want to revert to a system image from last year...I created a Win 7 64-bit recovery disk on my MSI...I am able to get as far as inserting the last disk of the image (Disk 3/3) but the recovery fails...saying that the Disk image is larger than the Hard Drive currently installed in the laptop...I have 2 Samsung 256GB SSds in my R2....set to RAID 0 in the bios...although I didn't download any RAID drivers...do I have to do this so the system image will work? If so...where the heck are these drivers found...I've searched everywhere...and just cannot seem to find them...thanks to anyone for any advice!

 

Hit Support.Dell.Com

Then, Drivers and Dowloads. Enter your model or service tag and get your drivers. Raid drivers should be part of the Intel Chipset.

 

Has anyone had any issues with the audio driver for the M17x R3? I just performed a clean install and as soon as I installed the audio driver I the sounds in Windows started to lag? Should I uninstall it and just let Windows find the best driver? Thanks!

 

Did you get that issue sorted, DarthGator14?

 

this probably wouldn't go well in this thread but I've been trying to get xp 32/64 bit to work on m18x. Ive got both legit copies from my buddies as requested by Mr.fox due to forum rules.

i got as far as getting dual boot to work, either its win XP sp3 32bit home, or win XP sp2 64bit professional. note that 64 bit only goes as far as sp2, sp3 only exist for 32bit version of XP OS.

after i installed either OS, theres no sound, no graphics card and no internet, the three main things needed most are not detected. i managed to somehow test/run installing wireless driver and that got wifi to work for both the OS.

sound driver is detected, but installing driver makes no difference. as for the graphics driver it shows as standard vga graphic adapter in device manager and can not detect my dual 6990m no matter what i do. i mean its detected in win7 just fine, but it shows two vga instead in xp =/.

i went and download xp32/64 bit version driver for amd 6990m, after installing it, nothing is changed, still no hardware detected and im pretty much stuck at this point. with that in mind, i try to switch to intel HD 3000 graphics so i could at least play some games, however that thing is also not showing up in device manager. i downloaded hd 3000 graphics and chipset driver for XP 64bit professional and tried installing it but it says "this system does not meet the minimum requirements.. etc"

so now im practically stuck and donno what to do lol

 

hey all I just joined the M18x club today and was wanting to put in my after market SSD and put win 7 on it. i understand the order of driver install but when i put in the servce tag for the drivers I was met with a whole ton of them for the m18x. Anyone have a current guide on exactly which ones I need. Specificlly where each section, BIOS, communications, etc. list numerous drivers for download. Thanks!

EDIT: Nvr mind figured it all out...this SSD is killer!

 

is there a guide around that shows the steps to do a clean install on a new SSD for a m17x r3?

 

PS2gamer, see the first post of this thread.

 

And, if you don't find what you need there and have little experience with doing a clean windows installation, go to the first post on the thread linked below for detailed step-by-step instructions and video.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...llation-questions-troubleshooting-thread.html

 

Why did this get moved to M17x, instead of just Alienware? Just noticed, no biggie, just wondering

 

It's not something we did. Fixed now

 

Hey guys.

I'm getting all the drivers sorted and ordered for my clean install on my R2.

I'm puzzled about 2 things though over from Dell's driver download page;

1. There seem to be 2 drivers for WAN;

"Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n MiniCard WLAN for Desktops" and "Dell Intel(R) WiFi Link 6300" - which one do I need?

2. Do I need the "Intel Turbo Boost Technology Driver"? I didn't see this listed in the OP under the listed order of drivers to install.

Many thanks!

EDIT:- whilst I'm asking, one other thing - can I install AMD's latest gfx drivers directly or do I first need to install Dell's drivers for the 5870Ms listed over on their download page first? THANKS!

 

If you have an Intel 6300 wireless card, thats the one you want. If open device mananger and expand "network", you should see what wireless card you have...probably Intel 6300 so you want that driver and also the gigabit Driver for your wireless setup. Dell used to offer the option when configuring a new M17x R2 for either Intel 6300 wireles card or the 1520 half mini card.....if you have the 1520 in device manager, obviously use that driver.

From recollection, the TBT Driver doesnt do anything but I always included it in my 17x R2 clean installs.

You can use reference drivers from AMD without installing Dell's first....it just makes for a cleaner installation as you dont have to start removing Dell stuff to use AMD reference drivers...

 

Thanks very much Stevie for that most satisfying and helpful answer! +rep take care brother!

 

epic guide!

 

Hi guys, I'm awaiting my delivery of a new 256gb samsung SSD which should arrive within the hour so I am about to do a clean install.

Wanted to find out which are the best drivers I should go for for pretty much everything, I hear the dell site has some old gpu drivers - can someone suggest some better perforimng ones? also is there a specific way I should install them because of the onboard gpu??

thanks in advance guys !

 

Its best to install the drivers from the Dell site First, then update them to the current drivers. That way if the updated drivers cause problems, you can always roll back to the Dell drivers you installed first. And whatever you do, avoid updating driver with ones suggested by Windows Update. WU drivers have always caused me BSODs. Here is a guide to help step you thru it: HOW TO: Clean Windows 7 Install (Driver Install Order) Guide for Alienware Systems

 

Thanks radji, will read it now.
but what are the most recent (and best performing) drivers I should shoot for?

*just got me SSD - so exited! Hopefully Bay 0 has SATA III in my A04 Bios

 

I'm new to this so bare with me. I managed to install a 256 GB Crucial m4 into my new M17xR4. I installed the needed drivers but I left windows on my 750GBHD. Now when i boot up windows boot manager comes up and gives me two choices of windows 7 to boot from? Is this because i have windows 7 on both my SSD and HD? Suggestions? Sorry for the nub question. Guessing i should delete the old windows? I created a recovery disk using alienrespawn before I started. Thank you.

 

Yes, that is why you are seeing the option to boot from either drive. It's always easiest to remove or delete partitions and reformat the additional drive so the new installation never sees it during setup.

 

Amazing guide!
Now I just need to find out if I can have a 128gb ssd + 2x 500gb hdd raid 0, one of which moved to the dvd bay. Not sure how the hdd in the dvd bay would work, performance wise.

I got my m17x r4 from the outlet, so it will arrive preconfigured with the 2 hdd in raid 0.

The other (easier) option would be ssd+hdd+dvd and sell the spare hdd ^__^

 

It works great. The HDD performs at full SATA 3GB/s speed. More details in this thread... http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...llation-questions-troubleshooting-thread.html The opening post has OS setup information. Toward the end of the thread you will find details on using the optical drive bay, including photos.

 

Thanx for that!

So the dvd bay works on sata2...uhm...annoying xD

Basically my configuration will be:

bay 1: SSD on sata 3 (boot)
bay 2: hdd 500gb raid 0 on sata 3
bay 3: hdd 500gb raid 0 on sata 2

Dvd reader will get an external enclosure.

Would have been sooo much easier if that dvd bay was on sata 3 as well...insert ssd...set up as boot drive...install w7&drivers....all done xD

 

All Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge mobile chipsets support a maximum of 2 ports at SATA 3.0 6GB/s. That's OK for most people though, because hardly any normal HDD runs at SATA 3.0 GB/s... almost all are limited to SATA 2.0 3GB/s. SATA 3.0 is pretty much only useful for SSD.

In addition to the parts I posted on the other thread, as another option you can buy all the parts in a single package. Check out the SilverStone TS06 at NewEgg.

 

I guess sata 2 for the hdd will be ok xD
Can the third bay (i mean the sata 2 dvd one) be setup for raid 0 ?

 

Please excuse me if this has been answered before, but I'm going to be installing a 64gb Msata for booting right when I get my laptop, so clean install is no problem. First of all, does having raid 0 HDD affect the boot drive at all? Do I need to change anything you posted for fresh installing windows on an SSD? Also, isn't there an alienware disk you get with all the standard drivers on it? (minus maybe the graphics drivers)

 

Yes, you do get a resource DVD with drivers on it. Although, to make sure you are getting the most up-to-date drivers, it wouldnt hurt to download them all and save them on flash drive yourself before installing.

 

Never rely on drivers from the resource disk - always grab all the latest drivers for your system from Dell Drivers & Downloads as they will be more up-to-date and you wont miss any important ones.

As far as having a HDD raid & mSata boot, the raid should not affect your machine regards to booting windows from the mSata OS drive.

 

I followed the steps for my M11x but I am still not getting HDMI audio. What could i possible be doing wrong?

 

Thanks for this! One of the first things I plan on doing after I get my Alienware is to pick up a shiny new 240GB SSD. I recently upgraded my Desktop to an SSD and I can never go back. Unfortunately buying the Alienwares with SSDs as stock is just far too overpriced.

 

The problem i'm having with my new m17x r4 may have something to do with windows or some other software I'm unaware of...

Please refer to this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ceived-my-m17x-r4-problem-date-time-bios.html

Date and time keep resetting after each restart. Note that it's not the cmos battery! If I setup the correct date and time in the bios, restart the computer then check the bios again, everything is perfect. As soon as windows 7 loads I find the system setup 6 days in the past, and after the next restart it will become 1st january 2011 (with countless errors showing on startup).

The whole motherboard has been replaced and i've already done a clean installation of windows 7 with no results. Every driver has been installed and updated, yet the problem persists.

Any idea?

 

BatBoy, thanks for this guide (first post). I followed it and installed fresh Win7 and all drivers on a new SSD in my m17x R4. Everything is working fine except that now i have gained an additional 3rd sound device "AMD High Definition Audio Device" and my Windows startup sound at login screen stutters. I have also lost one of myRealtek PCIe card reader device - originally there were two as configured by Dell on HDD. Also i was able to get Alien Respawn/Autopsy and PowerDVD from links on this forum elsewhere.

 

Mr. Fox...

I just asked a similar question on the M17x R3/R4 owner's thread with no reply yet and I don't know if you check that, but I know you have a great deal of knowledge and so since this question was so similar to mine I wanted to ask you to elaborate.

I have ordered an M17x R4 and also ordered a Samsung SSD from Newegg to use for the OS. Is there any advantage (or disadvantage other than the boot option) to leaving the OS installed on the HDD also? I imagine if the SSD should ever go bad it'd be good to have the OS already installed on the HDD? Any conflicts this could create?

 

I didn't realize I needed PowerDVD and can't find it anywhere. It doesn't show up on the Dell Smartsource site for my notebook so I didn't realize I needed it - do I need it?

 

I know this thread was made when the m17x r3 was the standard, but if I have a m17x r4 then do I follow the same steps (where it says m17x r3 only can I assume that this also applies to m17x r4 as well) with the exception of the video card drivers as I would pick the one that applies to my system (7970m)??

 

I'm doing a clean install on my mx15 but im having the problem that many people have with installing the nvidia graphics cards. I get the "Nvidia could not find compatible graphics card...." even though its the from the driver disk that came with the computer. I haven't seen an easy solution to this problem. Im sure Nvidia's forums have some solutions but their forum is down.

I've tried a modded.inf driver that is suppose to get everything but the aero to work, however I came across the same error message.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

Hello, sirclash, what GPU do you have?

Please see here and tell us if you were able to install them:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r-301-42-whql-released-22may.html#post8552910

 

I tried that but no luck. It still wont get past the compatibility issue after I replace the old file. Dell's website gives me the drivers for the GeForce GT 240M and GeForce GTX 260M (65W), and also two other video drivers: AVerTV Hybrid NanoExpress DVB-T and AVerTV Hybrid NanoExpress ATSC.

I'm assuming its one of those two GeForce cards.

 

Hi All,

Quick query:

I'm excitedly awaiting delivery of a new m14x r2 and am getting the relevant drivers together for a clean sweep. The original post suggests the 3rd driver to install is the the Interl RST (Rapid Storage?) / Intel Management Engine.

Is this an either/or suggestion or should I go for both. I've never even heard of the IME before and a quick search suggests it's from remote access (something i'll not be doing). Also, for the RST is it more advisable to go with dell variant or go straight to Intel?

Any suggestions appreciated.


Thanks,

s

 

sprucejuice - get the latest RST from Intel. In most cases, the newer drivers available for all devices are better. But, the latest is not always the greatest, especially with video drivers.

 

Is this exactly the same process when it comes to a Clean Windows 7 install to the Alienware M17X R4?