A Few Quick Questions Before Reformatting My E1505

What's up everybody,
I've been planning on reformatting my 6400 ever since I received it last month but have been hesitant to start because of my lack of computer knowledge . I plan on following SouthernGirl's thread on reformatting and reinstalling XP(while leaving the MediaDirect partition), but after reading it, I realize that I'll be running across some problems when it comes to burning the drivers and MediaDirect Repair Utility to a CD. Anyways, here are my questions:

1. Since Sonic came preinstalled in my laptop, does Sonic have the capability to burn the MediaDirect Repair Utility ISO image necessary to make the CD bootable?? Sorry, this is my first time burning these types of files and using these types of programs. All I'm used to is burning Microsoft, .mp3, .pdf, and video files .
2. If so, how do I do this?? I can't seem to find it anywhere in the program.
3. If not, can someone point me in the right direction of a freeware that I can use temporarily to do this??
4. Since I plan on DL'ing all the drivers ahead of time as mentioned in SouthernGirl's thread, do I do the same thing as with the MediaDirect Repair Utility after DL'ing each one?? Will these drivers have ISO images that'll need to be burned in the same manner as the MDRU??

Thanks in advance for the help. As you can see, my computer knowledge is below a novice .

Some additional info:
Inspiron E1505
XP MCE
T2500 Duo Core
512MB RAM
256MB ATI Radeon X1400
80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive

 

The drivers downloads are not iso files. The are self-extracting, self-installing utilities. May be easiest if you just put them on a flash drive. Or you can create a 'data' CD by using Windows [insert blank CD; Drag/drop files] and put them on there...

You may want to take a look at ISORecorder for your iso files [e.g. MediaDirect Repair].

hth

Mark

 

Use ISO Recorder to make the MediaDirect Repair CD

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

Save drivers to a thumbdrive by copying the drivers directory from the C: driver (or burn to CD)

Pop in Windows CD, format largest drive (Use NTFS). Don't panic when flashing red warnings come up at end, let it finish.

Go to windows/System and load appropriate drives where yellow ? appears (from thumbdrive or CD)

Get any missed dirver from Dell site (sometimes sound driver)

Run Media Repair Process

 

So I can't just run MD repair from my thumbdrive?

 

You can if you get the individual files somehow. The file from Dell is an iso so I guess they expect everyone to be using a CD for the Repair....

Mark

 

That definitely helps a lot. Thanks MarkMcK and Acolyte. Do I need the current build of ISO Recorder V2 or the 64 bit build?? One final question before I begin the reinstallation, is there a way to check if I properly burned the MediaDirect Repair Utility on the CD?? I want to have a smooth reformat from beginning to end.

 

One more...This is the final question (before I reformat). I've just read another thread in regards to Dell's Quickset. Do I need to do anything in relation to this?? I'm asking because I'm hoping to retain all of my laptop's functions and not lose any after the reformat. Thanks again!!

 

You can get quickset anytime...It's in the dell driver site under applications

Remember most important is to have the drivers from your C: drive

burned to CD or on a thumbdrive so you can install drivers (which allow you to get back on the on the net)

 

If you're going to use a computer with vanilla XP SP2 [such as your E1505] then you'd use V2.

The 64-bit is for just that.... 64bit OS [e.g. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition]

wrt Quickset.... It should be on your Dell Resource CD or you should have downloaded it along with the rest of the E1505 drivers/utilities.

Sure, just pop the CD in the drive, reboot and at the Dell 'logo' screen press the F12 key. [Note.... If you don't know, there is a bit of a 'technique' to this... I use the tap-method myself -- Start tapping the F12 key during the boot until the BIOS acknowledges the key stroke.] Use up/down arrow to select the CD as your boot device. If it boots up okay, you should be good to go, just do a Ctrl-Alt-Delete and reboot to Windows....

vr

Mark

 

Thanks for the help guys. So far, so good.

As instructed, I burned a CD with the drivers folder, but I'm having problems installing the software for the 'PCI driver'. The yellow ! is still there. I successfully installed all of the drivers from the CD except that one driver. The drivers folder that I burned contained the following: audio, modem, network, system, and video. Did I forget to include that last driver? What should I do now? Sorry for all the questions. No results show up when I search for the device on Dell's website.

By the way, the MediaDirect Repair seemed to be a success as well. What additional checks can I do to ensure I retained all of the original functions?? I don't know if this will help, but when I try to adjust the volume from the media buttons, the volume meter doesn't appear like it originally did. I'm guessing this has to do with the sound driver as mentioned by Acolyte?? Windows doesn't even make the startup or shutdown sound that it used to. Please help. Thanks again in advance.

 

Try the "Conexant D110 WinXP driver" under the 'Communication Drivers' category....

Mark

 

Thanks for all the help MarkMcK and Acolyte. Every driver was installed succesfully. I have everything installed from Dell's Download page but now there are three yellow !'s...where each is a 'Base System Device'. Anybody have any ideas as to what I might have forgotten or what these might be?? Thanks once again in advance.

 

You still need to run the Ricoh Driver. That should do it....

Mark

 

It's all done!! Thanks Mark for all the help. You don't want to know how frustrated I was yesterday when trying to fix all the drivers. I spent a total of at least 2 hours talking online (3 different incidents) to dell chat support and each of the 3 agents that helped me didn't get it right. The last agent I spoke with just left the chat session and left me hanging because I knew she had no clue of what she was instructing me to do. Thanks again!!

 

Great... Glad to hear you've got everything apparently up and running....

Good Luck

Mark

 

After copying drivers folder to cd... when its time to install them... do you just copy the folder and put it in its original location and then most of the drivers will be working/installed? if so... then for the ones that still have the yellow/didnt install mark.. did you go download it from dell or were you able to install it by having windows search for it or whats the proceedure you used?

 

I downloaded all the drivers I needed from Dell's web site because I didn't get a CD with them on (got one now) and they're newer online. I opened each the EXE files and it unzips them to c:\dell\drivers and then auto installs them.

 

I suppose you could try it your way and individually run the setup.exe application which should be in each subfolder, but I haven't done that myself. Maybe someone else can speak to the method you suggest. A 'for sure' method would be to get the Dell Resource CD or download the files from Dell's web site.

What's in the C:\Dell\drivers folder is what's 'left over' from the unpack/install. That acutal drivers are elsewhere....

Mark

 

Nother Question: in southerngirl's guide she says to install the NSS first followed by chipset then others. Does that mean i should restart in between installing each set of drivers?

 

You'll be automatically prompted for restarts as needed...

Mark

 

cool, thanx