Can't Wait To Format..

I'm sick and tired of all of these useless programs using nearly half of my RAM at idle. I mean, 62 processes is ridiculous for a right-out-of-the-box laptop.

 

well go for it , you're Pro
or you can wait for a while to put the new vista

 

The only current issue I'm having with my 6400 is that it's a little slow at startup. I'm attempting to reformat my laptop but I'm usually cautious with these stuff cause I might screw up something if something goes wrong.

 

My out of the box install lasts about 30-60 minutes. lol

 

Don't worry about screw things up , at least you can ask people on here for some guides. If you screw up, then format again.

My out of the box won't last 5 mins , I quickly put in the win XP disc and format the whole crappy Dell windows.

 

I agree with everybody just reformat...there is a guide already in these forums on how to reformat so you will be okay and if you just recently purchased a laptop media direct 3 is alot easier to install than 2. When i got my laptop i reformatted immediately but my media direct didnt work because i had 2 so when i bought my gf her e1405 it came with 3 and i reformatted again and everything worked out fine. You'll be okay and its worth it to reformat then allowing it run the way dell made it

 

My last notbeook (Compaq, which I loved until it got stolen) lasted about a week before I reformatted it. I have a feeling the new one (E1505 on the way) won't be mroe than a few hours, if that.

So, Dell does give you the XP disc? With HP / Compaq you had to pay an extra $19.99 to get it. I didn't know if Dell included one or not. Wasn't mentioned anywhere that I could see when I made my order Friday night.

 

I use it for about about 30-60 minutes just to make sure everything works.

Just get access to a second computer and we can help should you have any issues, but it's pretty straightforward.

 

The E1505 seems to be shipping with the OS of late.

 

Looks like it is indeed a wiser choice to do a full reformat. With access to a desktop as well troubleshoot will be easier should anything go wrong.

I'm gonna time how long is the startup and then start reformatting. Wish me luck guys!

Ah just one more question, I have basically almost all the driver CDs that came along with the laptop, so do I use that or download from Dell's website?

 

I download the drivers from the website, even though most of them them date form June/July.

 

Alright, I think I'm doing something wrong. It all happened after I decided to download and install windows update. Now that I startup my laptop, I've got a BSOD with the error- 'DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL' and I had to manually shut down the laptop with the power button. Upon the second reboot I didn't get the BSOD but after I closed Dell Network Assistant an error popped up- "WIndows encountered a serious error" so I chose to send report. Soon after the wireless network couldn't be detected. With all these problems I decided to do a fresh reformat.

Used SG's reformatting guide, what I did was that I deleted XP partition and the Restore Partition (left DIagnostics and Media Direct alone), so I'm left with 2 unpartitioned space. I didn't know how to merge the 2 so I went on to create a partition on C (70GB), basically I divided it into 2 partitions (38GB and 32GB), then I chose to install XP on the new partition (38GB). Now that the installation's complete, I have only C drive with 38GB, and the remaining 32GB is no where to be found. Am I doing something wrong here?

 

My partition table looked something like this:

1. 47MB <- media direct or diagnostics
2. 147GB <- main
3. 2GB <- media direct
4. 5GB <- restore

Partition 4 remained orphaned so I formatted it and installed games on it.

See if windows can see it.

Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage

 

Ok I'll try out your method CS, thanks

I was trying to create a second partition from the main drive so that I can use that to store personal stuff and games..I suppose the 5GB from the restore partition isn't sufficient.

Can I use partition magic to merge back the unpartitioned space and the main drive? Cause this is what I basically have now-

Partition 1 [FAT 32]- This should be the diagnostics partition, so I left it alone
C: Partition 2 [NTFS] (38GB)- Installed Win XP on this
Unpartitioned space (32GB)
E: Partition 3 <Media Direct> [FAT 32]
Unpartitioned space (3GB)- Used to be restore partition but I deleted it

 

Actually you can't merge them :-/ Reason is because MD 3.0 partition (partition E) is in between them. You should be able to merge partition 2 and the unpartition space beside it when you are formatting.

You can also use the MediaDirect reinstallation disc and that will allow you to completely format the drive and set up the partitions the way you want. Give me a few minutes and I'll post the directions in the format guide.

 

I have a question for southern_girl. I currently have mediadirect 2.0. My dad has his e1505 and has media direct 3.0. His system came with a "Media Direct 3.0 reinstallation cd". Is there any way I can upgrade my 2.0 into 3.0 with that cd?

 

yep, but you'll have to reformat. I'm trying to get the directions and post them. You'll follow the sames ones as if you had MD 3.0. Since MD 3.0 is on a seperate partition, anyone can install it.

 

Thank you so much SG I'll wait patiently for it. Can't believe I've already messed things up so early. Actually I installed a free trial of partition magic and it can merge partition 2 and the unpartition space but when I wanted to do it it said it was a trial version :-| Then what's the use of it?

I tried pessing F12 to the boot screen but I couldn't merge partition 2 and the unpartition space. The only options available are create partitions.

 

what should i do about the "hidden" partition of md2. Or does md3 installation get rid of that?

 

Hi SG, I was browsing the general format Q&A thread when I found a post of yours for MD Reinstallation, hope that'll help you compile your guide

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1664388&postcount=7

There are the directions.

If you have MD 2.0, you can either just forget about the space (its about 1.2gb) or you can try to find special software which will delete the hidden area. I'm not sure which software did it, but a few users had luck with some software that was able to delete it.

LOL, yeah I just directly quoted it and put it in the guide.

 

Hi SG, I've managed to format the laptop pretty nicely, but upon reboot this error message popped up- "Cli.exe application failed to initialize properly (oxc0000135). Click ok to terminate program.

I think I might have left out some drivers to install. I haven't installed the Flash BIOS and Diagnostic Utilities I think. Under Device Manager I have the yellow mark under Ethernet but I'm not sure which driver it belongs to.

For REmovable Storage, I'm not sure which driver to install, I have a Optiarc DVD RW.

 

For the ethernet driver, you need the broadcom 10/100 under the networking catgetory.

The CLI.exe error is related to the ATI Catalyst which comes with your video card. You really don't need it, so I would just disable it in MSCONFIG.

I think Optiarc is actually an NEC drive. If that is the case, there should be a driver labelled under NEC in the removable media section.

SG

 

I've managed to download the right driver and fix the CLI error (apparently it was related to the ATI driver indeed that requires Microsoft Net 1.1, so I installed that and it's working fine now.

About the NEC Drive, I checked under Device Manager and there isn't a yellow mark beside the driver, so does that mean I don't have to install the driver anymore? It managed to detect all the Windows CD and MD DVD that I used for the reformat.

PS: I've used your MD3 guide to do another fresh reformat and it turned out well

 

Good to hear.

Yes that is correct. If the driver does not have a question mark or explanation mark, then you don't need to worry about it.

SG

 

My E1505 is at depot service getting fixed. They sent 2 HD's...the wrong one came with a Media Direct reinstall disk...the right HD didnt. My E1505 originally came with an XP OS disk and a drivers/utilities disk. How can you tell what version of Media Direct is on the disk? The part number on the disk is: PJ422 REV. A01 April 2006

 

It clearly says 'Media Direct 3.0' on the DVD I received, so you can easily tell I guess.

Btw SG, as mentioned earlier about my BSOD encounter upon installing updates from Windows updates, are ther any ways to undo it if I encounter it again? I'm reluctant to do the updates now but I heard they're rather important especially the patches etc.

 

Yeah, I'm a little shakey about what I'm going to face after a reformat. Such as errors and what not.

 

Thanks YYM, I've been emailing Dell back and forth about my E1505 so I figured I'd ask if they could send me MediaDirect 3 and they are.

 

No problem, hope you'll get the correct one. I asked Dell for a Cyberlink PowerDVD as well and they're working on that too