Dell Inspiron 6000 reformat problem......

Just as expected, the pre-loaded stuff on the notebook was lagging it big time. I opted to reformat the entire thing and install WinXP Pro. It is now REALLY fast. One problem though. I can't get the front media buttons to work. You know, the STOP, PLAY, VOL UP, VOL DOWN, etc. I tried going to the Dell page where I downloaded the drivers for the other stuff but I can't find anything pertaining to the front media buttons.

Also Nero is not recognizing my NEC 8x +/- dual layer burner. I installed it BEFORE I did the reformat and it recognized it fine. After the reinstall, the SAME version of Nero is only recognizing it as an NEC 6500a 4x burner. I didn't install any drivers for the burner because I didn't see anything on Dell's site for it. What am I'm missing?

 

Besides the obvious crap Dell gives you, what else on the add/remove programs can you recommend I remove? Theres some things on there I'd like to remove but I'm not sure if its something the notebook needs to work. Thanks.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by ashylarry

 

Well I got the issue partially resolved. The media keys in the front require Dell Quikset to be installed.

jjimmyp, honestly I don't think you can really uninstall all the crap Dell puts on there. Believe me, I've tried. I even went into msconfig and took off a bunch of startup items. My computer was still bogged down. Unless you REALLY need the applications that Dell puts on there, I think it's best just to do a total format. But before you do, make sure you goto Dell's site and download all the drivers for your notebook.

 

I installed a clean copy of XP Pro on my i6000d. Go to dell's download page after you log in. There are about 5 drivers you will need to download. Things like the touch pad utility tool that lets you use the scroll buttons.

I think that I am still missing a display driver. Under device manager it is reconized as default monitor. The download page has 4 drivers, but no discriptions. When I googled it, they were all drivers for desktop monitors. The i6000 is so new that I am having a hard time finding any documentation.

Can somebody go into device manager and go under monitors. What drivers are installed there?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by jjimmyp

 

Ok ya sold me, hopefully it goes well. Thanks!

 

it just says default monitor, listed 3 or 4 times.

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by bugmenot

 

Hi, I formatted the drive and re-installed everything. The speed is quicker, so I'm grateful for that. I do have one problem, I installed the video driver from Dell's website (I have the 128meg video card) viewing pictures on the web are hazy, they're not as sharp as they used to be. Same thing goes with icons on the desktop, anything in fine detail really. Any ideas? Theres those 4 or 5 Monitor drivers on the dell site, when I tried installing one it told me I had a newer version already and it wasn't necessary. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.



<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by bugmenot

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by jjimmyp

 

figured it out - goto Display Properties - Advanced, under the first tab, general, move the DPI setting from Large to Normal, that did the trick.

 

That did clean it up a bit. I still think we are missing a display driver. It has microsoft as the default driver and it is listing it 3 times.

 

I just got a response from Dell that say the same. You do not have to load in drivers.

 

bugmenot,
I haven’t reformatted my hard drive yet, so I have the original Dell install. I only see 3 default monitors in Device Manager > Monitor. All three use Microsoft’s driver version 5.1.2001.0 (driver date 6/6/2001), and “Driver Details” says “No driver files are required or have been loaded for this device.”

So it looks like the default Microsoft driver is used in the original installation too. But you and jjimmyp say your display isn’t as sharp as it was before the reinstallation. Could it be something else that’s missing or has been changed? I was going to reinstall XP on my machine soon, but now I’m kind of worried. I have WSXGA+, my current DPI setting is large (120), and everything looks sharp.

 

Everything seems to be working fine now, display included. It might be my imagination but I'm not sure if the text and such is the same size as before. Playing around w/the text size doesn't seem to do it either. But, it could be my imagination also.

 

It does not seem the same to me but every is fine here too.