Dell M1330 Post XP Installtion Questions

1. If I wipe my of everything and install windows XP what will happen to my Media Direct Button? Does it just become obsolete?

2. Will all my devices work after I install it or are there still things that wont work?

3. I have the IIntegrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition, will those regular Sigma drivers that dell provides work for me? Actually I think I paid extra just for some software and I still have the regular sound card.. Kinda stupid of me not to know what I paid for lol.

Anyway I tried searching with the search option but I couldn't find these answers can anyone help?

Thanks in advance

 

You will need to obtain XP drivers for all of your hardware in order for them to function. That includes the Media Direct Button and Sound Blaster Drivers. If Dell does not provide or you cannot find another compatible media direct driver then the button will not function

Grand Admiral

 

1. if you format and repartition your entire hdd (including the media direct partition). it becomes obsolete. as long as you dont touch the media direct partition you can use it. (however its extremely useless and i highly recommend you to get rid of it). after you remove it when you press the media direct key. it shows the media direct logo (which is in a firmware not in hdd).. but boots into windows. dell ppl say that this will corrupt your OS. but in my personal experiance i havent seen any trouble even after repeated pressing of the button.

2. well almost all devices should work with xp just fine provided you have the drivers for xp. some included drivers are compatible with xp also. however you will have to get the graphics driver downloaded separately

3. i donno anything abt the sounblaster stuff. dell had written specifically in the order site that it is a piece of software. you shouldnt have bought it

 

1. if you want to keep it, don't touch the partition and re-install the windows program from the MediaDirect CD once you have XP set up.

if you don't want to keep it, completely delete the partition when you install XP. if you want, after this you can re-assign the MediaDirect button to do anything you want. i've got mine set to launch MediaDirect if Windows isn't running, but iTunes if Windows is running.

 

Cool thanks alot everyone. One more question about that button.

Once I completely wipe all the partitions, I can just re map that MD button to do something else, which means it shouldn't be corrupting my XP OS then right? If it does corrupt it in the first place that is.

 

if you delete the partition, when you press the button before booting Windows, it will start loading then you will get the error:

"MD PARTITION MISSIN"

(yes, there really is no G on the actual message.)

but it shouldn't corrupt anything.

and you can easily re-map it to anything you like.

 

how exactly do you remap the Media direct key ??

 

I'd like to know that as well. Saying it is easy kinda surprises me. I did some research on it at one point and there wasn't a lot of information available.

As far as the media direct stuff is concerned, there are several different versions of media direct and if you have an older computer it may be dangerous to tell someone that it's not going to affect their XP installation. If you search for it you'll find that other people with the XPS 1330 have had problems getting their XP partition nuked by hitting the media direct button while the laptop was turned off. The Windows XP disc will NOT get rid of all the media direct stuff. You'll have to get something a little more powerful like KillDisk. This isn't really directed at the original poster. I'd just like to hear from people that have had an XPS 1330, installed Windows XP on it without totally wiping the hard drive (i.e. using something more powerful than the WinXP install CD), then pushed the media direct button while computer was off and found that they were still able to boot into Windows XP.

 

It sounds like you've still got MediaDirect on your computer. I understand the ability to remap the key while you are in Windows but remapping it to do something other than load MediaDirect may take quite a bit of research and know how if he chooses to delete MediaDirect...

It also sounds like at one point you did not have MediaDirect on your XPS 1330. Is this the case? If so, I'm surprised that it did not nuke your XP installation when you tried to boot using the Media Direct button unless you actually wiped the hard drive with some software a little more serious than the XP installation CD. When I did this it nuked my XP installation. The fix for me was to download the free version of KillDisk and wipe the stuff off that the XP install CD could not find. Have you found options that work better? Thanks

 

I just now turned my XPS 1330 on with the MediaDirect button. It came up with a MediaDirect screen acting like it was going to load MediaDirect. It then immediately went to the Windows XP screen and logged on as always. The steps I took to make it react this way was to:

1. Run KillDisk to totally wipe the hard drive.
2. Install XP

Immediately after I started XP with the MediaDirect button I shut it back off and started it with the power button. It booted into XP normally.

There was never a screen saying "MD PARTITION MISSIN". I wonder if it's possible that you got your laptop early on in the 1330 life cycle and had an earlier version of MediaDirect on it. I believe the latest version is 3.3....anyways, I'm interested to learn the differences between what we are seeing. Thanks.

 

As the 1330 BIOS does affect how MediaDirect works, I'd also be interested in which version of the BIOS you have. I have A07...

 

ok, there was a lot of information there but i'll do my best to answer it all:

1) How to re-map the MediaDirect key

As dpilot pointed out, re-mapping it to boot something when Windows isn't on takes quite a bit of research. i don't know how, but apparently it can be done.

What I do know is how to re-map it within Windows. I use a program called AutoHotkey. This basically allows you to write scripts for keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys. You do always have to have it running in the background but it's not very resource intensive.

The first thing you need to do is either re-name or delete MDirect.exe in
C:\Program Files\DELL\MediaDirect. I re-named mine MDirectBACKUP.exe, just in case...

Once you've downloaded AutoHotkey, install it. It will automatically create a sample script in your Documents folder (or My Documents for XP users) called "AutoHotkey.ahk". Right-click on this, and select Edit Script. This will open the script in Notepad.

You need to start with a special code for the MediaDirect button which is ~*sc112

If you add two colons :: after this, it will create a repeated task that will run whatever function you assign whenever you press the button. If you only have one colon : it will only run the next time you press the button, then terminate the script.

Finally, type run and then whatever program you want.
So, my script looks like this:

~*sc112::
run iTunes

Save your script and exit Notepad.

Finally, you need to drop a shortcut to your script into your Startup folder. And that's it!



2) Why It Sometimes Gets "nuked"

I'm not entirely certain, but I think this has something to do with people trying to re-install MediaDirect when the hidden partition already exists. I've gotten MBR (master boot record) errors on a few occasions, after which MediaDirect wouldn't work at all, either out of or in Windows, but Windows still launched fine.



3) How To Get Rid Of The MediaDirect Partition

Use the Computer Management program in both Vista and XP. It's in Control Panel, in Vista under System and Maintenance>Create and Format Hard-Disk Partitions (at the bottom).

I can't remember where abouts on the Control Panel it is in XP, but it's there, somewhere.

Once you're there, if you want to delete it, select the final partition (it won't have a drive letter, and will be either 2.5 or 3GB in size), right-click, delete.



4) WinXP

A quick note for the record: I have never installed Windows XP on my 1330. It wasn't shipped with XP so I don't have the disc or a key, I honestly can't be bothered to pirate it, and although you can get drivers from Dell..

WHY?! I don't see what's so wrong with Vista. I mean, when it first came out and noone's machines were powerful enough to run it well, sure, stick to XP for those extra few FPS. But now.. why??

Sorry. It's just something that's always evaded me.



5) BIOS

OK, final point in the longest post ever.

I'm using the A09 BIOS which you can download from Dell.

As far as I'm aware the BIOS has a tiny tiny amount to do with MediaDirect - it just points it to the hidden partition.

 

As far as I know There isn't a real issue with MediaDirect nuking a Vista install on the XPS 1330 unless someone does something wrong like you say. They're all designed to work and play well together. However, MediaDirect and XP is a different story. All the posts you read about MediaDirect toasting Windows are referencing Windows XP not Vista.

Don't apologize, I'm not offended and I understand your stance. I would prefer to run Vista but we have some obscure software and a printer that just won't work with Vista. From what little I've seen of Vista, I like it, it's just not for us yet. Some of the people who want to run XP on a machine that really works better with Vista may not have a legitimate reason to. However, if they're asking about it I just assume they do and try to share the experiences I've had making it work. I will readily admit that it was quite an ordeal to get most of the stuff working properly but in the end it was worth it to be able to use some older software and peripherals.

As far as pirating is concerned, if you're implying that's the only way to put XP on a Dell machine when Dell didn't send you an XP disc for the machine, that's not the case. I can't imagine that's what you're saying but it almost seems like it. There are many legal ways to get a copy of XP on pretty much any machine for a reasonable amount of money...

All in all, thanks for the response. It was particularly interesting reading about how you re-mapped the MediaDirect key...

 

Well I don't know.. maybe the time(s??) I got my MBR error I did something wrong. I've played about with it too much. But right now it's working perfectly so I'm leaving it like that


As for the piracy, I'm slightly ashamed that I skipped straight over buying it legally. Says a lot about me..