Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

Flamenko, I don't think it's done installation though. I have four check marks on the first four but the completing installation part is still progressing. It's still stuck in that section.

When the screen says "installing updates", where is the system getting the updates from? From the DVD or the internet? If it's DVD, then I don't have to worry about that but if it's internet, I need to connect the computer first.

Maybe it's the internet updates that's keeping the software from being installed completely...I can't think of anything else...

 

I wish I could get a screen shot of that. K... when you turn your computer on, does it start Vista and come to the normal screen???

Cancel auto updating for now and change sleep mode as suggested.

 

Nope, it didn't start the vista at all. It just went back to installation screen. I'm going to redo the whole thing but this time I'm going to connect the laptop to the internet and see if that will change anything.

If this doesn't work....*sigh*....I'll cross that bridge when I have to...I'm going to go offline in here for awhile and then figure out if internet connection helps.

Wish me luck.

 

Wait..when it first starts and you start the installation there will be a screen that asks for files, insert your driver disk in and try to download the drivers, specifically Intel Matrix Storage manager..

This is the screen at the bottom of this post...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2458809#post2458809

Anyway...work in the am and I gotta get some sleep. Good luck and will check in tomorrow.

 

Flamenko, it worked! Thanks.

Now I have the access to operating system but for some reason, the response time in my computer is slower than my 5 year old computer. I'm getting a lot of "not responding" and the start up time is pretty slow too.

Also, during the start up time, the computer screen goes completely blank for 2-3 minutes and then starts again.

Already, I had two blue screen of death. Maybe I haven't installed all the proper drivers yet? How do know which driver to install?

When I inserted the "drivers and utilities" dvd, it ran the program and I had another screen popped up with my system page. On that window, I had list of items and only coule of them were checked. I did extract and installed all theh ones checked in that list but wasn't sure what to do with the ones that weren't checked. Also, one of the option in that window was "utilities", "drivers", and "application". When I also suppose to go to "drivers" and extract all the ones checked in there as well?

Help. I'm almost there so please help me again

 

ok, so everything went great. boot up time significantly improved

one small thing i've noticed though is that, when coming back from sleep (i.e. when the lid is closed) the resolution changes from the desired 1280x800. I've heard there's a fix for this - anyone come across it?

 

I'm sorry for the rookie question but I'm really nervous/excited about this and i just dont want to mess up my new toy and I've never done this before. After I put in MD 3.3 for the first time/restart/hit F12 what am i suppose to select following that step to proceed? It says "move the pointer to the desired boot device", which is? Thank you for tolerating my simple question.

 

I dont know this line...anyone else?

 

you need to select DVD/CD Boot as your boot device

 

Thanx Raven!! Although I do have 1 more question. If I'm having fun doing this does that make me a nerd? lol

 

Hi, I'm having this exact same problem as we speak...how do I restart my computer, it says that it won't let me at this time..It's been at the 'completing installation' phase for about an hour now.

 

Where do I find the drivers for the 8600m GT? And does anybody know which drivers to install for the scrolls to work again on my touchpad? Thanx for any help.

 

Darigaaz...where are you know??? and


Perry...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532

Make sure you download the right one (XP/Vista..32/64)

 

Right now I restarted and went through the reformat stage again, it rebooted this time but now it is stuck on Completing Installation again..

So, the first time it got stuck on the first Completing Installation..the second time it rebooted and is stuck on the Completing Installation.

 

If it doesnt work...reinstall freash. When you get to partitions selection, put your driver disk in and install Matrix Storage manager when you select the drivers/file install menu...That should help.

 

Flamenko, the install went very smooth, and the tweaks cut my start by at least half...Woohoo thanx!!!

rep + Flamenko!!

I got to admit though that I never saw the drivers to reinstall the scrolls on the touchpad. Either way thanx a bunch for all the other info.

 

Alright..it worked this time..I am now installing all the drivers..thanks!

 

Basically what I did was to follow flamenko's advice. I reformatted the hard drive with the media direct and then popped in the vista DVD. When you get to the screen that says in which drive would you like to install vista, press the "load driver" and then take out the vista dvd and replace it with "drivers and utilities" dvd. Flamenko told me install the manager file thingie but I couldn't really see that and I only saw one possible file from the dvd that I could install so I installed it and it seemed to work.

Another tip for you....apparently vista likes to go completely black in the middle of the process for few minutes. I kept thinking it was going to sleep mode or something but it was just vista doing its thing. So even though your screen is black, as long as hard drive light on the right side of the computer is occasionally flashing, don't turn the computer off with the hard reset.

Also, when you are installing drivers after the vista is done, follow this step (this is the recommendation from the rep that I talked to this morning)

Install
1. Dell Notebook system software driver
2. Chip set drivers - in the order it's listed
3. Audio driver
4. communication - only the connexant one
5. network drivers - broadcom and then intel wireless and after that install dell wireless driver
6. video - try intel one and if it doens't work then just do the nvidia.
7. input driver - Dell touchpad

Apparently that's the order you are suppose to install the drivers. Also, she told me to disregard the check mark and just install the ones I mentioned above.

I hope this helps.

 

Thanx Jasira and Glad your jumping in to help now!!!!

Appreciated!!

 

Hey Flameko, I'm having this issue with Vista where when I shut down 2 things happen

1) Shut down times are extremely long
2) Windows usually hangs when shutting down. The cursor will be stuck at "busy" mode and it will go on for hours without shutting down properly.

Do you know any solutions to this?

 

1. How long is extremely long?

2. Not sure about this. Have you tried CCleaner to clean your registry at all?

 

takes like 3 mins or so to shut down before.. and now it just decides not to shut down properly at all =(

 

Hi guys ... quick question.

Have just followed through this and gotten vista nicely cleanly installed ... thanks again for guide flamenko!

Boot time much shorter and no bloat in the system so pleased with that!

Do any of you find that when you boot and get to the login screen ... the password box loads a fraction before the background of the screen. It's a tiny thing but the password box seems to show up on mine on a black screen then the vista bg / imagery follows!!!

Thoughts?

 

Wow...not from I?? Maybe cleaning with one of the cleaners would work.

 

if you get roxio with the computer will you be able to get it back when you reformat? like does dell send out the installation cd with it

 

Yes with the XPS line they do. otherwise its just a quick call away. All the system disks are available from Dell free of charge.

 

Flamenko I do have a doubt which I've asked in another thread but did not get any reply so far....

Suppose I need to install Linux as well as Vista on my laptop (when it arrives)..... I believe there are 4 partitions that comes default with the laptop - DELL Diagnostics, Vista, DELL Recovery and DELL MediaDirect....

So can I delete Diagnostics and Recovery partitions and adjust the Vista partition size and create an extended partition and in which can I create a Linux logical partition ? All this without deleting or touchign the MediaDirect partition ? And then safely install MediaDirect too ? And if so can you let me know the procedure ?

 

I have another question. How do you install wired LAN internet back into M1330 after formatting?

For some reason even if I disable my wireless and plug in my CAT cables, it's not taking it in...

 

install the drivers for the 10/100 integrated controller

 

Where can I download it? Can you post the link? Thanks.

 

i got mine off my dell resource/drivers disk

 

make sure to select your OS in the drop down

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...&ServiceTag=&SystemID=XPS_M1330&os=WLH&osl=EN

broadcomm utility and driver under networking

 

Ash H Fi Zone:

Im not sure of this and invite response as well. When you install MediaDirect and select option two, can you not create and set the partitons how you choose?

You need to remember though when you get into Vista to go into Start/Control Panel/Admin Tools/Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management. When there, right click on your volume and format it.

 

I think what I ll mostly do is first delete the Recovery partition using Acronis mostly..... Then adjust the Vista Primary partition and create an Extended Partition on the disk.... In that extended partition create further logical volumes including one for Linux Ext3 and Swap each.....

Hmm guess I gotta play around with the partitions after I receive my laptop.... Anyway I ll keep you informed of how things go on when I try

 

What Im saying is when you get yr laptop, throw in the MD3 3.3 disk and reboot. Hit F12 at Dell Screen and boot fm disk. Hit any key when asked and then when it gets two partition selection, select 2. to create multiple custom partitions how u want them.

 

Hmm so are you saying you can create multiple partitions at that time too ? Then I guess it is a good idea... I ll give it a shot then

 

Yes...Any probs come back and we will get through it..

 

Hey Flamenko,

First off I've been reading your posts and think you're doing an excellent job on this site. And so, many thanks for that.

I have just received my red m1330 and a part from the (almost) common issues like cpu whine (not major but annoying nonetheless..) and a missing "p" in xps (grr), I've been enjoying the laptop. Now I've decided to do a clean install and have a question in regards to that.

When setting up the partition, I had two options: either 1) only have a C:\ drive or 2) select the amount of memory I would like to put on the C:\.

Ideally, I wanted to have a main C drive, with maybe a 5gig recovery partition (not interested in the 10 gigs that Dell originally put), so I chose option 2. Then, it asked me put, between 2 and 98 gigs. What I don't get is, if I'm going to be installing Vista in C anyway, why can't I just select 105 gigs in C, with the remaining going to D drive for recovery?

In any case, I chose 95 gigs for C drive. During the Vista installation, it asked on which partition did I want to put Vista. There was a 95 gig C drive, a 14.7 gig drive, and a 2.8 gig mediadirect drive. So I put Vista on the 14.7 gig drive.

After completing the Vista setup, I open up my computer and I see that my main partition has 95 gigs, but it's now called D drive, and the C drive has 14.7 gigs which a windows symbol on it. What I don't understand is why the 2.8gig drive under "devices with removable storage", and how do I select the appropriate settings so that I get 105 gigs in C (with vista installed) and the remaining 6 gigs for recovery?

 

Windows Vista forces C: drive to have a certain amount of space when you choose multiple drives. Dont forget to format the others afterwords.

To get 105 in C: you would have to have selected the first options and let Vista default to one partition from its own choosing. You will still have a 2-3Gb mediaDirect Partition.

And tx for the compliment...Repped you.

 

I see, so I think I'm just going to have everything in C:\

BTW thanks for the rep and forgot to say but I repped you too.

Edit**
The clean install seemed to have worked well... It cut down the number of background processes from 63 to around 55. However, two problems came up:
1) There's a buzzing sound coming from the top left of the laptop, so around the area that says "xps|m1330" (above the keyboard area). It's not a huge nuisance but audible in a quiet setting and/or when bringing the laptop closer to me.
2) Much more importantly, there is now static in the headphones after working perfectly fine before. Didn't really know what to do so I deleted the audio driver (R160062) just to see but that didn't help. This constant static is very obvious with the stock headphones (once again, worked fine before) and I'm wondering if the two afore-mentioned issues could be related. Afterall, could the buzzing sound be coming from the speakers, also located in roughly the same place?

Thanks in advance.

 

FLAMENKO, in your approach using MD3.3 to format the HD and then create the MD partition. Is their a choice to just format the MD and the OS during this an not touch anything else?

I currently have an OS partition, a Data partition and a recovery partition, these 3 I can see. I assume there are 2 more hidden partition as many have said, 1 is the MD and the other is diagnostic one.
I do not want to wipe everything just the OS and MD if I have to.
I want the MD to work after the fresh OS install the way it does now from with Vista and without OS. Btw I have Vista basic right now when I will do a fresh install that will be Vista premium.

 

No its an entire partition and format or nothing on clean install of MD3 and Vista.

 

Oh another question:
Windows problem reports and solutions listed a bunch of "problems", including 7 driver software related errors and two networking issues.

Is this normal?

 

Ok...I havent got a clue with regards to your buzzing top left or your static in the earpieces.

With rerspect to your 7 software and network issues, they may have occurred during installation but you can read about them. I would normally delete them once my system is set up and watch to see if they occur further.

Ide almost believe that you neglected to install the remaining drivers. Can i ask that you go to Control Panel/Device manager and see if there are any devices not working correctly?

 

Ok I went through the list and the following drivers were not installed:

system timer, system speaker, programmable interrupt controller, numeric data processor, Intel ICH8 Family SMBus controller-283E and direct memory access controller.

You're also right in saying I didn't install all the drivers (only the ones that were checked, as well as quickset and fingerprint). Do the rest of the drivers serve some purpose that a typical user would need?

Thanks for taking the time to go through this.

 

Your missing your chipset drivers, Matric Storage Manager, System Software.

Go back to your drivers disk and install that then install all the checked software.

 

There is another way to find your drivers which is to go to dell.com and look for drivers; you will enter your service tag at one point.

 

Hi flamenko,

Does this apply also to Inspiron notebooks? (Specifically the 1420)

EDIT: Ah just found out it works for any Dell notebook. btw, can you explain to me what Media Direct is? Why is it needed for formatting? Can't I use the supplied Windows Vista disc? (If any?)

 

Yes, Yes, I think so, nope and yes...J/K

You dont need to keep MediaDirect if you dont want it. If you dont want it, just throw in your Vista disk and boot from that disk. It will set your new partition(s).

I, myself, happen to like it though. It is a way of getting at your photos, music, contacts and movies without using the entire system which increases battery life dramatically.

From inside windows, it is a very good looking interface that lets you get to your stuff quickly and in an organized manner. It, by default, is set up as the player for your DVDs as well. See below.

My guide will help below for a clean installation.

 

Another question here Flamenko.... I read on many other websites that only if you have that small Diagnostics partition you can be able to directly boot into MediaDirect by using the button since that is where the boot record for botting into MediaDirect is stored.... Is it so ?