XPS M1530 and Windows 7, 32 Bit (read especially if you have are experimenteing sudden freezes)

Hello,

I own a XPS M1530 and decided to install windows 7, this was an interesting challenge and I suffered several problems, I even had to contact Dell to a particular problem, but after researching and thinking about when the problem started, I solved the problem and now my computer is working 100%. I hope this helps other users.

 

First of all, I will mention some recommendations:

1. Make sure you install first the latest BIOS, but do not pull between too many version (for example from A09 to A10), go one by one until you reach the newest version.

2. To make an upgrade is risky as you dont always get all of the software updated and as some driver conflicts may appear.

3. If you make a full upgrade, you have to consider the original partitions, if you dont care about the dell media direct application (the "house" button on your computer, which I have never used), you can start the installation from the installation DVD and delete the 2,5 Gb partition, I also deleted the D and C partitions and made one partition of all, BE CAREFULL as there might be one partition which is system reserved, do not touch it, just delete C, D and the 2,5 Gb Partitions. The purpose is to create one C: partition for you OS and one separate partition (D:) to put whatever you want (I have there my backups for example), but first you need to bring most of the hard disk together. As this operation might not work on the first trial, zou can always install in one unique partition and then go to windows system (after installation of windows) and create a new empty partition, I will not speak much more about this as this is not the objective.

4. Be sure to have all of your drivers before you start anything, you can use most of the vista-32 bit, but in some cases you better have the newest driver depending on the device, for example for the UPEK application (for biometric device), use the drivers from Dell and the latest version of the application program from UPEK, and in the case of the wifi, use the latest Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN from INTEL, do not use the one from Dell, neither update from windows update, this is critical and I will tell later why, also in the case of the NVidia, use the latest drivers from Nvidia.

5. Have on hand the Dell guide of the driver installation order (there is one link at the driver page, where Dell recommends what to install first when you are installing the drivers)

 

OK, now I will tell you the procedure to install windows 7, 32-bit, in your XPS M1530.

 

1. Install windows 7, 32 bit and let it work until the end, at this point you do not need to connect to the Internet.

2. install the drivers in the correct order, but you must restart after each installation, as those are hardware drivers, this part of the installation must be carefully managed, in some cases, you must install the driver and then the application (UPEK biometric device, webcam), also, if you installed windows 7 without having some devices "on" (for example the bluetooth device), there is an application that can help you to turn it on, I applied this patch (http://support.ap.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=au&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R159805&SystemID=INSPIRONI6400/E1505&servicetag=&os=WLH&osl=en&deviceid=12084&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=5&fileid=213714) and it turned on ok, then I installed the recommended driver for the bluetooth.

I also downloaded and installed the latest drivers for the Nvidia card, please consider that if the "aero" environment is not working, you dont need to panic, this happens before you install the correct Nvidia drivers, after installation, you just go to the screen settings and select a different aero theme, it should work fine.

3. After installation of all drivers, connect to the Internet and search for updates, do not install anything yet. You must go to the recommended drivers and install one by one the newest recommended drivers, except for the Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN, you should already have the newest driver installed.

4. After you do that and you have a basic copy with drivers of you windows, I recommend to make a "windows image backup" of the system, just to be sure that if something goes wrong latter, you do not need to do all over again.

5. Update windows with all updates from windows update. I recommend not to install everything at once, as it might have too much installation going on at the same time, have patience and install few files at once, I normally install a number of files until I have about 20 to 50 Mb, for updates bigger than that, I install separate each one. Yes, it takes a lot of time, but it saves you headaches later.

6. Now you should have a full updated version of you windows 7 32-bit, with all drivers up-to-date and. After this step, I make another "windows image backup", I just change the previous "WindowsImageBackup" folder name and then I create a new one, if you see that with time everything is going ok, then you can delete your initial backup, this is just a recommendation.

7. Thats it, now you can enjoy windows 7 32-bit. Be sure you update windows frequently and be sure to have a good antivirus/spyware/malware.

 

Problems found and solved:

I spent 2 week (in my free time) to figure this out, this are the problems I found and the solutions I found:

1. Problem: Aero themes were not working and the "preview" windows from the taskbar was not showing.

Solution: After the fresh install of windows, the Nvidia driver is the second driver that must be installed, when I installed the newest Nvidia drivers, I re-started and then I went to the screen settings and selected an aero theme, it worked fine.

2. Problem: When I tried to install the bluetooth drivers, the driver was telling me that I have to turn the device on, but the combination Fn+F2 did not worked. I searched the web and found the patch mentioned in the installation instructions, that activated the bluetooth device and allowed me to install the drivers.

3. UPEK and Webcam. I installed both drivers, but the Upek was not working, duh! I needed the application software, so I went to upek webpage and installed the protecctor suite, something that also happened, is that I could not register the biometric device as it was telling me that a finger was already in the device (from my previous installtion of the data in the device), so if you go tothe upek control center in the protector suite software, you can go to configuration and then select the second option "...inspector..." (I have in other language, so I do not know what does it say in english), then you just delete all previous fingers and then you can go back to configurate the biometric device again.

4.Sudden freezes when other laptops are connected to the same router or wifi router. This was my biggest headache, I even contacted Dell and they were very nice to help me to analyze the situation, what happend was that I installed the Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN drivers from Dell and then I installed an update recommended by windows update, BIG MISTAKE!, the computer starts to freeze all the time randomly, sometimes after few minutes, sometimes at start-up, it was really frustrating. I realized that this was happening especially when other users were connected to the internet, when the other users were away or offline, I had no problem at all, so I researched a lot and found that sometimes a kernel crash happens when the card is overloaded, so I planned several measurements, but the first one was to see if there was a newer version of the Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN directly from Intel, that could solve the problem (it was strange to see a freeze problem comming from the wifi card), so I went to the Intel site, downloaded the newest software with drivers, installed and until now I have no more freezes, the problem is solved. If you dont see the blue light of the wifi, it might be disconnected, try to turn off and on the switch or try to uninstall the software and then the device, then make a re-start and install the Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN programm with drives, that should work.

For the last 2 weeks, the freezes were coming and going permanently, now we have the other computers online and works just fine, I have been working with no problems for a couple of days without a single freeze.

 

So, there you go, I hope this was useful.

Cheers.