Formatting (for the first time)

Question

I am going to be formatting my entire system followed by a new install of Windows XP. Aside from backing up all of my files, is there anything else I should be made aware of? I've never done this before, but I've been told it's an easy process.

Message Edited by WarmingTheCurb on 07-02-2007 06:14 PM

europa303 · Answer

Following the installation of XP you must then install all the appropriate drivers for your system, available at the lower left corner of this forum 'Drivers and Downloads'. You need to know which drivers to use that are specific for your system components as there are many options there.  I would obtain these first and burn to a CD or have on a USB memory card so they'll be ready to transfer, as your updated computer will not have internet access until the drivers are installed. Then, you will need to do all the usual Windows updates, which will be many and take some time. Then install all your software and updates to these programs. The whole process can take several hours, primarily due to the many updates and software installation.  See this:   http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&cs=19&docid=1A0C0937D62A8739E0401E0A55174744&journalid= 4F1F82483DC811DBAE564F9328EE04A4&l=en&s=gen

Sam Waring · Answer

Begin by putting the OS CD into the optical drive, then shutting down the system completely (power off). Restart, and as soon as you see the Dell splash screen, tap the key one or two times, which will take you to the Boot Device Menu.

From this menu, arrow down to “boot from CD-ROM” and press . Immediately after you do, you will see a line of text saying “press any key to boot from CD.” Immediately press the key once. Don’t wait around or stop to think about it; you only have two seconds to press the key before Setup falls through and boots from the hard drive instead.

When you hit it correctly, you’ll see a message “Setup is examining your system” or words to that effect. It will take several minutes and copy a lot of files (you see this going on at the very bottom of the screen). Eventually you’ll come to a screen saying “Welcome to Setup.” It will give you the option to press to continue setting up Windows, or to repair the OS. Press and continue with setup. You may reach a screen showing several partitions on the hard drive—one of about 60 MB, one of a few GB, and a great big one, 30GB or more. DO NOT DELETE THE TWO SMALL PARTITIONS. They contain your onboard diagnostics and your factory-load drive image. Delete and re-create only the big partition (usually is of the type “NTFS,” and labeled as drive C: ).

Setup will go on through a two-phase process; the first will be all screens of text, and will take ten to fifteen minutes. Then the system will restart itself, and come back to begin bragging how Windows has “an exciting new look!" and such-like foolishness. The second phase will tell you it takes 39 minutes to finish, but that’s a bunch of hooey. It takes more like 25 minutes. During this process you will do things like set your local time zone, give the computer a name so it can attach to a network, and set up a password for the Administrator (i.e., the system “God”) account. Mostly, you babysit it. Once the second phase has finished, take out the XP OS CD and put in the Resource CD (Drivers and Utilities CD). It will run an install wizard for its user interface, then present you with a series of choices for drivers to install.

You do need to reinstall the Dell device drivers now, because the Windows installation will have put in generic Microsoft drivers that only kinda-sorta work. The order of driver installation is important. I can’t emphasize this enough; fail to follow it, and you’ll cause yourself a lot of grief down the road.

Install the drivers in this order:

Dell Notebook System Software
Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility
Video driver (depends on which video card you have)
Integrated network card driver
Audio driver
Wireless miniPCI card driver, if present
Bluetooth driver (if present)
Cardbus controller (if present)
Alps GlidePoint touchpad/trackstick driver

At ANY time during driver installation, if a driver wizard wants to restart the system, allow it to do so. Otherwise it can’t write essential information about itself into the Windows Registry and you’ll end up with a non-functioning device. This is a tedious, but absolutely essential point. The entire process, OS and drivers, will take the best part of two hours.

At this point, you’re finally ready to begin reinstalling whatever application programs you have.

WarmingTheCurb · Answer

I formatted successfully, but now a few of my most-frequented sites' fonts are wrong.

Facebook.com:

RIGHT:

WRONG:

---

As you can see, the first screenshot uses a clean, small Arial-esque font whereas the bottom one is large and wiry. This all occured immediately after a format. How can I adjust this?

Message Edited by WarmingTheCurb on 07-10-2007 10:44 PM

Message Edited by WarmingTheCurb on 07-10-2007 10:46 PM

Sam Waring · Answer

WarmingTheCurb wrote:

I formatted successfully, but now a few of my most-frequented sites’ fonts are wrong.

[snip]

As you can see, the first screenshot uses a clean, small Arial-esque font whereas the bottom one is large and wiry. This all occured immediately after a format. How can I adjust this?

I suspect one of three things: (1) some of the fonts you were using didn’t get reinstalled by Windows (possibly because the fonts came along with MS Office or some other package, not with Windows), (2) the video driver wasn’t installed, or wasn’t installed properly and in order, or (3) the display resolution is set to the wrong size.

(3) is the easiest to fix; right-click in the middle of your screen and left-click “Properties” from the menu. The Display Settings window will open. Next, left-click the “Settings” tab and look at the resolution size slider on the left-hand side. Depending on which display type you have (I don’t remember, just offhand) your optimal resolution will be either 1280x800, 1680x1050, or 1920x1200. Move the slider until you get the font size you expect to see, then click “OK.” This will save the setting and exit back to your desktop.

If (1) is the cause, then it’s a matter of reinstalling applications until you get to the one that contains your favorite fonts in the bundle.

(2) is the most tedious to fix, because it’s going to mean (re)installing drivers and that takes time. Did you already download and install the drivers from the Support site, or install them from a Drivers and Utilities CD if you happen to have one of them? If you’ve not done that, dollars to doughnuts that your problem is you’re trying to use the generic Microsoft video driver rather than the Dell driver they wrote specifically for your hardware. Refer back to my previous post, where I believe I detailed the correct order in which you should install all the drivers, and install them. If you did install drivers, then I expect the video driver didn’t “take” for some reason and it needs to be re-done.

Message Edited by Sam Waring on 07-11-2007 08:40 AM

Sam Waring · Answer

WarmingTheCurb wrote:

I don't know if this is my video card or what but, regardless of the video file, I've been getting inverted coloring (neon, to be exact) and slow fast forwarding (video takes 10 sec. to catch up to audio). Do know what could have caused this?

In addition, what is this file: dxva_sig.txt ? It appears everytime I open Media Player Classic, which is my player of choice.

Happen I do know what the second one is about, and it's probably causing the first as well. You're missing a Microsoft codec (coder-decoder) for DirectX Visual Acceleration. This thread discusses what it is and gives links to get the hotfix (relevant link is in the third message).

http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=9&t=8449

WarmingTheCurb · Answer

Thanks for the response. I'm going to try option #1 seeing as how I haven't installed MS Office yet (my resoution is optimized and I downloaded the latest driver from Dell's site).

I have another semi-related question, though:

I don't know if this is my video card or what but, regardless of the video file, I've been getting inverted coloring (neon, to be exact) and slow fast forwarding (video takes 10 sec. to catch up to audio). Do know what could have caused this?

In addition, what is this file: dxva_sig.txt ? It appears everytime I open Media Player Classic, which is my player of choice.

WarmingTheCurb · Answer

Thank you. I used the information from your link to download WMP 11, which fixed the divx.txt error. I still have an audio-video issue, but I took it to the Sourceforge forums.

Shifting gears here, but do you happen to know anything about the battery recall from last year? My laptop was on the list, but I never got mine replaced -- it's now shot. Am I able to keep the current battery until I get a new one?

Thanks again.

Message Edited by WarmingTheCurb on 07-12-2007 02:27 AM

Sam Waring · Answer

WarmingTheCurb wrote:

Shifting gears here, but do you happen to know anything about the battery recall from last year? My laptop was on the list, but I never got mine replaced -- it's now shot. Am I able to keep the current battery until I get a new one?

The www.dellbatteryprogram.com Web site is still live, so if your battery is one of the ones affected you can still get it replaced under the program, regardless of whether it’s functional. Others have told me that they entered the battery ID number at the site to verify their batteries were part of the recall and request a new one, and a few days to a couple of weeks later, they received a replacement battery along with a return label and instructions to put the old Sony battery into the box the new one came in, stick on the label, and send it back to Dell.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

Formatting (for the first time)

Was this post helpful?