Non Dell Express Upgrade

Question

I bought my E1705 in October just before the free coupon upgrade period, so I am getting a retail package  and am planning to format and do a clean install.  Is there some Dell CD or shortcut program to reinstall or install Dell drivers and special features for those who are not getting the free express upgrade?  Looks like that kind of feature is built into the express coupon package but was wondering what is out there for the rest of us?

jmwills · Answer

You are better off with the retail version.  The 'Express Upgrade' has nothing that your current does not have.  Yo uwill lost the Dell Diagnostic programs but those along wiht all your drivers can be had from the Drivers & Downloads section.

mmigliore · Answer

OK thanks.  I will make sure I have all the program disks.

VMBieg · Answer

i bet if ya wait dell will update there driver CD's to include vista drivers and you can request one......but seriously down load the vista drivers and software upgrades, burn em to CD or put em on a USB hard drive. not sure about mediadirect and vista yet but most of the preinstalled software need's patches and or updates to work properly in vista.   if ya can sit and wait awile i would say do that and once all is out there then upgrade.

max_mike · Answer

I got my E1505 in September so I did not qualify for the free upgrade… I just did a clean install to Vista Business upgrade using the upgrade clean install workaround and it went flawlessly, I had downloaded the Vista drivers from Dell and burned them in to a CD. Glad now I did not qualify for a free upgrade.

Message Edited by max_mike on 02-02-2007 09:56 AM

mmigliore · Answer

Thanks to both of you.  If they fix Media Direct to actually work properly under Vista that would be worth having again.  I was having trouble with it in XP out of the box on my E1705 so I have gotten rid of it for now anyway.  I am planning to use the clean install upgrade workaround and try to install Vista Home Premium upgrade.  I have XP Pro, so we will see if the upgrade workaround will work for Home Premium, or if I will need to wipe, reinstall XP Home first and then give it a go.  (I understand that generally you can not upgrade to Home Premium from XP Pro, only to Business or Ultimate).

amphibian_x · Answer

Mike, I'm on a 6400/1505 as well and want to upgrade to Vista HP using the clean install workaround as well. Can I bother you to post or send me a list of all the drivers you downloaded, so that I can do the same and have them ready when I do the install?

max_mike · Answer

@amphibian_x wrote:
Mike, I'm on a 6400/1505 as well and want to upgrade to Vista HP using the clean install workaround as well. Can I bother you to post or send me a list of all the drivers you downloaded, so that I can do the same and have them ready when I do the install?

Make sure you have installed the latest A12 BIOS update first.

The Vista 32-bit drivers I downloaded from the Dell support site. In the order I installed them:

Intel Mobile Chipset
Dell Notebook System Software
Broadcom 440x 10100 Integrated Controller nVidia GeForce Go 7300
Intel Intel(R) PROWireless 3945ABG Network Connection
SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio Conexant D110,HDA,MDC,v.92,modem
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module (Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR)
Ricoh R5C832
Synaptics Touchpad

Some of the drivers automatically install when you executed the downloaded file, some extract to a driver folder and you must start the setup file.

I installed AVG Free 7.5 as the anti-virus.

Message Edited by max_mike on 02-02-2007 12:46 PM

Message Edited by max_mike on 02-02-2007 12:47 PM

amphibian_x · Answer

So did you scrap Media Direct? Or did you keep a partition for that separate from the Vista installation?

max_mike · Answer

@amphibian_x wrote: So did you scrap Media Direct? Or did you keep a partition for that separate from the Vista installation? I never used Media Direct so I did the clean install without it.

jmwills · Answer

I never understood the hype over Media Direct in the first place.

Windows General

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