Hi guys,

A while back I was having a few problems with my XPS M1730 laptop. Performance was slow and I took a rather drastic measure in using the dell restore function to return it to it’s original shipped configuration. Turns out I didn’t need to do this as overheating was subsequently diagnosed and the motherboard and graphics card were replaced by Dell.

Trouble is Dell Mediadirect 3 fast boot no longer works after the restore to factory settings. The button just causes the splash screen to momentarily appear and then the machine continues to load into Vista. Once Vista logs in then Dell mediadirect launches from within windows. If I push the mediadirect button whilst the computer is already on it correctly launches mediadirect from within windows. So it’s just the fast boot into mediadirect that no longer works. A couple more factory restores didn’t resolve this (frustrating as I thought this would return it to it’s original state). It’s not a major issue because it is a bit of a gimmicky function but I would like it to work. From what I understand mediadirect needs to be installed prior to windows. So the fix is the draconian measure of basically re-installing windows and starting again. Is there any way to fix this without resorting to a re-install? It has taken me weeks to re-install/setup the laptop with everything it had on it before. Really can’t stomach the thought of starting all over again.

Furthermore since the restore the memory available to windows has confused me. I know that by having vista 32 bit only 4 gig can be addressed by windows. Out of that graphics memory takes a chunk of the addressing. Service pack 1 shows 4 gigs but my laptop always reported in dxdiag approx 3.25 gigs available. Did find that odd considering I had 512 mb 8800m GTX sli cards. However after the factory restore it always shows 3.070 & no longer 3.25. Does anyone know why? My graphics cards have now changed due to overheat issues and dell installed 1024 mb 9800m GTX sli cards as a replacement. I can make more sense of the memory in this configuration because 4096 minus 1024 equates to 3072. However, why did the 3.25 gig available drop to 3.070 before when I had the 8800m GTXs (subsequent factory restores always came up the same)? Very confusing.