Hi natakuc4,

thanks for outlining the process for me. Yes on 64-bit.  Thought the video driver might be an issue but it installed very well.

 

One probelm - the SATA drivers?  I was never prompted during Windows install & according to the device manager installed 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' are

ATA Channel 0

Intel(R) ICH8M 3 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 2828

Intel(R) ICH8M Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 2850

not   'Intel(R) 82801HBM AHCI I/O Controller' - so this system is not running in RAID or  AHCI mode.  According to the deice manager the new Western Digital HD looks like it has a good driver even though I never installed one.  That must have occured during the OS install?

R154198 is not compatible with this version of Windows & looks like it wants me too install in Vista mode.  But once I do that it apparenlty cannot be removed.  Do I need this driver?

R154201 - I followed the instructions in Clean install of Windows 7 as well as I could (both using 7zip & just allowing windows to unzip) but the readme file has Me a bit perplexed. 

From:  5.1 General Installation Notes

1.  If you are installing the operating system on a system
    configured for RAID or AHCI mode, you must pre-install
    the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager driver using the
    F6 installation method described in section 5.3.

2.  The 'Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility'
    must be installed on the system after a supported
    Microsoft* Windows* operating system has been installed.

3.  To install the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager,
    double-click on the self-extracting and self-installing
    setup file and answer all prompts presented.

4.  By default, all installed files (readme.txt, help, etc.)
    are copied to the following path:
   
    \Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager

Before I proceed to section 5.3 = Pre-Installation Using the F6 Method. I was hoping you could provide some clarification.

I installed Chipset R153997.  Is that the Utility from #2. 

#3 - I cannot find the self-extracing & self-installing setup file in R154201 - & there is nothing in pgm files\intel except wifi.  Perhaps becuase the extraction hasn't run.

 

Guess this system is capable of AHCI/RAID or the drivers wouldn't be listed.  Since the Western Digital HD has been detected am I still to proceed with the AHCI/RAID install?.  Will that make the HD faster?   What I'm asking is the system OK the way it is or am I supposed to see the  'Intel(R) 82801HBM AHCI I/O Controller' ? 

Sorry I am not very good @ this - Yet!

thanks

 

edit:  Except for the SATA (RAID/AHCI)  -  driver install pretty seemless.   Quite impressed how well this 5 year old PC is running Win 7.

Thankyou.

R154198 is the Intel Matrix Storage Manager. I have found a later version that is compatible with the Latitude D530 even though it isn't on the Drivers and Downloads page (Dell have really messed their Drivers and Downloads service up).

Anyway scrap R154198 (A01 7.0.0.1020) and instead try R232158 (A06 8.9.0.1023) which is several versions more and Windows 7 compatible.

R154201 is the preinstallation SATA driver (I should of listed it as 0.) likely it is included on the Windows 7 DVD/USB and so you shouldn't bother with it.

Yes R153997 is the same driver as the chipset I mentioned. Although in looking around you might want to try R302424, its an updated version for newer Latitudes and is Windows 7 compatible. You should be able to install it at the end (no need to start over) as it will just update the chipset driver you have installed if it works.

P.S. let me know if these drivers work for you and I will add them to my wiki of unofficial driver sets.

Once all the drivers are installed you should refresh the Windows Experience Index (I haven't mentioned this in the wiki, I will need to update the wiki). Press [Windows] and [Pause|Break] and then click Windows Experience Index, then eitherrun it or re-run the assessment. Memory upgrades are available for your system here, upgrading your system to 4 GB will make it run a bit better, 8 GB upgrades are also available but the 8 GB is a bit pricy and probably not worth it.

Windows 7 is a very robust Operating System. It would probably work okay out of the box without installing any of the system drivers. The drivers do offer some enhancement in particular for the video and for use of the Fn buttons for example. Windows 7 is very similar to Windows Vista and as Windows Vista is supported on this system then Windows 7 will work better. Windows 7 is slightly less demanding than Windows Vista and far more efficient. As you have seen, I have listed some Windows 7 drivers which are generally taken from other systems but will work with your own i.e. Dell do have working driver sets available but you have to hunt a bit for them.

As an aside Windows 8 will also run on this system (I have tested it on a Latitude D620) although as neither system have a touchscreen. I advise against installing it as Windows 8 with keyboard and mouse is far less productive than Windows 7 and its interface is very much designed for use with touchscreens.

Hi natakuc4,

R232158 told me that my "Computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing software.  Will now exit."

I updated the chipset (R302424) & re-ran, same msg. 

The WEI is not too bad.  Processor = 5.1,  RAM = 5.1,  Graphics Windows Aero = 3.9,  Graphics 3D performance = 4.9,  Primary Hard Disk = 5.9.

Somewhere here on the Dell forums I read that you can't get the WEI above 5.9 for the Hard Disk with a spinning HD.  You had to have a SSD or maybe a Western Digital Velociraptor?  Which spins @ 10,000 RPM.  Does that sound right? 

I was already installing drivers when you responded to my thread yesterday & didn't do them the way you ordered above.  Perhaps this is an issue?  I could start over & do it in the right order.  In fact the Internal Network Card activity Settings keep changing from on battery to off battery & causing the screen to dim & then brighten.  Actually that probably has more to do with the battery.  Maybe the PC keeps thinking it is on battery when it's not.   Yesterday the battery was acting a little funky but I thought that might be because it was a new battery & I had not installed any drivers yet.  Probably not huh?  I will try re-seating the battery.

I set the Internal Network Card activity Settings to always on & since then the screen has not dimmed.

Everything else looks great. 

Order a 2x2GB RAM upgrade.  Thanks again.

I saw the Internal Network Card Status changing from on to off & back while I was adjusting the settings.  Must be the Card.

I will use the wizard to uninstall/re-install the card & see if that helps.

The 2 drivers I mentioned were taken from newer models, there was a good chance they wouldn't work. You can try downloading the Intel Matrix Storage Manager directly from Intel here and you have a chipset driver installed so it should be fine.

The internal network card i.e. the ethernet adaptor usually powers off on laptops while on battery. This is because when people are on battery they generally don't have an ethernet cable plugged in and instead use wireless therefore there is no point in enabling it. Its just a Dell power savings. The Windows Experience Index seems right. The conventional hard drives give that a rating of 5.9.

Here is my XPS 8300 desktop, I installed a Solid State Drive (also bought by crucial) and installed Windows 7 on it last month.

The performance increase of the system was significant.

Installing the OS on the solid state hard drive has advantages and disadvantages. The main disadvantage is price and the second one is capacity. In thime both these disadvantages will diminish. In my desktop I installed a 60 GB Solid State Drive and Windows 7 and Office 2010 on it. This is far too small for me, so I have 2 1 TB hard drives also installed to meet my storage requirements, that way I get performance and storage. In your case i.e. a laptop you can only get one hard drive will need to figure out what you want i.e. performance or storage. Hopefully however both will come together soon at a decent price.

Originally purchased a Crucial SSD for this laptop & then decided it was overkill & we would be better served by a 320GB conventional drive, less cost too. Then paid $8 to send the SSD back.  Knew I was going to regret that.   Still getting "Computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing software.  Will now exit." from download @ Intel.  I assume that would be the case with a SSD as well?  Can you tell me what about this PC is not up to snuff? 

I am missing something?  Can the Intel Matrix Storage Manager be installed if I don't see AHCI in the  'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' listing?  Or if the Manager installs will I then see AHCI in the listing?

On another note:

We have an XPS 435MT & wanted to get the WEI above 5.9 & that is where I read that conventional drives won't allow that.  Didn't think the small capacity drive had purchased for the laptop would be sufficient for the desktop but sounds like you made it work.  Should have kept that Crucial SSD.  I read a number of threads both here & @ Tom's hardware (Amazon too) that seemed to indicate installing the SSD in the desktop was not all that easy.  

Problems again with AHCI vs IDE.  Getting the PC to recognize the new SSD as the primary, perhaps having to unplug the 1TB conventional drive to allow the PC to recognize the new SSD as primary/system.   The transfer kit wouldn't work - almost certainly had to remove the anti-virus/spyware software before attempting transfer.  In fact several posters said don't even attempt the transfer just do a clean install.  Then there was something about enabling Trim.

We have way too much stuff (Music, Movies, Pics, files, etc) on this desktop for me to go about mucking it up.  Thus - bought the extra laptop on eBay to break/play with.  Turns out probably a good idea seeing how much help I have to rely on, for instance, you in this case.

Maybe next winter I'll give it a shot.  When we're stuck inside.  Perhaps I'll know a bit more about this stuff by then.

Thanks again, right now the D630 seems to be running great.  Did uninstall / re-install 57xx Integrated Controller & plugged in a Ethernet cable to make sure it worked.  It does & no more dimming, yet anyway.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Intel Matrix Storage Manager particularly if your system is running so well without it.

However there is one other thing you can try. Go to C:\Dell\Drivers\R154198. In this folder, right click the setup file and select properties.

Select the compatibility tab and select to run in compatibility mode for Windows Vista then install it.

The solid state drive I have came with dataplex software, it was awful. I done a clean install. Windows usually gives you the option of picking the hard drive to install so it was pretty easy. The XPS 8300 had 2 SATA 3 and 2 SATA 2 ports so I had to use the SATA 3 ones.

I then had to mess around with the registry/folder settings to move, documents, pictures, music folder(s) etc. onto the normal harddrive. Its easy enough but takes a bit more thought. Also for installing programs you should specify where you want to install them. It is worthwhile doing on the desktop I would say as you can have the other drives present also.

I would advise buying a large external harddrive and keeping a back up of everything on your desktop just in case.

You will probably have learned a fair bit through purchasing this system, installing some parts and installing the operating system. Once you have done it once, it is fairly easy to do similar things again. Some people managed to do it in your system without too much problems here.

Tried Compatibility Mode for  Windows Vista, Vista SP1 & Vista SP2.  Same result "Computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing software.  Will now exit."

Ran also both R232158 & IATA89ENU (from Intel) in compatibility mode with same result.

All is good as is.

thanks.

Updated 9/6/12:

Video card nVidia Quadro NVS 135 crashed (there is a known problem with these nVidia GPU's -  some users even cooking the system board like a pizza in the oven to reform the solder.  Apparently the solder holding the GPU to the system board dries & cracks causing voltage spikes). So I purchased on eBay & installed system board with Intel video card, works great now, slightly lower WEI tho :-(.

See this thread:

nVidia Quadro NVS 135M Crash

thanks