Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

[uzzy]

Yes I would use the AHCI! You can disable it which would drop your hd speed about 10-15%

okey! I'll do it I will reinstall my DELL... thank you very much

[diggy]

I just redid this guide, and the tweaks guide on an Inspiron 1521. The audio was working fine, but for some reason now, the Windows Audio service will not start. When I go to services.msc and try to start the Windows Audio, I get an error 1608: dependency service or group failed to start. I downloaded the Sigmatel drivers from Dells site, but still no luck. Has anyone ran into this before, or have any idea's of what I might try?

**Nevermind, figured it out: for some reason the Windows Audio Endpoint Builder was disabled. After enabling that, I was able to start Windows Audio, and now sound is working fine. Weird...**

[MidnightSoul]

Right, well I'v done the process up to inserting the drivers and utilities disk, where I come into a little problem - there isn't one - just a disk for the webcam manager. I just got my XPS 1530 yesterday but they didn't ship that disk with it. Have they stopped sending them or is it just a mistake? So what can be done? Can I download the disk or do I have to go through and manually find and download all the drivers.

[darthsat]

Right, well I'v done the process up to inserting the drivers and utilities disk, where I come into a little problem - there isn't one - just a disk for the webcam manager. I just got my XPS 1530 yesterday but they didn't ship that disk with it. Have they stopped sending them or is it just a mistake? So what can be done? Can I download the disk or do I have to go through and manually find and download all the drivers.

You should have received a drivers and utilities disc with your machine. Regardless, it would probably be better at this point to just download the drivers. I made a post a few weeks ago including links to working drivers for the m1530. Here is the link. You can go through and download each one of them.

Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

[wdrmhbs]

This seems sort of confusing. Is it something that can be done by someone not all too familiar with computer ins and outs? I ordered my m1530 and the etd is 5/14. I'm not sure if I should do it or if it will really mess up the system.

[darthsat]

This seems sort of confusing. Is it something that can be done by someone not all too familiar with computer ins and outs? I ordered my m1530 and the etd is 5/14. I'm not sure if I should do it or if it will really mess up the system.

Hello, wdrmhbs. Honestly, if you don't feel comfortable with the procedure by looking over the steps, I wouldn't recommend it. We will gladly assist you should you have any questions during the process, but if you don't feel comfortable with doing this, it is not necessary. The safer bet for someone who is not comfortable with really tampering with their system would be to just uninstall bloatware programs that come installed with the machine. The result will not be AS clean as it would be with a full reformat, but you may not notice the difference with day-to-day activity.

[squawks]

I agree with darthsat. I'm pretty good with computers and recently, with my XPS 1710, I had to resort to doing a new Vista install after stupidly installing the SP1 patch (when I'm not supposed to, due to conflicts with Sigmatel audio driver)...

The fresh install actually lead to a noticeable increase in performance...I've always though the laptop was a little sluggish out of the box (e.g. takes time for icons to load in control panel, slower boot/shutdown times, etc.) but the downside was that there were several devices missing appropriate drivers. I am a lazy and although the laptop was working fine, it peeves me to know that there's several hardware items not working and I have no clue what they're supposed to be. Additionally, it seems that Vista by default selects certain drivers they deem to be best for things like the 5-1 card reader and USB controllers.

It was such a headache for me I just decided to re-mount the recovery image Dell has, and then, as darthsat clearly suggested, I just uninstalled programs I felt to be 'bloatware'.

Speaking of bloatware, you guys think Google Desktop is any more of a resource hog than just plain Windows Sidebar (despite both being eerily similar)?

[RickyIt]

Hi,
i have a 1530 with a hd 200GB 7200 rpm.
I resized the two partitions: C: is now 40 GB adn D:140GB
I'm not interested in Dell Media Direct but i would like to install the AHCI sw. with Vista 64.
I have a separeted Vista DVD.
What should i do, please?

Thank you.


p.s.
Which file should i download?
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filt...0&submit=Go%21

[darthsat]

Hello RickyIt. When installing the 64bit AHCI driver, both of the first two items in your link would work. When I did the installation, I had and issue with the first one as couldn't expand the drivers within the .exe to a FLASH drive, so I used the 2nd item(Floppy driver). I had to expand the driver files out of the floppy ahci driver version using an iso program. But ultimately, both of them have the necessary driver files packaged within.

[decon1]

I did a clean install and did the speed tweaks.

I only wished that I had a slightly higher resolution monitor and I didn't expect the 1530 to weigh so much. On the Dell site it says 6lbs. It feels more like 8lbs.

1. How can I tell if AHCI is running?

2. Which of the wireless network drivers should I install from the resource CD? Or should I use one from the dell site? I do not always connect to my wireless router.

Thanks!