EEEEK my new dell is here, help!

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nickal78

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 28, 2004
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I need help with a few question, please don't chew me out for getting a dell it's a decent pc and I got a good price on it. Should I reformat the pc first now or just keep the install that dell put on the drive? If I do format I assume every app installed in located on the dell cds I have so I should loose nothing right? Lastly as far as I know this is a 925x intel board with integrated audio,under sound devices it says
Analog Devices ADI 198x Integrated Audio but isn't that the old standard 5.1 audio and NOT the new intel HD 7.1 sound?

Thanks :)

Also I plan on upgrading all the drivers but I'm not sure what is the best way to handle this and could use some advice. Should I uninstall the old drivers before I install the new ones? And with the dell mobo can I just use generic intel 925x drivers for the chipset or do I need dell drivers? Or maybe it's best to stick with the old saying if it aint broke don't fix it and leave everything the way it is unless there is a problem and THEN try new drivers?
 
First thing I did when i got my inspiron 9100 was format it(use the cds that came with it!)

the drivers cd should have all the drivers you need, but mine was missing the right drivers for the wireless card
 
so far this system is really craptacular even for a great price
I bought everquest2 starter cd specifically for the new dell system but whenever I try to run char creation black screen no ctrl+alt+del nothing brings it back. Updated ati drivers same result.

I guess I'm going to format and try again. If not this can go back to dell and I'll dispute the charge on visa
 
nickal78 said:
so far this system is really craptacular even for a great price
I bought everquest2 starter cd specifically for the new dell system but whenever I try to run char creation black screen no ctrl+alt+del nothing brings it back. Updated ati drivers same result.

I guess I'm going to format and try again. If not this can go back to dell and I'll dispute the charge on visa
Click to expand...
and this is why we want to chew you out for getting a dell ;)

to answer your question, i'd double check that all the apps are on your dell CDs, remember, dell assumes stupidity so they probably won't be prepared for you reformatting...

if i had the apps backed up on Dell, then, yes, i would reformat.

if you're worried about office apps, go get OpenOffice http://www.openoffice.org/

better yet, get MandrakeLinux :D
 
This is where a flash drive would really come in handy. Just to ensure the most up-to-date drivers possible, go to the Dell website and download them to the flash drive.

THEN, you should definitely reformat the system to clean off all the crap programs that Dell deems so essential to a customer's computing needs. Plus that way, you'll be able to fully customize every setting that you want.

Dark Assassin
 
Bad part is you got a restore CD and it will put all that shit back on there.
Buy an OEM version of XP, wipe it, and reinstall the drivers yourself.
$100 for real performance is not a bad deal at all.
 
Tell us how much you paid and what you got, and we'll tell if you its a good deal or not.
 
Here is the deal I got
P4 3.2
Intel 925x intel chipset
1gig ddr2 533
160 sata hd
ati x800 se 128 pci-x16
onboard sound
modem
free 19 inch lcd
free 2nd day shipping
$500 off instant coupon
$1100 final price

deal was good not great but still think i ay keep it and just deal with it
 
Ouch, you could have built it yourself for about that price. :(
 
S1nF1xx said:
Bad part is you got a restore CD and it will put all that shit back on there.
Buy an OEM version of XP, wipe it, and reinstall the drivers yourself.
$100 for real performance is not a bad deal at all.
Click to expand...
....unfortunately, this guy speaks the truth. You can re-format and re-install all day long, but if you use the supplied disks, I'll bet the spamware comes right along with the OS.

With a 19" LCD you didn't get a bad deal, IMHO.....:cool:

Good Luck - B.B.S.
 
Here is the deal I got
P4 3.2
Intel 925x intel chipset
1gig ddr2 533
160 sata hd
onboard sound
modem
free 19 inch lcd
free 2nd day shipping
$500 off instant coupon
$1100 final price
Click to expand...

Am I missing something? Where is the graphic card? Or was that added seperatly?

Where you able to run other games other then EQ2's starter disk on your system?
 
BlindedByScience said:
....unfortunately, this guy speaks the truth. You can re-format and re-install all day long, but if you use the supplied disks, I'll bet the spamware comes right along with the OS.

With a 19" LCD you didn't get a bad deal, IMHO.....:cool:

Good Luck - B.B.S.
Click to expand...

uh, wrong

there are 3 cds that come with the computer. an os, driver, and application disc

OS is just the OS, I havent found any of dell's bloatware shit on it

Drivers have some stupid tool that detects what shit you have and tells you what drivers to install off the disc

Apps, I dare not touch. THAT disc has all the rotten shit in it
 
Firebot said:
Am I missing something? Where is the graphic card? Or was that added seperatly?

Where you able to run other games other then EQ2's starter disk on your system?
Click to expand...


Sorry, thanks for catching that. It came with an ati x800se 128meg pci x16 card. I know it's crippled but supposedly from reviews online it says its between a 9800 xt and x800 pro preformancewise.
 
DermicSavage said:
uh, wrong

there are 3 cds that come with the computer. an os, driver, and application disc

OS is just the OS, I havent found any of dell's bloatware shit on it

Drivers have some stupid tool that detects what shit you have and tells you what drivers to install off the disc

Apps, I dare not touch. THAT disc has all the rotten shit in it
Click to expand...
....the Dell Workstation sitting on my desk in front of me came with the spamware very heavily screwed into the OS disk. I used an internal XP Pro disk to install a "clean" OS and now it's all good. I guess the take away is that different versions of their hardware come with different backup disk structures.

Regards - B.B.S.
 
ahhh forget my price comparison bash of dell... im sure you dont want to hear it anyway..
 
nickal78 said:
Sorry, thanks for catching that. It came with an ati x800se 128meg pci x16 card. I know it's crippled but supposedly from reviews online it says its between a 9800 xt and x800 pro preformancewise.
Click to expand...
Well that actually adds a lot to the value. I thought you had Intel integrated graphics.
With that card you didn't get a bad deal at all.

DermicSavage said:
uh, wrong

there are 3 cds that come with the computer. an os, driver, and application disc
Click to expand...

I have never seen a Dell ship with a pure OEM OS disk. It might be possible to pay extra and get one, but when you pay so little for the computer, they have to make their money somewhere. Enter the shitware evaluation crap they load up. They must make tons on that stuff...
 
Here are some of my conclusions so far from my dell experience.
Dell = Proprietary
However this is not necessarly a bad thing. It does mean I am forced to used dell drivers which is bad considering I am limited to dell updating drivers. The good news though is that the drivers do work.
 
My g'f and her parents both have Dell 4600c's (it was before I met her), and they both came with plain XP pro discs. No bloatware, no drivers other than the ones bundled into XP. I used them to wipe their drives and reinstall plain XP when they got so much spyware they wouldn't function anymore. Worked great.
 
Fez is correct about the dell windows cd. Mine is purple and labled dell but other than that Iit's really just windows xp. If they really wanted to hack or add anything they would add drivers onto the same cd but even that is seperate. Also one last comment. I don't know who can confirm the reason for this but whenever I reinstalled windows xp from the cd it goes through WITHOUT asking for a cd key!????
 
nickal78 said:
Fez is correct about the dell windows cd. Mine is purple and labled dell but other than that Iit's really just windows xp. If they really wanted to hack or add anything they would add drivers onto the same cd but even that is seperate. Also one last comment. I don't know who can confirm the reason for this but whenever I reinstalled windows xp from the cd it goes through WITHOUT asking for a cd key!????
Click to expand...

yea, it does that...

when you first boot the widnows cd, it will search for a file that will fill in all or parts of the information needed to install...

so either, the cd key is burned into the disc, or dell has some way for the bios to catch this and send the cd key(reason I think of the bios is because dell salso have some crap with the MBR that you cant get past if you ever try installing XP with a different version)
 
i'm interested to hear how this goes...make sure you follow a good partioning guide (like Ice Czar's one in the Storage Forum) when you reformat...post back with your results...
 
S1nF1xx said:
Bad part is you got a restore CD and it will put all that shit back on there.
Buy an OEM version of XP, wipe it, and reinstall the drivers yourself.
$100 for real performance is not a bad deal at all.
Click to expand...

I made the same mistake once. Once!!!! He's right about the system restore cd. It puts everything back on the Dell.
 
icehokplyr said:
I made the same mistake once. Once!!!! He's right about the system restore cd. It puts everything back on the Dell.
Click to expand...

system restore != operating system disc
 
As of right now I did a very basic reinstall format (actually this is about third such basic reinstall). I've tried both dell drivers and also retail drivers the result is that when I use dell drivers everything works fine but when I use retail drivers the system hangs. I'm beginning to believe that dell proprietary isn't just a little tweak but really comepletely redone according to dell and will only work 100% properly with dell drivers. Ofcourse I am still testing things.The biggest question right now is that while the mobo is based of the intel 925x I think it's still old ac97 sound codec 5.1 and NOT the new intel HD 7.1 sound. How can I tell if the sound is the new intel HD integrated sound or the old 5.1?
 
I've tried both dell drivers and also retail drivers the result is that when I use dell drivers everything works fine but when I use retail drivers the system hangs. I'm beginning to believe that dell proprietary isn't just a little tweak but really comepletely redone according to dell and will only work 100% properly with dell drivers.
Click to expand...
Dont equate this to being a good thing. I doubt dell wrote their own 100% original drivers (considering the hardware is 99% the same) nor managed to write better software than the hardware manufacturers themselves can. This is simply how dell proprietizes things to force you into being dependant upon them for everything. And i wouldnt be surprised if there are design flawns meant to intentionally disrupt retail drivers, which would probably run more effeciently than what dell churns out.
 
Just so you know, DermicSavage, the cd key for the XP that comes with dell pcs is on a little sticker that is affixed to the outside of every dell. No weird built in bios key or anything. When it prompts you for the XP key, you can just read it off the sticker. :)
 
Fezdog192 said:
Just so you know, DermicSavage, the cd key for the XP that comes with dell pcs is on a little sticker that is affixed to the outside of every dell. No weird built in bios key or anything. When it prompts you for the XP key, you can just read it off the sticker. :)
Click to expand...

I realize that, since I have an Inspiron 9100, but when installing XP, it will not ask for the key

Only time it ever asks for your key is when you frist start it up fresh from dell
 
BlindedByScience said:
....unfortunately, this guy speaks the truth. You can re-format and re-install all day long, but if you use the supplied disks, I'll bet the spamware comes right along with the OS.
Click to expand...

whoa... never heard of this before... i got a dimension 2400 at my house... how can i get the dell spamwich off of there? will ad-aware do it?
 
Actually, when I wiped the drive and reinstalled XP on their machine it asked me for the key to activate it. Because I reformatted the drive, all activation info was lost, and so I had to go through MS to re-activate, and to do that, I had to enter the key from the sticker.
 
Fezdog192 said:
Actually, when I wiped the drive and reinstalled XP on their machine it asked me for the key to activate it. Because I reformatted the drive, all activation info was lost, and so I had to go through MS to re-activate, and to do that, I had to enter the key from the sticker.
Click to expand...

How old is that dell system tho?

It may be somethign more recent :shrug:
 
the way i see it is that his b iggest problem as it relates to gaiming is the x800 SE SE being the operative denotation. That card is not much better than integrated video unless he playing solitaire
 
for my xps gen 3. it comes with an operating disc. just a normal disc, no dell software. even when i got it from dell, it barley had any crap on it. the only dell thing it seemed to have was a media player.
 
jacuzz1 said:
the way i see it is that his b iggest problem as it relates to gaiming is the x800 SE SE being the operative denotation. That card is not much better than integrated video unless he playing solitaire
Click to expand...
Umm, no. That card is equal to a 9800 pro 256meg. You can still play all the latest games on such a card, just not at max details/resolution unless framerate is of no concern to you.
 
Forgive my sarcasm, I just dont think 128 meg is enough nor is a 9800 pro enough to enjoy the current games the way they "were meant to be played" by the Developers.


I stand corrected and admit to being a bit of a video card snob.
 
jacuzz1 said:
Forgive my sarcasm, I just dont think 128 meg is enough nor is a 9800 pro enough to enjoy the current games the way they "were meant to be played" by the Developers.


I stand corrected and admit to being a bit of a video card snob.
Click to expand...

And here I was all excited about picking up a 9800 pro next week. :(
 
dainthomas said:
And here I was all excited about picking up a 9800 pro next week. :(
Click to expand...
My 9800 Pro 256MB card runs every game yet released just fine. Including Doom3.
 
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