Setting up my Dell Inspiron 1420

Update Nov 28th: So finally done the whole works of reformating my laptop and installing all the drivers. I then proceeded to do all the recommended updates for my windows OS. After that was done, my sister rebooted and then I got this constant BLUESCREEN OF DEATH. Like I couldn't get back into windows. One of the stupid windows updates was causing my laptop to fail to boot. UGH!!!!! I hate computers!!! Anyways to solve this, I turned off automatic download and install of window updates, and chose to select which updates to install. So far I've chosen all the important ones aside from the odd windows mail security updates which I didn't bother because I don't use windows mail. I am not sure exactly what is causing this bluescreen of death. But I am installing the updates in separate groups so if one group fails, then the OS can be restored to the last system restore point which can be done by popping in the OS cd and choosing "repair system"

This latest experience with PCs has actually got me contemplating whether I should be getting a "crapintosh." I hate them...but I can't stand this downtime. It's killing me. I have so much work to do.

Getting my replacement hard drive for my Dell has been a complete pain the butt, but I finally got it done. Now the next ignoring part is to reinstall all the drivers/programs. For the first time, I decided to call Dell to get the "correct" way to install everything. So here is a documentation of the steps that I took:

Assuming that the hard drive has been wiped clean of data and we are starting a completely new install of the OS

• Pop in the Dell Media Direct CD and let the computer boot from it. When prompt on the selection, choose the 1st option which is to partition everything to the C: drive and then let it do this. This will create a partition D: which has about 3 GB for the Dell Media Direct which allows you to play movies and DVDs. (Don't really have to do this, but apparently if I don't I won't be able to play DVDs unless I find a decoder.


• After the Dell Media Direct has been installed, pop in the OS and let the system boot from that CD. Follow the instructions until you reach the partition screen. You should see two partitions. One with the Media Direct, and another containing everything else. You delete the one partition that is NOT media direct. You can then choose to re-setup a partition and extend from it. And then choose to have the OS installed at one of the new partitions.
  
  

  The technician told me to delete and then re-setup a partition. I have no idea why we have to do this, but I just followed his advice.



• After the OS is installed, then let the system boot up and pop in the drivers CD.
  Now install these drivers in this order:
  
  

  Always choose to restart later unless specified.

  
  
  
  
  1. Notebook system (under Utilities)
  
  
  2. Intel Chipset Driver
  
  
  3. Rioch
  
  
  4. Video (should be at the bottom)
  
  
  5. Restart the computer now
  
  
  6. Audio
  
  
  7. Webcam
  
  
  8. Touchpad
  
  
  9. Broadcom (Network)
  
  
  10. Dell wireless - except in US, Japan (Network)
  
  
  11. Quickset
  
  
  12. Dell wireless bluetooh
  
  
  
  


• After all these drivers have been installed, restart the system again.


• After the system has been rebooted, put into the media direct CD and then follow the instructions to let it install. It will take awhile depending on the size of te hard drive. But once you are done installing that, your system is ready to go!

"A 5400 RPM hard drive is no different from a 7200 RPM hard drive"

Update Nov 27th: So I called in to ask for exact instructions on how to properly install all the drivers on my computer. Usually I do this myself, but I want to see if there was some faster automatic way to install the drivers. Upon installing the OS, I told them I wanted to setup to partitions, and the technician told me that DELL doesn't support this. WOW...what a bunch of crap!

Update Nov 27th: Today I finally got my 7200 RPM hard drive from Dell and I guess they really did run out of parts. Because the hard drive they sent me has a capacity of 300GB which is 160GB more than my old hard drive. About time something went my way!!!

This was what the Dell hardware department manager told me tonight. All I can say is...wow. This past week I've been dealing with Dell's utter bullcrap. My laptop hard drive mysterious died on me out of no where last week. No warning whatsoever. Just died on me. I was pretty devastated, but I figured with Dell's spectacular customer service and support I would resolve this problem with breeze.

So I called them Tuesday night and proceeded to wait a good 15-20 minutes. And finally I got to speak to a representative and proceeded to give them my laptop's service tag. Here was the response I got:

Sorry sir. But your service tag is not showing up on our systems. It appears that you haven't purchased a laptop from us.

I was like WTF? What do you mean I haven't bought a laptop from you? I am looking at a receipt that says I spent nearly two grand for this Dell laptop and you are telling me I didn't buy it from you? The representative told me I had to talk to the customer service department to fix this. Unfortunately, they were open only from 8 am to 8 pm. So I was basically out of luck tonight.

Frustrated I had to basically wait until tomorrow morning to get any help. So the following morning, I called in and explain my situation. Turns out because my original laptop had a problem and I had to get an exchange, the exchanged laptop's service tag never got registered with my account and thus it wasn't showing up. They explain to me that this would be fix within 24 hours. 48 hours at most. And they said they would call me back as soon as this has been fixed. 48 hours no call back. So I called back to get an update. And this time I wait over an hour to get any reasonable help. I got transferred from one department to another department and finally ended up in the customer service department who simply told me that I had to wait longer for the service tag to be registered.

GRRR! This was starting to piss me off. It's been over 3 days and I still haven't started to fix my laptop hard drive problem yet. I am still working on getting them to recognize the fact that I bought a laptop from them. The worst part was that the weekend was coming and the customer service department is closed on the weekends. So basically, I had to get this service tag issue solved today or else I would get no support till monday. So I ended up calling on Saturday and this time the service tag got registered. Yeah!

And after some chatting and testing, they acknowledge that the hard drive has indeed died and they would send me a new hard drive. I give them my shipping address and then proceed to wait for the new hard drive. When my new hard drive arrives I am pretty excited and pop it in and start doing all the drive installation and application installing.

However, there was one big problem. I noticed the system's installation was slower than pre-hard drive failure. I only noticed this because I use my laptop everyday with lots of computer intensive stuff. So I look into the model number of my hard drive and it turns out that the hard drive actually has a lower RPM. It is only 5400 RPM while the original one I had ordered was 7200 RPM!!! Ridiculous!!!

So I called Dell again and complained to them the situation and they tried to basically talk me out of it by saying that there was no difference between a 5400 and 7200 RPM hard drive. It all depends on the processor and memory of the laptop to make a difference. Well HELLO!?!?! My processor and memory is making a difference!! And even if it made no difference, I feel ripped off Dell. Because basically I paid more for this 7200 RPM and they are telling me it is the same now??!?! After some more arguing and scolding of Dell, they finally decided to send me a new hard drive with the 7200 RPM. Something they should have done in the beginning. And I told them that I found it absurd that they could even suggest to customers that there was no difference and hence that is why they sent me a lower quality hard drive.

After mentioning and scolding them on this issue, the technician looked into the issue and told me that the reason I got a 5400 RPM hard drive was because they ran out of 7200 RPM hard drives. What a bunch of crap!! You run of out of the equipment so you start sending lower quality equipment to make up for it? That's pathetic. Stupid Dell. Has really made me think twice about buying a computer from them again.