Almost no response from windows 7..angry wife

The fact that there are no drivers for Win7 64 bit on Dell's webpage makes it likely that Win7 64 bit is not supported on that model Dell, sometimes for good reasons. Can you consider reinstalling with 32 bit Win7 for your version? It might solve a lot of your problems which might reappear after 64 bit reinstall and ultimately not be resolvable.

That said, you can test reinstall 64 bit to find out for sure.

Be certain that you have updated the BIOS to latest version by checking what is the latest version on Dell Support Downloads webpage for your tag. Then audit the BIOS version using Belarc Advisor, or look at System Information or in the BIOS.

If you have the latest BIOS update, then reset the CMOS. If you want to continue with RAID then keep the SATA controller setting to RAID.

If you have a working Recovery partition to return to factory Vista installation, I would consider keeping it unless you have Vista Recovery disks. After backing up my data I would then try running Recovery to see if it is still functional. IF so and you don't have disks then I would consider not wiping it so you have a path back to Vista factory installation. In that case I would just format the OS partition using installer. If not, there is nothing to lose with wiping it along with the whole HD using tutorial I linked before.

Since you are using an Upgrade version then if you wipe the HD you will need to wait to insert your Product Key until after install, doing one of the workarounds linked in my last post to activate an Upgrade clean install. If you only format the OS partition, you can give the Product Key upfront.

I have never set up or used RAID on my machine so someone else will have to answer that quesion if the CMOS is reset.

I would try the Vista drivers if no 7 ones are available....should have a 50/50 chance of working if not then try compatibility mode on them (not sure if this is recommended for drivers). To use compatibility mode right click the setup file>properties>compatibility...from there use the drop down menu to select what previous OS the files you have are meant for...your case would be Vista and I would say SP2.

I would start from scratch with the install and win 7 might install the majority of the drivers you need.

Hopefully last question before I don my greens. I have 2 x 300GB drives in a RAID 0. I have divided it into 3 partitions. 100Gb OS/programs, 100GB user data and the rest I use for backing up my own HD (as we keep everythnig important on my pc). Does this matter in terms of the backup partition causing issues for the other partitions accessing data? Basicalyl the question is can I repartition like this or am I asking for trouble and should put my backup onto a completely seperate HD? If so this woudl argue for breakin the RAID 0 configuration and having 2 independent HD, one for my wifes OS,programs and users data, the other for my backup.

Hopefully someone else will chime in on the RAID questions cause I keep all my drives seperate. I have 3 drives also and the third one I keep just for my PC image backups I do every so often (makes re-setting up a sinch). The second I use for storing data and then I have the main drive. The RAID experts are here so hopefully you will hear from someone soon.

I would personally go with breaking the RAID0 to install to one HD and back up to the other. This to me is making best use of two HD's rather than using dated RAID technology where if one HD fails then you lose all data on the other.

If you choose to do this, unplug the other HD and set your SATA controller to AHCI.

I would wipe the target HD first to overwrite any conflicting code: SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

When you plug the data drive back in after install, partition and format it in Disk Mgmt.

Really last question. If the BIOS has been updated since the pc was shipped do I still want to reset the CMOS as isn't that downgrading the BIOS?

I'm going to break the RAID and install the OS on a 3rd drive that isn't part of the current RAID configuration so that will eliminate any potential hardware issues with the RAID drives.

masplin said:

Really last question. If the BIOS has been updated since the pc was shipped do I still want to reset the CMOS as isn't that downgrading the BIOS?

I'm going to break the RAID and install the OS on a 3rd drive that isn't part of the current RAID configuration so that will eliminate any potential hardware issues with the RAID drives.

Resetting the CMOS isn't downgrading the BIOS. What resetting the CMOS does is clear any settings that may have been set on the BIOS, be it from your hands or someone else, back to factory defaults.

The reason that this is recommended, is that sometimes, people make changes based on what a configuration might be. However in some cases, some of those may not match up to ideal situations. Given I came late into this discussion, I cannot, for instance, be sure if you made modifications to the machine, like new hard drives, new video card or new ram. If this was a pre-built system, and normally, Dell does not tweak settings for when they build a system UNLESS you specifically asked them for a particular configuration, and most cases, that tweak would be for a RAID setup.

The 'random pausings' mentioned in your initial post suggests to me as some might have already hit upon, possible driver issues. I know that you should be able to find some Win 7/Vista x64 drivers for some of the hardware, given Dell does use some common chipsets, like Intel, nVidia, Creative and Broadcom for their mainboards, video, sound and networking. Your best bet is to try and identify the following if you can:

Chipset Type for the System Board
Chipset Type for the Network
Chipset type for the Video
Chipset type for the Audio.
Chipset type for the Drive controller
Chipset type for the Raid controller (If you have one)

You should then check on those devices, whether or not they are using the MS driver versions. In most cases, the 'twitchiness' I have seen is a resultant of the MS implementation of the drivers for those particular chipsets and will cause pauses like that as the MS baseline drivers are just there to get you going, but not tuned for performance, so will not function quite as nicely as the more up to date ones from the chipset manufacture (Although there has been the occasional WHOOPS from the manufacture drivers from time to time too.)

Hi Keiichi25

Network Adapter Intel 2010 (newer than Dell version)
Video Adapter ATI 2010 " "
Audio ATI 2010 " "
RAID Controller Intel 2009

CDDVD Drive Microsoft 2006 but have found a newer one 2009 on Dell website under Vista 64 bit.
INtel Q6600 Processor Microsoft 2006 - does this matter?
System - which one is it as about 30 listed in device manager under system devices

Have been through all of them going online and checking for updates and told all are the latest available. No yellow triangles anywhere.

masplin said:

Hi Keiichi25

Network Adapter Intel 2010 (newer than Dell version)
Video Adapter ATI 2010 " "
Audio ATI 2010 " "
RAID Controller Intel 2009

CDDVD Drive Microsoft 2006 but have found a newer one 2009 on Dell website under Vista 64 bit.
INtel Q6600 Processor Microsoft 2006 - does this matter?
System - which one is it as about 30 listed in device manager under system devices

Have been through all of them going online and checking for updates and told all are the latest available. No yellow triangles anywhere.

Who is the driver provider for the Video Adapter, Audio and RAID Controller. The CD Rom drive, not really an issue nor the processor. The things you are going to be worried about more would be the ATA/Atapi Controller, Raid Controller, Network Adapter, and sections in the 'System Devices' as an example. Sometimes it may be the Bridge (PCI Bridge) or the LPC or SMBUS controllers.

Also, you don't need to have 'yellow' triangles on them to have a problem with some of those drivers. As I stated before, some systems that the OS relies on heavily, which is generally the disk, network, video and sound, will sometimes quirk and they are using the Microsoft drivers versus the chipset's manufacturer's drivers. The CD/DVD ROM drives, USB drives and Hard Drives rarely have a problem because those are fairly standardized components at this time. The Mainboard, Video, Network, Sound and Drive controller, on the other hand, will vary due to newer implementations and driver re-tweaking for OS and hardware performance that often times happens after the release of an OS, which Microsoft only has a very generic driver that will 'fit' for some chipsets, but will not necessarily be the most optimal to get the most out of it...

Case in point, majority of the Video cards have a VGA component. While the more optimal part video cards are now in the WXGA or XGA range which is slightly different from the VGA standard depending on the graphics card chipset. Windows has a library of some of the base line WHQL drivers, but they may also be dated in comparison to the most recent ones or they put a very generic one that will cover basic functionality so you can use the system, but does not mean they would recommend you getting the most recent drivers for it.

As for what you put up there, are those changes you made or what you checked to see if those are the drivers? It would help to know also if those are the MS ones or the Manufacture ones, as it will say who the Driver provider is.

Device manager/properties/driver/driver provider is what I listed. Most of them say Microsoft windows Hardware Compatabilty Publisher as Digital signer. I had a look on the Dell website so see what latest drivers were (mostly listed under Vista 64 bit), but I can't be sure if these newer drivers arrived in Windows Update or I fished them off the Intel/ATI website (which might not be so smart I guess).