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E1505 drivers

post #1 of 22
6/12/06 at 11:41pm
Thread Starter 
does anyone have the most up to date drivers for an e1505 with these specs?

XP MCE
1.83ghz core duo
1gb RAM
100 gb 5400rpm HD
256 mb ati mobility radeon x1400
integrated 10/100 network card
8x DVD +/- RW drive
intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11 a/g mini card
bluetooth

if you can provide me with the names or links of all the necessary drivers that ill need following a reformat that'd be great.
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post #2 of 22
6/13/06 at 12:31am
Just go to Dell's Drivers & Downloads page and you can find the drivers you'll need.

http://support.dell.com/support/down...&os=WW1&osl=EN

Here are the drivers I loaded on my system:

R114081.EXE Dell Notebook System Software
R114079.EXE Intel Mobile Chipset
R120464.EXE ATI Radeon Mobility X1400
R105921.EXE Ricoh R5C832
R113310.EXE Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller (Drvr)
R114200.EXE Conexant D110,HDA,MDC,v.92,modem
R115707.EXE Intel Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
R117967.EXE Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth Internal Module
R120179.EXE Synaptics Touchpad
R122667.EXE Dell QuickSet
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post #3 of 22
6/13/06 at 10:26am
Thread Starter 
thanks alot this makes it a lot faster for me to get the necessary formatting done asap.

o and another thing, did you experience the same difficulty many others have had with the media direct not working after re-format?
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post #4 of 22
6/13/06 at 12:17pm
That's right, MediaDirect doesn't work after reinstalling windows. But doing the repair is fairly simple (assuming you don't wipe out the Dell utility partition). Download the Dell MediaDirect Repair Utility (R121517.EXE) burn its ISO to a CD, then boot from it and run the \MD2\REPAIR.BAT (IIRC).

Talking about burning a CD reminds me. After installing windows and the Dell drivers, you won't be able to burn DVD or watch DVD movies. You have to bug Dell to send you the PowerDVD and Sonic software, unless you have your own software for that.

By the way, that was my driver list from a month ago. Dell may have updated some and changed the file numbers for all I know. There are one or two drivers I skipped, like the Broadcom diagnostics.
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post #5 of 22
6/13/06 at 2:20pm
What is MediaDirect? If I do a full format of the hdd, I can't use mediadirect anymore?
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post #6 of 22
6/13/06 at 2:34pm
The power key on your laptop boots it normally, the MediaDirect key boots from a small 1.5 GB hidden area of the drive into a stripped down windows that allows you to play DVDs, music etc. The idea is that you can play some multimedia content without booting full blown windows, and maybe last a bit longer on battery.

When you reinstall windows Microsoft will overwrite the MBR at the beginning of the drive which contained the Dell extensions for doing the MediaDirect boot. That can be easily fixed be downloading Dells MediaDirect repair utility, as long as you haven't messed with your partitioning too much. If you want to retain the MediaDirect functionality it's best to leave alone the Dell utility partition. It's the first partition on the drive and only takes up about 40 MB (six cylinders on my drive). You can delete the Dell PC Restore partition (3rd) if you want to regain about 5 GB, that doesn't matter to MediaDirect. I suspect it helps to leave the Windows partition starting at cylinder 6, but I haven't tested that.
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post #7 of 22
6/13/06 at 2:44pm
wait, the dell utility partition with mediadirect takes up 40gb? but my hdd is only 80gb. wtf?
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post #8 of 22
6/13/06 at 2:51pm
40 megabytes, not gigabytes. That's about 0.05% of your drive. It's tiny, so I left it.
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post #9 of 22
6/13/06 at 3:03pm
ok, so the actual mediadirect fuction is a 40mb partition by itself? so if i want to format, i can get rid of everything else right? and if i do, and i reinstall windows, i can use the mediadirect fix from dell support to reactivate it right?
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post #10 of 22
6/13/06 at 3:15pm
MediaDirect is hidden in a 1.5 GB HPA area of the drive, it's not actually a partition. I'm not sure you can get rid of it and reclaim the space even if you try. It doesn't show up to any of the partitioning software I've tried.

Here's how my drive was partitioned when I got it:

Partition 1 40 MB Dell Utility
Partition 2 73.5 GB Windows (active)
Partition 3 5 GB Dell PC Restore
HPA 1.5 GB MediaDirect (hidden beyond what BIOS reports as the highest cylinder)
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post #11 of 22
6/13/06 at 3:49pm
wat is the 40mb dell utility?
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post #12 of 22
6/13/06 at 5:24pm
The Dell Utility partition contains some diagnostic programs for your machine. If you hit the F12 key during boot you will have the option of booting into this diagnostic partition. If you're having serious problems with your machine Dell support may ask you to run these tests to check your equipment.

When I had a problem with my hard drive at work I just told Dell how I had already run the Dell diagnostics from the utility partition and what error codes the drive was producing. They didn't try to walk me through a bunch of basic trouble shooting, they just told me they'd send me a new drive.

So I figure the tiny Utility partition is worth keeping in case I ever have hardware problems that it might be able to catch.
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post #13 of 22
6/13/06 at 9:36pm
ok. so if i only format the main drive space, and install windows, then all the drivers and mediadirect fix, all the functions of the laptop will be working?
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post #14 of 22
6/13/06 at 11:47pm
do i need powerdvd for mediadirect to function correctly? dell only send me the os, app, drivers/util CDs. if not needed then i wont waste time requesting them. thanks.
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post #15 of 22
6/14/06 at 3:09am
powerdvd sucks. anything else is better. like vlc player
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post #16 of 22
6/14/06 at 5:18am
yeah i agree powerdvd does suck. i only use MPC anyway. but i remember reading somewhere that some cyberlink player is required for mediadirect to work? just assumed they meant powerdvd.. anyone knows if its even necessary? dont feel like emailing india if i dont have to
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post #17 of 22
6/14/06 at 3:54pm
can anyone confirm that powerdvd is required for mediadirect to work?
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post #18 of 22
6/14/06 at 9:05pm
MediaDirect was working for me after I reinstalled Windows and did the repair, but without loading PowerDVD. I wasn't able play DVDs in Windows, but I could when booted in MediaDirect. It is a separate system with its own drivers and codecs.
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post #19 of 22
6/15/06 at 2:27am
so wait, if i don't install powerdvd, windows can't play dvds using another player?
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post #20 of 22
6/15/06 at 2:27am
Got my e1505 yesterday. Any idea why the bluetooth 350 driver and the modem driver won't install after a format (yes it has a BT card)? Says the devices can't be found.

Edit, nevermind with the bluetooth, I had the radio disabled. Derr.

But add to the list the audio drivers, after the reboot it wants, it told the drivers couldn't be installed on this system. wtf.

Edit again: I got them all installed. Didn't work like it was supposed to though.
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