Iphone

As you may recall, I had issues with the installation of Windows Vista on my Dell Inspiron XPS M1710, because, for one thing, there was a missing wi-fi driver. A bit of confusion later and after buying an Intel ABG mini-PCI card, it was revealed to me by a Dell Liason that a) there was a Dell 1500 draft-N driver built into Vista, b) it didn’t work too well, c) there was a new driver due out in late March, d) he would refund the cost of the ABG card to me.
All of which really satisfied me, because the problem before had been lack of communication, or perhaps better said, poor communication through the normal technical support channels.
So, the driver showed up in late March, as he said. I opted to try the clean install hack I had written about earlier (as I had always planned to do), with an upgrade copy of Vista Ultimate. Because it really has to do the equivalent of 2 installs, it takes longer, but you get a clean install, and you can just use an upgrade copy.
We Say: So, what are the results? Yep, the hack certainly does work. It took about 1 hour and 15 minutes to do 2 installs … but let’s remember that the Dell Inspiron XPS M1710 is very high end. Now, that was just the initial install. After that … the drivers, etc. that were missing. And all the apps, of course. I’m still not done. But it does connect to my network wirelessly!
Once again I have to thank the Dell Liason, who asked to remain anonymous, who helped me. This chapter of the upgrade is concluded, and Dell is now off the hook for my frustrations . Vista runs, and as far as liking it or not … that will come in a more detailed post later. Do I think it’s worth it? For an upgrade, for a normal user (meaning someone not in the tech field like myself) … I would say … no. Honestly, no. But as I said, more on that later.