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[Martian]

It is a Dell Studio 15, model number 1535...

Post the asset tag and I'll see exactly what hardware you have, and what drivers are available.

[TheBoy]

Right, that COA number will be disabled - large OEMs are given stickers that will not activate, as they come preactivated.

Discussing how to preactivate is likely to involve discussions beyond what the rules of OOF allow, so we can stop that one in its tracks. No exceptions

I probably have Dell Vista disks here, supplied from Dell, I can see what the copyright notices are, but if its post P4, I'd highly recommend buying Windows 7 instead.  If its P4 or earlier, then you will struggle to get a licence cheaply, and its too old to be usful anyway

If it has one of those god-awful ATI Radeon Mobility vga chips, you may have to use a Vista driver, sadly.

[Martian]

Discussing how to preactivate is likely to involve discussions beyond what the rules of OOF allow, so we can stop that one in its tracks. No exceptions

I don't think anyone has suggested how to bypass WGA, my only offer has been to check what hardware the OP has and the availability of W7 drivers.

[TheBoy]

Discussing how to preactivate is likely to involve discussions beyond what the rules of OOF allow, so we can stop that one in its tracks. No exceptions

I don't think anyone has suggested how to bypass WGA, my only offer has been to check what hardware the OP has and the availability of W7 drivers.

Absolutely , just ensuring nobody does go beyond our rules

Obviously, no probs you advising on if specific hardware will acceptably run certain OSes - in fact, its welcomed

[Pippin]

It is a Dell Studio 15, model number 1535...

Post the asset tag and I'll see exactly what hardware you have, and what drivers are available.

The asset tag is: 1ZQHS3J

[Pippin]

Right, that COA number will be disabled - large OEMs are given stickers that will not activate, as they come preactivated.

Discussing how to preactivate is likely to involve discussions beyond what the rules of OOF allow, so we can stop that one in its tracks. No exceptions

I probably have Dell Vista disks here, supplied from Dell, I can see what the copyright notices are, but if its post P4, I'd highly recommend buying Windows 7 instead.  If its P4 or earlier, then you will struggle to get a licence cheaply, and its too old to be usful anyway

If it has one of those god-awful ATI Radeon Mobility vga chips, you may have to use a Vista driver, sadly.

Yes TB it is a 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3450...

Is that why it failed the Windows 7 compatibility test do you think?

[Martian]

It is a Dell Studio 15, model number 1535...

Post the asset tag and I'll see exactly what hardware you have, and what drivers are available.

The asset tag is: 1ZQHS3J

No official driver support for that at all, but not really a problem as all the drivers you need can be obtained from elsewhere other than Dell.

[TheBoy]

Right, that COA number will be disabled - large OEMs are given stickers that will not activate, as they come preactivated.

Discussing how to preactivate is likely to involve discussions beyond what the rules of OOF allow, so we can stop that one in its tracks. No exceptions

I probably have Dell Vista disks here, supplied from Dell, I can see what the copyright notices are, but if its post P4, I'd highly recommend buying Windows 7 instead.  If its P4 or earlier, then you will struggle to get a licence cheaply, and its too old to be usful anyway

If it has one of those god-awful ATI Radeon Mobility vga chips, you may have to use a Vista driver, sadly.

Yes TB it is a 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3450...

Is that why it failed the Windows 7 compatibility test do you think?

ATI won't let you have a driver. and Dell probably won't supply a Win7 one. Vista ones should work though.

[Martian]

ATI won't let you have a driver. and Dell probably won't supply a Win7 one. Vista ones should work though.

There are W7 drivers available from ATI for the mobility series although I found them to be quite buggy on the other half's laptop, however the WHQL driver from MS works well enough.
Dell don't provide any W7 drivers for the OP's machine, but that isn't a problem as everything else is Intel based and the drivers can be obtained from them.

[Pippin]

ATI won't let you have a driver. and Dell probably won't supply a Win7 one. Vista ones should work though.

There are W7 drivers available from ATI for the mobility series although I found them to be quite buggy on the other half's laptop, however the WHQL driver from MS works well enough.
Dell don't provide any W7 drivers for the OP's machine, but that isn't a problem as everything else is Intel based and the drivers can be obtained from them.

This laptop is turning out to be a nightmare...I sometimes wish i'd never gone down the Dell route, then other times i'm quite glad I did. Apart from the terrible battery life the machine does everything i want it to do photo editing wise...

[TheBoy]

ATI won't let you have a driver. and Dell probably won't supply a Win7 one. Vista ones should work though.

There are W7 drivers available from ATI for the mobility series although I found them to be quite buggy on the other half's laptop, however the WHQL driver from MS works well enough.
Dell don't provide any W7 drivers for the OP's machine, but that isn't a problem as everything else is Intel based and the drivers can be obtained from them.

Most of those Mobilitys have no MS driver, std vga in 800x600 (or is it 1024x768 - either way, pig ugly )

Its one of the reasons I tend to stick to Intel integrated vga on lappys - that and reliability (and I dont need discrete vga on lappy)

[Martian]

This laptop is turning out to be a nightmare...

What's the exact problem (apart from Vista)?

Apart from the terrible battery life the machine does everything i want it to do photo editing wise...

All laptops of that age eat batteries, not a lot you can do about that unfortunately.

Look on the positive side, at least if someone mugs you for it they won't get very far with it weighing what it does 

[Martian]

Most of those Mobilitys have no MS driver, std vga in 800x600 (or is it 1024x768 - either way, pig ugly )

Its one of the reasons I tend to stick to Intel integrated vga on lappys - that and reliability (and I dont need discrete vga on lappy)

1024x768 is the standard resolution on first install if W7 doesn't have a default driver for it.
Like you I prefer Intel hardware, mainly becuse it simply works first time, every time.

[Pippin]

This laptop is turning out to be a nightmare...

What's the exact problem (apart from Vista)?

Well, it for some reason wont play dvd's keeps coming up with "need to install latest driver" for the graphics card, even though its the latest driver...

Half of the time it wont recognise my external hard drives that I backup my photo's to...then in the next instant when it has recognised them it wont allow me to eject them unless I try several times.

And finally on occasions it runs so slow you would think that it is going backwards, then in the next breath its back to running fine...annoying when i'm trying to do my photo's...

Phill

[Pippin]

Update...

After a long conversation with Dell (and loosing my temper with some idiot in the call centre) they have sent me FOC the recovery discs so that I can get the machine back up and running...

Once I have done this and made sure it is ok, I think I will probably invest in Win7 and a new battery as I can't really afford to replace the whole machine currently...(having spent so much on the Mig in the last month)...

Phill