My wife got a new desktop computer, and I'm "preparing" her old Dell
desktop as a giveaway. So, I'm installing a "fresh" version of Win 7 on
it. I just know it will crash halfway through or fail to install drivers
or, well, the usual Windows crap.

"Your computer will restart several times during installation."

Until it stops restarting altogether.

On 8/27/15 9:18 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
My wife got a new desktop computer, and I'm "preparing" her old Dell
desktop as a giveaway. So, I'm installing a "fresh" version of Win 7 on
it. I just know it will crash halfway through or fail to install drivers
or, well, the usual Windows crap.

"Your computer will restart several times during installation."

Until it stops restarting altogether.



Crikey, what a pain in the ass. I had to hunt down some missing drivers
on the bloody awful Dell site, and I'll still have work to do. But at
least it didn't die on me...yet.

On 8/27/15 2:10 PM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 8/27/15 9:18 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
My wife got a new desktop computer, and I'm "preparing" her old Dell
desktop as a giveaway. So, I'm installing a "fresh" version of Win 7 on
it. I just know it will crash halfway through or fail to install drivers
or, well, the usual Windows crap.

"Your computer will restart several times during installation."

Until it stops restarting altogether.



Crikey, what a pain in the ass. I had to hunt down some missing drivers
on the bloody awful Dell site, and I'll still have work to do. But at
least it didn't die on me...yet.


Now it is installing 157 updates...

And the bleet goes on...

On Thu, 27 Aug 2015 14:10:06 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

Crikey, what a pain in the ass. I had to hunt down some missing drivers
on the bloody awful Dell site, and I'll still have work to do. But at
least it didn't die on me...yet.

===

Should have bought an HP. THeir drivers are very easy to find, nicely
packaged, install cleanly, and they work.

On Thu, 27 Aug 2015 09:18:48 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

My wife got a new desktop computer, and I'm "preparing" her old Dell
desktop as a giveaway. So, I'm installing a "fresh" version of Win 7 on
it. I just know it will crash halfway through or fail to install drivers
or, well, the usual Windows crap.

"Your computer will restart several times during installation."

Until it stops restarting altogether.

Why don't you have an image of the machine when it was new?

Always make an image of a freshly loaded machine after you get
everything working and put it away. It will usually fit on a DVD.

On Thu, 27 Aug 2015 14:10:06 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

On 8/27/15 9:18 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
My wife got a new desktop computer, and I'm "preparing" her old Dell
desktop as a giveaway. So, I'm installing a "fresh" version of Win 7 on
it. I just know it will crash halfway through or fail to install drivers
or, well, the usual Windows crap.

"Your computer will restart several times during installation."

Until it stops restarting altogether.



Crikey, what a pain in the ass. I had to hunt down some missing drivers
on the bloody awful Dell site, and I'll still have work to do. But at
least it didn't die on me...yet.

Didn't Dell take you right to your machine page when you entered the
service tag number?
Then the only problem is you have to load that Dell download manager.
I usually try to goose it up to the point where I can get to the web
from the machine I am building (ignoring the errors), then it is
pretty easy.
Dell gives you a recovery disk in the package you got when you bought
it. It will have all the drivers and all of the preloaded software.

I never seem to get those with the Dells that get dropped off here but
I do have a pretty good collection of Dell drivers from over the
years.

On Thu, 27 Aug 2015 14:53:00 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 27 Aug 2015 14:10:06 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

Crikey, what a pain in the ass. I had to hunt down some missing drivers
on the bloody awful Dell site, and I'll still have work to do. But at
least it didn't die on me...yet.

===

Should have bought an HP. THeir drivers are very easy to find, nicely
packaged, install cleanly, and they work.

Dell is not horrible, once you understand the "Dell way", find the
service tag number and get their download manager. Given the choice, I
prefer IBM/Lenovo, then HP/Compaq but my wife's office is all Dell so
I end up with a lot of them, either to fix or to keep. I usually clean
them up and give them away to someone who needs a machine.

For $10 Dell will send you the entire CD package that was shipped with
the machine new, if you don't want to screw with it. That is handy if
that particular machine was bundled with a lot of software.
You can just go through a fairly simple restore operation and make it
look like it did the day it was shipped.
I have done that to my father in law's machine several times. I just
have to go in and point all of his data fields back to the D drive
when I am done and he has not really lost anything.

On 8/27/15 3:41 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 27 Aug 2015 09:18:48 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

My wife got a new desktop computer, and I'm "preparing" her old Dell
desktop as a giveaway. So, I'm installing a "fresh" version of Win 7 on
it. I just know it will crash halfway through or fail to install drivers
or, well, the usual Windows crap.

"Your computer will restart several times during installation."

Until it stops restarting altogether.

Why don't you have an image of the machine when it was new?

Always make an image of a freshly loaded machine after you get
everything working and put it away. It will usually fit on a DVD.


I thought I did have an image, but it was "unfindable." In any event, it
seems to be running properly now, after I wasted a day of babysitting
it. Just checked...the reinstall of Win 7 runs about 50 gigs... So I'll
have to image my wife's new machine onto my server, since I am sure
it'll take a bit more space than that.

On 8/27/15 4:11 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 27 Aug 2015 14:10:06 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

On 8/27/15 9:18 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
My wife got a new desktop computer, and I'm "preparing" her old Dell
desktop as a giveaway. So, I'm installing a "fresh" version of Win 7 on
it. I just know it will crash halfway through or fail to install drivers
or, well, the usual Windows crap.

"Your computer will restart several times during installation."

Until it stops restarting altogether.



Crikey, what a pain in the ass. I had to hunt down some missing drivers
on the bloody awful Dell site, and I'll still have work to do. But at
least it didn't die on me...yet.

Didn't Dell take you right to your machine page when you entered the
service tag number?
Then the only problem is you have to load that Dell download manager.
I usually try to goose it up to the point where I can get to the web
from the machine I am building (ignoring the errors), then it is
pretty easy.
Dell gives you a recovery disk in the package you got when you bought
it. It will have all the drivers and all of the preloaded software.

I never seem to get those with the Dells that get dropped off here but
I do have a pretty good collection of Dell drivers from over the
years.


I've got it all up and running, including the little bit of peculiar
hardware Dell packed in...finding the right video driver was a pain in
the butt, since there were eight listed for the machine. I have no idea
where the Dell distribution CDs are. The damned Dell AUTODETECT did not
work.

On Thu, 27 Aug 2015 16:42:46 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

.the reinstall of Win 7 runs about 50 gigs

Yikes, talk about bloat!