Upgrade Dell XPS 15 L502X to Windows 10

Yesterday I upgraded my Dell XPS 15 L502X from Windows 7 to Windows 10. The whole process was smooth except a few problems.
Before upgrade, I uninstalled some software I rarely or seldom used.

• The Dell Stage should be uninstalled; it is not compatible with Windows 10.
• OneDrive should be uninstalled too.
• Firewall software should be uninstalled unless it is compatible with Windows 10.

After upgrade, there were a few issues:

• No sound: download the latest driver from Dell and reinstall.
• No HDMI audio:download the latest driver from NVIDIA  and install.
• OneDrive not working: probably you have OneDrive installed before upgrade and haven’t uninstalled it before upgrade. In Windows 10, search OneDrive, uninstall the OneDrive (Desktop app), and unlink the account via OneDrive tray icon.
• Could not access Internet: the Windows firewall is set to block everything. Change to the default value “Allow” or disable it for now.

D drive is missing in Windows 7

My sister told me she could not find the D drive in her laptop any more. I felt strange: how could it happen, since all other partitions of the hard drive were visible? So I asked her to restart the laptop, check disk errors. Unfortunately, nothing worked. Guided her to look at the computer management tool, the partition was still there but Windows 7 thought it was unallocated.

For the sake of the data in that partition, have to find out another way to find the D disk back. Lucky enough, I came across a free partition recovery tool: MiniTool Partition Recovery. Following the tutorial on the website, it is easy to retrieve the missing partition. If you only have one partition missing or your lost partitions are continuous, the Quick Scan mode should work like a charm.

Windows has recovered from unexpected shutdown

Imagine the following scenarios.

• After leaving your computer for a while, you come back and find out your computer is turned off. 
• You put your computer into sleep, but the computer is turned off itself.

When the computer is turned on, it tells

Windows has recovered from unexpected shutdown.

After following the advices from Internet, you still cannot figure out why your computer shuts down itself. If you are sure the hardware is fine, and use Firefox, then disable the automatic update of the Firefox and Firefox add-ons. This may solve the issue. Another you should avoid is, if you just wake up your computer from hibernation, don't go to back hibernation in a short period of time. I noticed that this is a cause too.

Update: if the approach above doesn't work for you, try to change the anti-virus software in your system.

Small top margin/gap on Windows 7 desktop, Dell computer

If you have received a Dell computer recently, you probably notice that, when the UAC window pops up or you change the theme of Windows, all the maximized windows are not fit to the full screen any more. They shift down and leave a small margin or gap on the top.

Notice the space between the edge of the screen and the top of the title bar.

This is caused by a process called toaster.exe. This process belongs to Dell DataSafe Local Backup. One simple way is to uninstall this software. But it seems that this software is integrated into Dell factory image restore, I am not sure it is safe to uninstall. I checked the startup service shown in the msconfig, and found a familiar name, which is SoftThinks Agent Service. SoftThinks is the software vendor that provides this problematic software. So here is the way to get rid of the process toaster.exe and you don't need to kill it every time your computer starts:

1. Open 'Control Panel'
2. Double click on the ‘Administrative Tools’
3. Double click on the ‘Services’
4. Scroll down and find the ‘SoftThinks Agent Service’, double click on it. In the pop-up window, change the startup type to ‘Disabled’, and then click ‘OK’.
5. Restart your computer, problem solved ;).

The steps above can be also applied to disable the DataSafe program.

If you cannot find the SoftThinks Agent Service, you can choose to update or uninstall Dell DataSafe Local Backup. 

中文版: http://time360.blogspot.com/2011/07/dellwindows-7-toaster.html

Battery power drain during laptop hibernation

I bought a new laptop that comes with Windows 7, and noticed that the battery power drains around 10% in just one night. This is not right. At first, I thought maybe I was not lucky, got a faulty laptop. But then I thought I shouldn't be that unlucky. So I searched the Internet, it seems there are some Thinkpad users have this issue and this problem and some were fixed by a software patch.

If it is not a faulty laptop, I suspected some devices woke up. But I didn't know which one. So, I disabled the wake timers in the Advance settings of the Power options. In the following days, the battery power drain didn't repeat.

Note that, the battery and power adapter of my laptop also have been replaced. So if the software trick doesn't work, you may need to consider the hardware issue. I cannot decide which 'fix' really fixes the problem since they were done almost at the same time.




Update:
It happened again, but only once. Thus I was not sure what caused that. Treated it as an isolated case.

Windows 7 logs you into a temporary profile

I believe lots of people who use Windows 7 have seen the following message:

"You have been logged on with a temporary profile. You cannot access your files and files created in this profile will be deleted when you log off. To fix this, try logging off and logging on later. Please see the event log for details or contact your system administrator."

This happens when your profile is being operated by a process, and you log in using the profile.

To solve this issue, it is very simple, being patient, give the computer several seconds to run the starting up processes. For example, if you just log off the computer, wait for 10-20 seconds then log in, it should help you avoid the message mentioned above.

Install Windows 7 Professional 64 on Dell XPS M1530

This Saturday, I upgraded my Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional 64 version. I have done research on the upgrade and prepared some drivers in case I needed. But it seems it's different from what people said. Here is what I did, and hopefully it can help people who need to install Windows 7 on Dell XPS M1530.

1. Backup all useful data, such as favourites, documents and photos.
   
2. Use Windows 7 DVD to load the system.
   
3. In the window which partition will be used to install Windows 7, click advanced options, here we can format C partition. But DO NOT do anything to other partition. If we format C disk only, Direct Media function will remain after installation.
   
4. Wait for about 30 minutes, Windows 7 should be ready to use.
   
5. Go to control panel, update Windows 7. It will update some drivers as well. After that, there still is one device is unrecognised in the Device Manager. It is Ricoh R5C833 card reader, the driver can be download via http://ftp.us.dell.com/chipset/Ricoh_R5C833_A00_R240788.exe, which is a Windows 7 driver.
   
6. After this step, my Bluetooth device was detected and worked well. Some people have issues with this device.
   
7. Now, download the fingerprint reader driver and application from Dell XPS M1530 driver download page. Remember to select Vista 64 as the system. If you have the Protector Suite QL 5.8, no need to download the application from Dell. Install the driver, restart the system; install the software, restart the system.
   
8. For the webcam, download the driver and Dell webcam manager from the Dell XPS M1530 driver download page. DO NOT use the Dell webcam manager that comes with your computer, unless the version is the same with the latest one provided on the website.
   
9. Do the same, i.e. download vista 64 driver from XPS M1530 driver page, for the SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio, touch-pad and Dell Quickset. After this, when you change volume by multimedia button, the indication should be shown.
   
10. If you want to use Media Direct in Windows, install the software and apply the update from Dell website.
    
11. Now, your system should work well and it is time to install your own software ;).
    
12. If you have trouble with the audio, download the driver for Studio XPS 1645, the link is http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=ed&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R226903&SystemID=STUDIOXPS1645&servicetag=&os=W764&osl=en&deviceid=16518&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=3&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=325315
13. For other drivers, such as QuickSet, the one from XPS 1645 will do.
    

Install language packs on Windows 7 professional version

The following content is adapted from http://bauforum.wirklichewelt.de/forum_entry.php?nr=5844 and http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?/topic/25680-can-i-install-a-language-pack-in-windows-7-professional/page__p__245434&#entry245434.

We know Microsoft only allows ultimate Windows 7 users to enjoy multi-language user interface. Thanks to Martin Vogel, we can install the language pack on Windows 7 professional.

1. Prepare your language pack DVD, insert it in D driver, here D is your DVD drive. Locate your required language pack. For example, if we want to install German language pack, the lp.cab file will have a path of D:\langpacks\de-de\lp.cab.
   
   
2. Run command window with administrator privileges. To run it as an administrator, go to "all programs - accessories", right-click "command prompt" and choose "run as administrator".
   
   
3. In the command window, type the following line and press Enter (dism"space"/online"space"/add-package"space"/packagepath:d:\langpacks\de-de\lp.cab), note that the space in between:
   

   dism /online /add-package /packagepath:d:\langpacks\de-de\lp.cab

4. When a message pops up and tells you the operation is completed successfully, press "Windows key + R" to call the run window, type in regedit to run the registry editor.
   
   
5. Navigate to \HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MUI\ UILanguage\eu-us and delete the key eu-us.
   
   
6. Restart your system, now your Windows 7 Professional should be switched to the German language version.
   
   
7. To change the language of "Starting Windows", run the following command in the command window (still take the German as example):
   
   

   bcdedit /set {current} locale de-de
   bcdboot %WinDir% /l de-de

Because I have no Windows 7 installed, cannot test the method. If you successfully installed your language pack, please either leave comments here or on Martin Vogel's page at http://bauforum.wirklichewelt.de/forum_entry.php?nr=5844.

Update:

1. It seems this trick works on home premium version as well.
2. I have changed an English Windows 7 system into a Chinese one.
   

Chinese version:

在Windows 7 专业版上安装语言包