Hello everybody! As some of you know, the laptop Dell Inspiron 1721 runs slow with Windows Vista installed, so I want to upgrade/fresh install Windows 7. Unfortunately, I read on other forums that there is a problem with upgrading the Windows from Vista to 7 (it says that I need to update my ATI AHCI Compatible RAID Driver - even if I have the latest driver installed). I am curious. Has anybody managed to fresh install Windows 7 on a Inspiron 1721 without having any problems? I look forward to your answers!
I am currently running Windows 7 Ultimate on my Inspiron 1720. It runs much faster than Vista Ultimate ever did!! I fought with doing an up grade and found it easier to do a clean install instead. In my case I have the Intel chipset and had to do the following to get 7 to install correctly. I downloaded the Intel Matrix Storage driver extracted to a USB Flash drive and at the point during installation that you are asked to confirm the disk option I choose to install a driver point windows to the USB drive it loads the ACHI driver from the drive and the installation goes along just fine. I would assume the same process could be used for the ATI chipset as well. I found that with both Vista and 7 is I didn't do this the installation would hang and never complete. It's a pain but it works. Hope this helps.
I am using 1720, and had no problems flashing with modded bios and running windows 7. Better than vista that came with the laptop.
Hey! Thank you guys for your replies. I've done some research and I found some instructions regarding installing Windows 7 on 1721. I hope that it works. Out of curiosity, can you rate from 1 to 10 how your laptop was acting with Windows Vista installed and how it acts now, with Windows 7 installed? Thank you again!
I've installed Windows 7 64 bit on my Vostro 1700 using a modded bios and it works great so far. I also installed the Intel Matrix driver after install (ACHI set in bios) which has no problem so far. The only thing that doesn't work is the infrared receiver port on the front of the machine. I have the Dell card slot media remote which used to work under Vista but no longer works on Windows 7. Any luck with you guys?
Windows 7 on an Inspiron 1721 I have the 1721 and installed Windows 7 which is working satisfactorily. Checked the upgrade advisor and said it was compatible, but Dell don't list the 1721 as a computer that is compatibale. Was running 32bit Vista Premium, and wanted to upgrade to the W7 64bit version. I am running a AMD turion 64, 1.9Ghz I can confirm there is no way to upgrade from 32 to 64 and you have to do a fresh install. Some people have reported HDD driver problems, but no such problems for me. I did have a sound problem, (no mic/input) but downloading the latest Sigmatel driver package seemed to fix that. I do have one "base system" component that does have an error in the Device Manager, but that doesn't seem to be affecting the performance of the PC. Overall Windows 7 is running well, I think there is slightly improved performance, but is probably due to me not re installing all my previous programs (ie. discarding the ones I didn't really use) and the windows easy transfer program works well. So overall working satisfactorily and am enjoying the improved functionality of Windows Media Centre. Regards
Hi. Where do you download the latest Sigmatel driver package? I have the same problem with the mic after install windows 7. Regards
obarriosc2010, try to find Dells driver R171786, it works fine for my Inspiron 1720. finswim01, I had the same unknown device issue with my Inspiron 1720, you need the Ricoh driver for mine it was R188776. Hope this helps.
FYI: I just did a clean install of Windows 7 32-bit on a Dell Inspiron 1721 using the ATI Raid driver from the Dell site. It was very straight forward. Here is the driver I used: ATI Serial ATA Storage/RAID Release Date: 10/16/2007 Version: A01 2.5.1540.48 Importance: Optional Download Type: Driver File Format: Hard-Drive File Size: 207KB File Name: R167809.EXE More info in my post here: sevenforums.com/drivers/30589-ati-ahci-compatible-raid-driver-7.html