Windows 7 RC First Impression on Dell Inspiron 630m
I jumped from xp to Windows 7RC with my laptop. It is my working machine so i use it mainly for software development Laptop hardware: Intel Pentium Mobile Centrino 2.0GHz (Pentium M 760) 2gb Ram sodimm pc2 5300 100gb harddisk eide chipset and video card Mobile Intel 915GM southbridge Intel 82801FB ethernet card Broadcom 440x wificard Intel 2200bg My impression are good: simple and fast installation with no problem fast almost as xp sp3 any software i used before works fine. nice user interface good general improvement Problems found: after windows update all driver were found but those problems rise: no way to turn on/off bluetooth wifi card confused with similar model (Intel 2915ABG) i had to force right driver so it can work properly dell utility (dell quickset) not working (FN laptop key and power management) windows power management not so smart as dell one taskbar color are really light with poor contrast and in some case some icon are difficult to see (already tried screen adjustment, and color schema) stickynote font not customizable (default font is terrible) if laptop work on battery screen color dept changes from 32bit to 16 color (not 16bit... 16 color!!!) Anyone resolved those problems?
May 11th, 2009 12:25am

Problems found: after windows update all driver were found but those problems rise: no way to turn on/off bluetooth wifi card confused with similar model (Intel 2915ABG) i had to force right driver so it can work properly dell utility (dell quickset) not working (FN laptop key and power management) windows power management not so smart as dell one taskbar color are really light with poor contrast and in some case some icon are difficult to see (already tried screen adjustment, and color schema) stickynote font not customizable (default font is terrible) if laptop work on battery screen color dept changes from 32bit to 16 color (not 16bit... 16 color!!!) Anyone resolved those problems? giammin - I'm not entirely sure how far you'd get with the driver related issues you mentioned. Given the laptop is 3 years old (give or take) and was never sold with Vista, I'm not thinking Dell sees this laptop as a priority... If you get drivers, and it takes a bit of work to get 'em installed, then you're in luck. If not... I do agree that better recognition of the hardware would be a good thing.Now then... Your non driver issues. 1.) The Dell Quickset utility.... You might want to call Dell and see if they have a Vista compatible version of the software that would work with that laptop. You can try installing it in compatability mode and see how that works. 2.) Fonts - You can suggest an enhancement to make it so Sticky Notes can have customizable fonts by posting your request here.3.) Graphics and video - Hmm. Intel 915 chipset... If memory serves me correctly, that chipset is not 100%Vista compatible - and as such, it won't be 100% compatible with Windows 7 either. That, in all probability is why the colors drop from 32 bit to 4 bit color when you go off the power leash. All in all, not much that can be likely done with this.4.) Bluetooth - Assuming you've got the built in Wireless 350 bluetooth device and not an external dongle. If you set up the Bluetooth device's properties to ALWAYS show an icon in the Notification area - like with the ethernet card and volume controls, you can right-click on the device and disable it or enable it. Not 100% sure this will work - but it's worth a try. Most external dongles use a 3rd party software package that manages the device's throughput. One comes from BlueSoleil. Not sure if that would work with your particular hardware. Might want to contact Dell...5.) Colors - This is something you'll have to tweak and play with to get them to look good on your system. No real solution other than to experiment and find one you can live with.
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May 11th, 2009 1:03pm

HI, a friend of mine is running the same laptop (630m) but is apparenrtly unable to get their resolution above 800x600. Did you have any problems with graphics drivers on this machine? I would assume that the normal, Dell provided Intel 915 for Vista drivers would sort it out. Although from my experience I would expect Win 7 to be able to cope without any additional drivers.
July 30th, 2009 6:45pm

hi guys,i just installed windows 7 ultimate on my dell inspiron 630m.now i had a ____ of a time getting drivers and it wasnt until i ran windows update that i got (or thought i got) all of the drivers for the laptop. now everything works as it should except for the network card, or maybe i should say more specifically the laptop wont recognize an ethernet cable as internet. it will connect to networks wirelessly but when i try to connect to a network with an ethernet cable it just wont recognize it. also the up key on my keyboard broke a while ago so i am unable to adjust the brightness of the screen that way and i was wondering if anyone knew how i could adjust it some other way?? so yeah brightness problem and also the computer now accepting an ethernet cable as internet . any ideas.thanks a lot.
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October 3rd, 2009 1:55am

hi guys,i just installed windows 7 ultimate on my dell inspiron 630m.now i had a ____ of a time getting drivers and it wasnt until i ran windows update that i got (or thought i got) all of the drivers for the laptop. now everything works as it should except for the network card, or maybe i should say more specifically the laptop wont recognize an ethernet cable as internet. it will connect to networks wirelessly but when i try to connect to a network with an ethernet cable it just wont recognize it. also the up key on my keyboard broke a while ago so i am unable to adjust the brightness of the screen that way and i was wondering if anyone knew how i could adjust it some other way?? so yeah brightness problem and also the computer now accepting an ethernet cable as internet . any ideas.thanks a lot. i downloaded ethernet driver for vista from intel website... and everythings worked good does your graphic card work also if it run on battery? i had problem with it.... i read that our graphic card is not supported neither in vista and neither in w7. i found on intel website a forum about it where they say that no driver will be released for vista and w7...
October 3rd, 2009 6:25pm

giammin,i didnt have any trouble with the vdieo card if i remeber correctly i believe windows update installed it for me. but hey i could be wrong. i will check later tonight and put another post up letting you know for sure. when i went to dell.com support and looked up the service tag for the laptop i found that dell only offered widows xp and dos drivers for the laptop, so it is definitely undersupported. do you know what intel driver you downloaded for the ehernet driver, i would really appreciate it. thanks.
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October 4th, 2009 4:57am

Sorry i confused ethernet nic with wifi card... etherneti s a broadcom card instead wifi is intel i don't remenber if windows update installed right driver for ethernet card or i installed the dell xp driver... probably the second one just download xp driver, unzip them and locate the b44win.inf file right click on it and install hope this help!
October 4th, 2009 8:34pm

Anyone manage to get the wireless working?The drivers seem to have installed ok, but I cannot see any wireless networks, checking the other laptop I have there should be around 3 visioble, including mine.The Broadmand Ethernet card works great.I have actually installed the retail version of Windiows 7 32Bit Thanks MarkBoony
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December 27th, 2009 12:54am

After playing with drivers for a while, uninstalling/re-installing. I eventually found that I needed to switch the wireless on, diagnostics wasn't telling me that though, I stumble upon it by accident.Boony
December 29th, 2009 2:49am

this is "really" funny: from latest version of Windows 7 Upgrade advisor even microsoft thought is not clear about! :D
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January 11th, 2010 7:42pm

anyway i've installed successfully windows 7 on my laptop it is fully functional if someone needs drivers just send me a PM.
March 16th, 2012 6:36pm

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