My Dell Mini Forum

Curious · #1

After struggling with drivers for Windows 7 Beta 1, I've decided to make an all-inclusive guide to help with drivers.
You can find out how to install Windows 7 via a USB drive here.

Note: Because Windows 7 is essentially Vista in regards to driver compatibility, it's been pointed by holmes4 out that many of the Vista drivers for the Mini 12 will work under Windows 7 on the Mini 9. I would recommend restarting your computer as recommended by the installation programs before going on to the next driver.

Enable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth toggling via the Battery Meter/Wireless Switch. No special instructions, just install like normal and your Fn-2 key will work as it did under XP.
[Added by holmes4] Despite the above saying it includes the Battery Meter function (Fn-3), it doesn't. This does, so install it also if you want Fn-3 to work. The only other thing it does is add a way to disable further charging of the battery while on AC power until the next reboot, so you can live without it.
New - Updated Bluetooth drivers for enabling additional profiles such as A2DP wireless audio.
For the wired LAN connection, if you can connect wirelessly to the Internet, just go to Windows Update and it will be an optional download.
Otherwise, you'll need the Mini-12's vista drivers for the Realtek LAN RTL8102EL. Run the exe to extract the drivers (default C:\Dell\Drivers\R196115\). Setup will attempt to run, but it will inform you that it's incompatible with this version of Windows. From here, go to the Start Menu and [right-click] on Computer and choose Manage. In the Computer Management screen, choose Device Manager from the left side of the screen, and then expand the Network adapters. [Right-click] the Realtek item and choose Update Driver Software. Browse your computer for the software, and go to C:\Dell\Drivers\R196115\WINVISTA\32 and click next. The driver will be installed, and wired LAN will work.
To enable side-scolling and other features on the touch pad, download either the Dell or Synaptics touch pad drivers. There are more features available if you download from the Synaptics site.
The drivers for the Jmicron card reader (*updated 2009-08-14) will add Sony Memory Stick and MMS support to the card reader.
Finally, the Creative Labs web cam driver is optional, as people are reporting that the webcam works with the generic Windows drivers.

Once you're done with driver installations, check out my other post, Windows 7 - Ultimate SSD Speed Tweaks.

I hope this guide was helpful to you in getting all the features of your Dell Mini working under Windows 7.

Have fun with Windows 7!

mynamesreallong

Great writeup, i plan on doing everything you mentioned here in t-minus 2hrs when my dell mini arrives!!! :mrgreen:

volareman

Quote:

Originally Posted by mynamesreallong

Great writeup, i plan on doing everything you mentioned here in t-minus 2hrs when my dell mini arrives!!! :mrgreen:

Grats! That's so exciting!

jeffreytz

FYI when I loaded the Windows 7 beta 1 yesterday (Sunday) Windows ran the Windows Update and downloaded a couple of required items, then I checked it for "recommended" items and there was the Realtek LAN driver; installed it from Windows update and no issues connecting via the RJ45 jack.

jeffreytz

Is the JMicron driver necessary or provide additional functionality? I didn't load a driver for the SD card reader and am having no problems using my 8GB SD card (read or write). Just curious.

Thanks,

JT

Abecedary

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffreytz

Is the JMicron driver necessary or provide additional functionality? I didn't load a driver for the SD card reader and am having no problems using my 8GB SD card (read or write). Just curious.

Thanks,

JT

If all you're using is SD or SDHC cards then I don't think it's absolutely necessary. However, it looks like the driver adds support for Memory Stick cards (and maybe MMC?). But it does get rid of the yellow exclamations in the Device Manager.

holmes4

I also did not find it necessary to load the LAN driver. Windows also found a driver for the webcam, but I have not tried that yet.

Curiously, the battery meter part of the Battery Meter/Wireless Switch application does not show up, but Windows has its own battery meter which is fine. You do need this install or else there will be a missing driver shown in the Device Manager. (You also need it to be able to turn wireless/BT on and off.)

You do not need video, audio or chipset drivers.

thcrw739

Ok, did everything step by step, & still have 2 things called "base system device", that are still showing the ! in the device manager.

What could those be?

Thanks

Edit : never mind found the problem, but i noticed my disk transfer rate is scoring a 2.0, wonder why that is?

turp7622

have not been able to get the webcam working. I have tried installing the dell webcam driver for mini 12 for vista but it crashes on the install and cannot complete. have not been able to get the webcam working.

anyone else have this working and what did you do to get it to work?

thcrw739

Another question should i disable file indexing etc, like recomended around here for windows xp home dell/16gb ?

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