Windows 7 on a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop (Dell says not compatible)

[truckingdoug77]

My Dell Inspiron 1501 Touchpad would not work right with windows 7 and he said it was a generic ps/2 mouse driver,I install a driver called "PS/2 Compatible Mouse"thats what its called in device manager,it works with absolutely no problems at all,I recommend this to anyone with touchpad problems with inspiron 1501 and window 7 installed.

Thanks for the help us3notfound

 

[JackMDS]

My Dell Inspiron 1501 Touchpad would not work right with windows 7

Try to unistall the current drivers.

Download and install the OEM Drivers of the TouchPad manufactuere.
If it is Synaptics try this, http://www.synaptics.com/support/drivers

 

[Matt1970]

Of all the hundreds of times I have activated Windows over the years I have only had them actually tell me the ID used for Activation had been activated too many times once.

The only other problem I ever had was one operator told me that when the mother board died, the copy of Windows died with it. Called them right back and the next person activated it with no problems.

 

[kel7298]

I'm glad I found this forum as I'm doing an "why the heck not?" upgrade on my 1501 to 4GB ram, a 500GB Scorpio Black hd and Win7/64. Dell tech support is lacking, but I've already found many answers to my driver questions here. Thanks! Does anyone know of any BIOS issues with this upgrade? I've run into that before and didn't know if that would be a problem here.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Geezer

Bios help please..

Previous to installing W7 Ultimate 32 bit on this Dell 1501, I had charging issues (battery not recognized or would not charge) and was informed to upgrade the bios. I did as instructed and it resolved my problem.

Unfortunately, I am once again having battery issues. Can I update the bios using the Vista 32 bit upgrade from Dell? Or does anyone have any suggestions I might try?

 

[mod81]

I am using a Dell Inspirion 1501 running Windows 7 home while i write this, Since i got the laptop which originally came with Vista home which i found was slower than my old laptop running XP so i 'downgraded' the 1501 to xp and happily ran it on that for sometime until my hdd went and so i decided to go for a Windows 7 install and it was very painless, from what i remember nearly all the drivers where already on the Win 7 disk. I did also update it to the latest bios from dells website.
My computers spec is AMD semperon 3500+ , 1.5gb ram, 80gb hdd and it gets 2.3 on the windows experience index because of the graphics performance but i have areo turned off anyway.

 

[supafly1]

Instead, you'd want to get a 32 bit install media and use your 64 bit product keycode to install Win7 (keycodes in Vista/Win7 support both 32bit and 64 bit installs, and any Vista/Win7 install media can be made to install with OEM or retail keycodes ). You can probably download one corresponding to the X86 version of your Win7 from Digital River (who is a Microsoft distributor) - the following link includes separate download links and a guide on how to create an appropriate install media:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html
or
http://codesagar.com/content/guides/win7download.html

Thanks for this! I've been looking everywhere for these links but couldn't find them. Now to go upgrade...

 

[zkorpio]

I don't know how you guys did it, but I couldn't run Windows 7 on my Inspiron 1501 because of the SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio Driver; the driver from Vista didn't work and I tried about 3 versions.
I'm trying to install Windows 7 32bit with SP1 (should I try without SP1?)
...so anyone? Please help with the Sigmatel,
Thank you.

 

[Steltek]

I don't know how you guys did it, but I couldn't run Windows 7 on my Inspiron 1501 because of the SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio Driver; the driver from Vista didn't work and I tried about 3 versions.
I'm trying to install Windows 7 32bit with SP1 (should I try without SP1?)
...so anyone? Please help with the Sigmatel,
Thank you.

Is Win7 installing any type of default driver? If not, try right-clicking on the sound device in Device Manager and search Windows Update for an updated driver.

 

[zkorpio]

Is Win7 installing any type of default driver? If not, try right-clicking on the sound device in Device Manager and search Windows Update for an updated driver.

Yes, it installs a "High Definition Audio Device" that doesn't work (no sound), and I have tried to update in Device manager by right-clicking and search with windows update, also by deleting it and running the dell installers, running the installers on compatibility mode too.
I google search this problem and I'm not the only one, some people fixed it by doing what I did, but they had different laptop models, so that's why I was wondering how you did it here.

I went back to XP now, but just for the future... did you installed win7 without a SP1 integrated cd?

Thanks for responding Steltek.

 

[jsalpha2]

Quote:
"the driver from Vista didn't work and I tried about 3 versions."

R190517.EXE to install Driver Version 6.10.0.5866
or
R147073.EXE to install Driver Version 6.10.0.5343, A02

Are these the ones you tried?
When you click on the exe file they just unzip to somewhere like C:>Dell>drivers you have to run them from there

 

[zkorpio]

Quote:
"the driver from Vista didn't work and I tried about 3 versions."

R190517.EXE to install Driver Version 6.10.0.5866
or
R147073.EXE to install Driver Version 6.10.0.5343, A02

Are these the ones you tried?
When you click on the exe file they just unzip to somewhere like C:>Dell>drivers you have to run them from there

yes, I tried those and R171788.exe 6.10.0.5614, A09
and yes, I also used winrar, extracted all files and ran them without and with administrative rights and also on compatibility mode.

So I guess it is the SP1, next time I will use the cd I have without SP1 and then update from there.

Thank you jsalpha2

 

[sinter614]

Not sure if anyone needs the Catalyst Control Center, but I have found it to be useful in the past. The driver package available at the URL below is at least a newer version, includes the CCC, and did not break my laptop. I think it looks a bit sharper, but that could be my imagination.

It says it supports the ATI Radeon Xpress Series, which the Win7 Device Manager identifies as my display adapter.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo....aspx?type=2.7&product=2.7.2.3.2&lang=English

 

[lostngreen]

Hello,
I know this is a very old string...I have windows 7 installed on a 1501...however it frequently keeps freezing...i think it's the type of memory I have installed or its my video card

Any suggestions?

 

[vtails]

Well I'm really late to posting here but I keep running across this site and I've read the post here and some I agree with but I came to help, I have this computer DELL INSPIRON 1501 TRURON 64 BIT, THESE ORG. CAME with Sempron 64bit, I have 8 gig's ram and a 500 gig H/D, I'm running a dual boot win 7 win 10 64bit system.
This I bought brand new at Dell store, and I'm still using it everyday and it's never missed a beet.
So for the Win 7 system the drivers that are bit hard to get working are the Synaptic and ATI Xpress 1150 which I have working fine. The ATI 1150 i got from Dell R163595 run in compatibility mode for Vista in Device Manager it will show Ver. 8.362.0.0, date on it show 4/5/2007<, it's a 64 bit (you can use different computers for DRV) next is the Synaptic (Dell touchpad)ver.13.2.2.2, date 6/26/2009, R227597 or R228103 or R227835 in compatibility mode for Vista or try win 7 don't be afraid of EXP.
The driver's I first used were the XP drv. that were for the 1501 and ran in Compatibility mode and they also worked but I wanted some options for touchpad so I found different drv. the rest were very easy to get as they were for the 1501 or MS updated the drv, The hard one to get going correctly is Win 10 but so far it's working great, Except for touchpad its a bummer , I have one works in eveything except for EDGE, APP'S MENU AND START MENU , the other is ATI Xpress 1150,but I did finaly get that installed, you have to have dispaly adapter or you won't have SLEEP or HIBERNATE mode, I used the AMD ATI Vista drv for that so I'm happy, I'm not sure I like 10 but it does have some nice features like you can send TEXT message and call from the APP, but you could install them in 7. So I guess I've given what I have but if some of you are still here after 7-8 years I hope to hear how you r 1501 is doing. Ohya I'm using an AIR BAR , IT GIVE'S YOU touch screen which is really great , it works good in Win 7 and ifie in Win 10 , it does have the drv. for them, ( go to YOUTUBE ) type in air bar watch the demo, I really got it for my IMAC which I bought back in Jan 2007 when I bought my 1501 . SO good luck ...