XPS M2010 – Windows 7 and 10

System Upgrades

Service Manual

Ensure you reference your service manual before carrying out upgrades:

The most recommended upgrade for this system is a Solid State Drive, here is my affiliate link to Crucial here. If purchasing a SSD or Memory Upgrade please use these links as I will get a tiny bit of commission which will help fund my guides.

SSD Drive Upgrade

Memory Upgrade:

This system supports 4 GB of RAM (2×2 GB Modules).

Media Direct

Media Direct should be installed before the Operating System in order for the Media Direct Button to function correctly.

Operating System

Not all of these systems are 64 Bit capable. A 64 Bit Processor such as an Intel T7200, T7400 or T7600 is required for 64 Bit Windows 7. Note the system maxes out at 3.25 GB of RAM so there is in any case little advantage of installing 64 Bit Windows 0n this model. This configuration works with 64 Bit Windows 10 but it is on the edge of the system requirements, should Microsoft slightly up the system requirements for 64 Bit Windows 10 later down the line, this system will likely fail to meet the minimum system requirements and therefore 32 Bit Windows 10 is recommended on this model.

It is recommended to install Windows 10 on this system see Windows OEM FAQs and Downloads. The Windows Vista OEM or Windows XP Product Key won't be compatible with Windows 10 Installation Media however you can run Windows 10 Unlicensed. Windows 10 will have most of the system drivers required inbuilt however you can install the Windows 7 Drivers if you have any unknown Devices in the Device Manager.

Drivers and Downloads for Windows 7

Legacy BIOS

System Utilities (Windows 7 Only)

Chipset (Windows 7)

Card Reader

Video (Windows 7 Only)

There are three video variants on this system:

Input

Dell Wireless Cards

Audio (Windows 7 Only)

Install the Registry Edit and then the Audio Driver.

Registry Edit

HTML

Open up Notepad or Notepad++, copy and paste the above and save the file (as all types) ending with the extension .reg. Once done right click the reg file and run.

Add the entries to your registry before installing the Audio Driver.

Application

MediaDirect Updates

Requires installation of the Media Direct Program

17 thoughts on “XPS M2010 – Windows 7 and 10

  1. I have managed to get both win 7 and win 8.1 x64 to work only my xps m2010.Anyone looking to make the jump to 8.1 theres only one problem I had that took a bit get fixed and that was the video driver.Windows 8 installs their own 64 bit driver and I couldn't get full screen resolution(max was 1440x something) or external display to work with it.Since I was using win 7 x64 before the upgrade I remembered it had a working x64 driver so I went to the Microsoft Update Catalog site and searched for Radeon x1800 and found the Win 7 driver in the list and downloaded it.Its a .cab file,extracted it with 7zip and manually updated the drive via Device Manager(I used the first .inf file in the list) and everything works now, I don't think I ever would of figured this out if I made the move direct from a 32 bit OS.Also my Bluetooth mouse was acting up(randomly stop/start working).After I updated the video drive its been fine since.Dunno what to think on that.Hope this helps someone.there was the webcam,card readers,and one achi driver for the battery I had to manually install but they were easy ones to do.All devices are listed in Device Manager and appear to be all working.No unknown ones listed.One more thing to mention,i use a ssd and did a ton of reading on the ich7 controller.If you switch to raid mode for achi think again, there is no way to enable ahci mode(I opened the bios in a bios editor and asked at a few bios-mod sites) and there is no ahci module in the bios and no way to add it.So u wont have trim support(disk optimization even shows it as unavailable for ssd).I setup the software from my ssd manufacturer to trim it weekly.

    1. Mike, thanks so much for posting that information – I was able to get my trusty M2010 up and running with better video thanks to you!
      However, as I installed Windows 8.1 on it, I have no audio. Not a huge show stopper, but the solution posted above doesn't work with either download from Dell. It is a 64 bit version, not sure if that is the issue.
      Any help that you or Philip Yip would be able to provide would be very welcome and MUCH appreciated!

      1. The same driver should work for Windows 8.1 64 Bit and Windows 8.1 32 Bit. Did you "upgrade via a clean install? Or did you "upgrade" via "upgrade"? The clean installation should give you a working inbuilt Windows 8.1 driver. "upgrade" via "upgrade" quite often gives problematic issues with the audio. Also the audio patch mentioned above do not use with Windows 8.1, people have told me it causes issues with Windows 8.1 but not Windows 7.

  2. I found out later i had no audio also.download the sigmatel(new) drivers from above,64 bit are included.can't remember if I installed it in compatabilty mode.I prob did as I installed most of the vista stuff that way.also I found out by setting bios to raid autodetect/ata that trim works for ssd's even though its in legacy mode.Bluetooth mouse prob was fixed by going to device manager,bluetooth,wireless Bluetooth module,rt click then properties then power management and uncheck allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.also to update after I installed all the drivers my device mananger was clear of errors,one day I decided to try the fn key to change display brightness and it didn't work.turned out it didn't like the driver for the function key handler(del8010).after a lot reading and searching it turns out dell never released a 64 bit driver for it.i seldom use it so no big deal for me but 64 bit rocks.i actually have 2 m2010's one on 64 bit and one on 32 bit and I notice a big difference.

      1. I have tried it with quickset(works fine on 32 bit).it only adds a onscreen display when use fn + key.if you extract r142181.exe(dell Bluetooth 350 drivers) and look in the 32 bit folder under drivers you will see DellFn.inf.inside it the device id del8010 is listed(this is the acpi function key handler).theres also a DellWkbd.inf.both of these are not in the 64 bit folder.although the win 8.1 Bluetooth drivers work(I tried them and dells 350 drives,both work equally the same for me).Microsoft has no driver for the del8010 fn key handler and leaves it as unknown in device manager.on my 32 bit install I used microsofts Bluetooth module and installed DellFn.inf and DellWkbd.inf from R142181 and the fn key works(with quickset I get the osd also).even tried installing them on 64 bit but don't work as they are 32 bit drivers.Thks for your help.If u haver any other ideas please post.I even tried hunting down other 64 bit fn key handler driver for other laptops and edited the inf to add the del8010 device id.driver will load with driver signature disabled but don't work.

  3. Not to rock the boat or start crappin on dell but this laptop was available with vista 64 bit so it down right confuses me as to why there no 64 bit driver even for vista.Back when a lot of us purchased these they were dam expensive and now it seems dell has dropped support (like nothing for windows 7).I have read on dell supports forums where others have tried to figure this out and there requests went unanswered.

    1. Does R163853 install on Windows 8.1 64 Bit on this model? Do the Dell Quickset onscreen displays work?

      Regarding the Bluetooth the Dell Wireless 350 and 360 module were manufactured by Toshiba and they gave Dell no updated driver. I tried one of the Dell Wireless 350's out on a Latitude D820 and an Inspiron 6400 and could not get it to work without using Toshiba Bluetooth software which only gave something like a 10 day evaluation (this software was eventually removed from the Toshiba website). I hence replaced both with a Broadcom Bluetooth Device (Dell Wireless 355) and used the Broadcom Bluetooth update and they worked fine.

      If Windows 8.1 now natively supports the device its good news

      1. I didn't try r163853,i downloaded and extracted it and looked through the inf files for the del8010 and its not listed anywhere so there's no fn key handler driver.r142181 is from the downloads section for the m2010 from dell.thats prob why its included.

    1. On the Latitude D820 and Inspiron 6400 they do so its likely also for the M2010. I cannot say for 100 % about the M2010 as I don't have this model.

    1. Google Translation French → English:
      My Dell XPS M2010 was under Vista with 4GB RAM and two 300 GB hard drives in Raid zero I bought and installed at its output W8 Pro that worked very badly, but I was used to install free bridge W10 pro, a true wonder the PC is much faster especially at start ( 15 seconds against several minutes under Vista ) the only dysfunction that I have not solved is the FN functionality for the rest happiness! Chart of the problem there !

      Original:
      Mon Dell XPS M2010 était sous Vista, Avec 4 Go de RAM et deux disques dur de 300 Go en Raid zéro J'ai acheté à sa sortie et installé W8 Pro qui fonctionnait très mal, mais qui m'a servit de pont pour installer gratuitement W10 pro, Une vrais merveille le PC est beaucoup plus rapide surtout au démarrage (15 seconde contre plusieurs minutes sous Vista) le seul disfonctionnement que je n'ai pas encore résolu étant la fonctionnalité de la touche FN pour le reste que du bonheur ! Pas de problème graphique n'y de son !

    2. I installed Windows 10 last night and the only 2 things I cant get to work are the camera and the bluetooth keyboard. Ive tried windows updates and no luck. Im searching today to see if anyone has answers.

      1. What Bluetooth card do you have installed in the model? Does Imaging Devices show in the Device Manager? Is this a clean install of Windows 10 TH2 or an Upgrade install?

    3. Yes, sometimes Dell Bluetooth Module drops the bluetooth keyboard but not the bluetooth mouse. So from time to time I'll reinstall the module. Other than that it runs Windows 10 pretty well.

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