Alienware M17x-R3 Reformat Tips

[Brian]

Ok I have mentioned that I ran into issues after I uninstalled the Dell AMD 6970M driver and replaced it with the Catalyst 11.4. Specifically, the FN+F7 functionality was lost and I had to resort to manual switching (via control panel) to the IGP. However, even when doing so, I noticed the battery life would not register higher than 2 hours.

I brought this up over at NBR and Inap mentioned he got FN+F7 working fine with the 11.4 Catalyst. Batboy then made a post specifying the following:

On a clean install, after installing the AMD driver, you have to switch over using FN+F7 (a reboot prompt will appear - accept it) - this will put you into iGPU but since its a clean install it will be running the standard VGA driver.

Once back at the desktop, install the Intel HD Display driver from the dell support site. Switch back with FN+F7 (another reboot prompt) and once back at the desktop you will be running on the discrete GPU. FN+F7 will now work correctly (a reboot will still be needed when switching).

I tried the above except I did not do a reformat but rather uninstalled the Dell AMD driver and went straight to the 11.4 Catalysts.

So this brings me to the point of this thread: Please share any tips/tricks you have for successfully reformatting the R3.