Windows 7 64 installation - Cannot find CD/DVD drivers

Encountered this "amusing" error message few days back, while trying to install Windows 7 64 on a inspiron 1525. After booting up from the DVD, Windows threw the error

"Cannot find CD/DVD drivers" !!!

I do not remember the exact error message. The DVD drivers were present and was working fine. I know that because, the installation was done from the DVD. It had to read the DVD to throw that message!!!. Kinda reminds you of the famous error message "cannot find keyboard, please press any key to continue" :)

Well it turns out the ISO image I downloaded (legally :) ) was corrupted and consequently the Win 7 DVD which I had burnt was also corrupted.

Lessons Learnt:

--> When downloading an ISO image, always check the HASH to make sure you have the correct ISO. HASHCALC is a good software to check the hash of iso images. More information on how to use hashcalc and also some of the hash and md5 of windows iso images can be found in this thread. The official hash can be found on MSDN, though you might have to be registered with MSDN to access it.

--> Also make sure that you select the lowest write speed. (I selected 4x) .

IMGBURN is good image burning software.

Hope this saves time for someone who gets this confusing error message...

Cheers!!!

Bluetooth Stereo on Windows 7 64 bit - Dell Inspiron 1525

I recently got a Arctic Sound P311 Bluetooth Stereo Headset (which btw is awesome!!!).

I tried connecting this to a inspiron 1525 laptop running windows 7 64 bit. Had some trouble and had to do a bit of googling to figure out how to use it. So here are the steps:

1) Get proper drivers. This thread provides names of the drivers which are required to get Windows 7 working properly on Inspiron. (for some reason, dell does not provide win 7 drivers for inspiron, so most of the drivers you see are still from dell, but are for Vista 64!!!)

For bluetooth we need the following drivers (and install them in same order)

R159805

R140135

Google up the terms above and download it from the dell link.

2) Once both these are installed, ADD a Device in Bluetooth and add your bluetooth headset. Windows will search for the correct drivers now and install them.

3) Once connected and configured, right click on the sound icon, select "playback devices" . Here you should be able to see two bluetooth devices "headset earphone - bluetooth hands-free audio" and "headset earphone - bluetooth stereo audio" . right click the latter and "test" it . Once you confirm it plays well, right click again and select "set as default communication device".

Enjoy wireless stereo audio from your laptop.

Cheers!!!