Dell Media Direct 3.5 Issues.

I'm on to my third XPS M1730 now because of various issues. My first 2 systems had no issues with Dell Media Direct 3.3. The third one came with 3.5. With the factory partitions/installation I had no issues.

What's happening now is whenever I try and load DMD it boots the program then hangs, displaying a blank window. I'm unable to kill the process nor am I able to shut down my laptop. I need to force a shutdown (holding down the power button for 5secs) to get the thing to power down. Same thing when I boot into DMD when the laptop is off. It boots into a blue screen (not BSOD) and sits there unable to load DMD. Again, I need to force a shutdown to continue.

I've tried numerous installs, using 2 partitions, multiple (custom) parititioning, and single partition, following the instructions to the letter in every case.

The only difference between this laptop/install and the one prior to it which worked with no issues is:

(1) Vista Beta SP1 vs. Vista SP1
(2) X7900 CPU vs. X9000 CPU (same bios however, both A06)
(3) DMD 3.3 vs. 3.5

I'm starting the think that SP1 is the culprit, although the DMD disk could have issues as well. I really can't see a CPU preventing DMD from launching.

Has anyone else experienced problems with Dell Media Direct 3.5? Any recommendations on how to fix this? I'm fresh out of ideas and XPS Tech Support is worthless on these matters.

 

There is a patch for 3.5. I don't know if it will help your problem or not.

Patch

You might try disabling PCMservice.exe in your services. That has been a problem for MediaDirect.

You could also check your registry to see if MediaDirect is disabled for some reason.

 

Awsome, thanks for the tips.

Some fresh ideas to try out, I was running dry.

Do you have a locatoin in the registry for this enable/disable bit for DMD?

I'll try the other 2 idea when I get home, see if that helps any.

 

If I remember correctly, it was under Local Machine>Software>Cyberlink>MediaDirect, but I don't remember the specific key.

 

I'll have to check it out.

Thanks again.

 

I found also that it shows the location in the registry, so if you re-partitioned, is the program in the same location?

You might check that, also. The only other idea would be to uninstall MediaDirect and use Ccleaner or another registry cleaner to completely remove it. Check the registry using the find function for any references to Cyberlink or MediaDirect and remove them. Reboot and re-install. Add the patch.

It is hard to figure things out online!

 

Are you sure the patch is required? It says it applies to version 3.0.

 

Maybe there is another patch besides the link that I posted, mine updated a patch automatically, after prompting me. If you could get the program to open. then you could click on updates to check it. However, you cannot get it to load.

I have version 3.5 and now its shows 3.5.3624, after updating a patch.

I have no idea whether it will fix your specific problem.

There have been many problems with MediaDirect. I am not even sure whether one could just get along without it. I hardly ever use it.

I am leaning towards your path being wrong since you partitioned, but that is just a guess.

 

If you uninstall, re-install it using the MediaDirect CD from the Windows folder on the CD.

 

Yeah I've tried that. (uninstall and reinstall)

I know what patch you're refferring too, it patched itself successfully on the factory install, but not on the new install since it's not properly loading.

Checked the registry, there's 3 enable registries, they're all set to enable.

Also tried killing the PCMService.exe process and running. It actually shows the dell media direct logo, but hangs again.

There's something really screwed up here. Anyone have more tips?

When I get some time I'll phone tech support and see what they have to say. Just too busy during the week to make a call. Hell, the only time I get to type on this forum is while I'm at work... ironically that's when my day actually slows down.