Bought a Dell... Nothing but problems!

I bought my Dell about two weeks ago and received it about a week ago. I read that i should reformat it, so I i did but I left partition one alone. Everything worked fine UNTIL it came to trying to repair MediaDirect. I repaired it and everytime i clicked on it turned on but whenever I tried to scoll over and click on the Music Video, Pictures, DVD, Settings, or Help buttons nothing happened... So i went to PowerDVD just to notice PowerDVD doesnt play DVD's on my machine. So i downloaded PowerDVD 7 and got the DVD player to work. So i opened MediaDirect again... Nothing!. I tryed to open Dell Media Experience. But DVD's wouldn't play in that either. I kept clicking on the size of screen i wanted and then it asked me "What type of audio output does your computer have?" But it doesnt give me a list of anything to chose from. So i went to my device manager to look at the drivers and all the audio drivers are installed. So i just clicked next without installing anything. Then it asked for my registration information so i typed it in and clicked next, but everytime that I did that it would keep freezing up I couldn't figure out why my computer was doing this. So i called up Dell thinking everything would be fine and they would send me the MediaDirect CD and they did. I bought MagicPartition so i could delete the old MediaDirect Partition and that is when i noticed something was really wrong. There wasn't any MediaDirect partition. I am guessing that Dell never installed it because you cannot delete MediaDirect from the Partition section in XP. So i partition 1.5 GB out of the end of my partition and tryed to install MediaDirect. Media got through 10% percent before I got a copying Error. So I tried to talk to dell but turns out there Tech Support closes at Midnight CST... But i called them at 11:30 CST and it said they were closed... And it is crap tech support when they say they are closing at 12 but are closed at 11:30 If i had it all over again I would spend the extra money to get an HP DV8000 instead of a Dell E1705... I am soo frustruted with Dell right now... I tryed to request a new harddrive but they asked me if I would restart and run the 90/90 test which is restarting pressing F12 and selecting IDE... To bad there is no selection when you press F12 that is IDE... And when i log back on to talk to then they are closed at 11:30... Deel gets an F in customer service...

 

That's why I never trust and buy Dell notebooks!

 

ur probably doing something wrong. seriously.

u havta make a separate partition again, install media direct there, and everything works fine. u've opt to do it the confusing way

i haven't repaired media direct yet, since when i reinstalled Windows, I forgot to make a 4-5GB partition. o well. useless button.

 

The whole statement started with:

I read that i should reformat it, so I i did but I left partition one alone. Everything worked fine UNTIL it came to trying to repair MediaDirect.

It seems as though the problem you had was caused by you.

As far as dells support closing 30 minutes early. If they have a wait over that amount of time, they would close early. Any other customer service would do the same.

If there was no IDE choice, was there a SATA?

 

As the guy above said, it is YOUR fault. Dell didnt make you mess up the reformat. Dont go badmouthing dell when you screwed up.

 

Just because you own Dells doesn't mean you have the rights to blame other people for doing something wrong or maybe it IS Dell's fault for screwing the guy's notebook. Dell's quality is quite crap but the service shouldn't be that bad.

 

Also, didn't I post something in your thread about something overheating? ISN'T that DELL's fault? When people do have problems with Dells, it's not their fault but Dell's. SO STOP BACKING THEM UP ALL THE TIME LIKE THEY'RE SOME SORT OF GUARDIAN ANGEL, OK??

 

It was about a power adapter, and it wasnt "overheating". It was a little warmer than I thought it would be, and I wanted to check to see if it was normal.

And how about you STOP RAILING ON THEM LIKE ITS SOME SORT OF DEMONIC PLAGUE.

HP isnt exactly great either...

 

Calm down dude !!! I am sensing you have a few issues with Dell's,have you thought about counseling?? I think Dell run a free program haha

 

I agree it is his fault he is having problems.

 

Ok... I have been working with SouthernGirl for a while now on this problem... And I told her that i ust be doing something small wrong and she agrees with me... Says that I am doing everything right and she doesn't understand why this is happening... And i did make a separate partition using PartitionMagic (as i said above) at the end of my harddrive... And I also dont see how it is my fault when the Dell Tech Support Chat person says I have you IP restart click F12 find IDE (and by the way there is no SATA) so i log back on at it is 11:30 and it says they are closed... So I just dont see how Dell not installing MediaDirect is my fault.... YOU CAN DELETE MEDIADIRECT FROM THE XP PARTITION SCREEN IT IS A HIDDEN PARTITION! And i have repaired MediaDirect (about 4 times now)

 

Sorry I mean can't

 

Did u leave the 45MB partition alone when u reformatted? people who delete this tend to run into more problems then people who don't. If you did delete it then that would explain why you can't run the diagnostics. If I were you i'd just have Dell send you a new machine.

 

Is MediaDirect really worth all this fuss? IMO MediaDirect is a waste of time as it adds some trivial functionality. It shouldn't be giving you this much hassle. I suggest you re-install and when you re-install delete all partitions on your HD, create one new one, and install Windows on that partition. You won't have media direct, but who cares? You WON'T have problems with it if you don't have it.

On a side note: It's much easier for other forum members to consider helping you if you take time to properly construct your posts (correct spelling, etc.). It's very hard to read your posts and I suggest you take some more time in the future to make them look more civil.

As far as others complaining about you causing this problem or it being Dell's fault, I think this is a trivial argument as nobody is suggesting any constructive fixes for you in this thread.

 

i agree... paragraphs help... a LOT

 

Ok, Sorry... I am just really frustrated because everything just isn't working out to anything.

SouthernChild and I now believe that my problem is the harddrive. Except I ran into another problem, I just finished talking to Tech Support at Dell and they told me that my problem had nothing to do with the harddrive and that they would not send me a new harddrive.

So I am back to square 1...

Any Ideas anyone?

Again guys I apologize for taking my frustration to the forum.

 

I have to agree that MD can cause more trouble than it's worth. My Mediadirect works fine but it won't play DVDs for some reason and it hasn't been a big enough problem ffor me to bother fixing it(I can still boot Windows and play DVDs fine)

Also in the future, calling tech support is the LAST thing you do unless there is a specific thing you need(replacement part, send PC back etc...) Unlike us here on the forums, those people aree just reading off scripts and have alterior motives to help you.($$$)

 

No, I did not delete Partition 1.

I used this forums reformatting guide to reformat.

 

Yes, I agree it is no big deal...

It is just one of those things that bugs me because when I gets a brand new laptop i expect everything to work right, and when something doesn't work as I expected I get a little frustrated

 

Mitchell345, the problem you describe seem to be self inflicted. On top of that, the problems are probably very easily fixed and you just arent doing something right.

You should reformat, erase ALL partitions and try again. and yes you CAN erase the media direct partition, even when its hidden. Just do it with the windows xp setup.

Also its funny that the only problem you are having is with media direct, and so you are threatening to go to HP. Funny cuz HP doesnt have media direct =D.

 

Can you point me in the right direction without having to reformat?

I just did reformat and deleted everything but partition 1. I didn't see a MediaDirect partition when i looked at the partitions in XP, but maybe i missed it and accidently deleted it.

I looked at the partitions with PartitionMagic and it I have heard the PartitionMagic shows hidden partitions. It didn't show a partition for MediaDirect. So, I created a new 1.5 GB partition. I tried to reinstall it and it go to 10% and then it said that there was a problem coping MediaDirect files to your harddrive.

Just so you know, MediaDirect isn't the only place that I am having problems. I am having problems with Dell Media Experience. Whenever i click on DVD in DME I keep getting DME does not support DVD playback. PowerDVD does not play DVD's.

The reason I threatened to switch to HP is because i'm pretty sure that HP's can play DVD's without this much trouble...

 

changfest is right.

mediadirect or whatever it's called is waste of HD space.

if all you want to do is watch dvds, just use WMP or VLC or Zoom player or a million other free players out there.

STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS AND RECLAIM YOUR WASTED HD SPACE !!!!

 

Yea I would forget about the media direct player. I havent installed it myself since I reformatted. But anyways when you reformat make sure you erase every partition through the windows xp setup.

Then try following Southerngirls directions for installing mediadirect.

 

Okay guys... first of all, all of the bashing needs to stop right now. I've spent the last week trying to help this guy, so it isn't all of his fault. If you are going to start pointing fingers then you should point them at me since I'm the one that was telling him what to do. I don't care if you for dell or not, this forum is about helping users. It doesn't matter who's fault it is. All that matters is that this guy needs help and that's our job.

Mitchell, there is one thing that I didn't think about last night, but reading over this thread it kind of hit me like a ton of bricks. When you posted about getting to 10% and then it stopped, that sent off red flags.

Ages ago, when MD first came out on the new systems and users were deleting all of the partitions and all of that mess, they would reach errors when they tried to reinstall MD. The reason was because they didn't allow enough space.

Remember how we were talking about you needed to 2gb instead of the 1.5. I wonder if that might be causing *part* of the problem. I'm not going to say all of it cause I still can't figure out why MD and DME won't play DVDs.

 

This is becoming a hot thread!

 

I did mine and lost md but frankly i could care less now my lappy smokes like Bobby Brown when whitney is out shoping lol

Id like to see any other lappy in this price range run like this bad boy !!!

 

One problem I've read people having is that they're confusing mediadirect repair with mediadirect create. The two are totally different things. You need the the MD create utility in order to install MD on a partition, the repair is for fixing an installation after a reformat. That's the only thing I can think of at the momment based on what you've said.

As for Windows not playing DVDs, I'd try to play one using WMP and see what happens.

 

Hey guys, sorry it has taken me so long to replay, I have been on vacation for the past three days.

Southern Girl... I changed my partition size to 2.5 GB. I tried it both NTFS and not formatted. Both of them had the same error and nothing. But good news, I tried Dell Customer Support once again (now for the forth time) and I was able to convince them to send me a new hard drive. I guess that it is just the person that you get. This time i didn't have to argue with the person to try to get a new HD. That's a first for me with Dell Customer Support.

Like I said, it really isn't really that big of a deal to me. It is just the principal of the idea. When I spend $2000+ on a laptop I expect everything to work correct. I didnt mean to put up that big of a fuss on this forum.

Again, sorry for all of the complaining that I have been doing.

 

I don't know, but I hope this fixes everything. I have no explanation for why it is all messed up.

 

Yeah, to me this issue didn't seem like a hard drive issue. It seemed more like a software issue. Particularly with how the partitions were setup. I'm still not sure after reading this thread that the MediaDirect partition was setup correctly for re-install. I've never done it myself, so I can't help with that part of the problem. I would have tried to remove all partitions on the drive through Windows XP setup. If you could have done that and installed XP on its own partition, I see no reason why you wouldn't do that.

Dell is most likely going to send you a blank hard drive without MediaDirect setup on it so you may have the same problems. If you succeed with a new hard drive, I'm baffled as to why the other one didn't work.

 

Didn't read SouthernGirls post before, so editing this post.

 

If this new HD doesn't work, is there a way that I can reassign that button... Maybe to boot a different operating system or to open Itunes in while in Windows or something like that?

 

AFAIK, you can't reassign it. The new HDD should work.

 

Almost sounds like trolling to me...