Dell 11 3000 needs device driver to re install OS

I have a Dell Inspiron 11 3000 (3168, ) that will not allow the re-installation of Win7 or win10 OS.

I have tried all combination of the BIOS Legacy/UEFI - Secure boot (OFF) settings, along with the USB boot memsticks having multiple different versions of Win7 and Win10. I have even loaded Linux/GPart on to a USB memstick, booted into Linux Gparted and wipe the hard drive clean.

This laptop was given to me because someone, prior to me, had done "something" and it would not boot whatsoever or respond to any keystrokes other than Bios setup(F2) and boot order (F12), and I would get an on screen display of either generic DOS "No boot device" message or a Dell message saying "No boot device"!

As it stands with the hard drive wiped, and a bootable USB memstick loaded with either Win 7 OR WIN 10, the installation process proceeds normally right up to the point where you choose your OS install hard drive and then an error message is displayed that says "A required drive device driver is missing" that does not appear to be on either version (Win7 or Win10) of the bootable USB memstick.

So how do I acquire/supply/provide that driver during either installation process? A second USB drive? and where do I get that driver from?

 

OK, info update. I opened this machine up and there is NO HDD or SSD in this unit, just a permanently mounted 32gb MMC chip from Sandisk.

I d/led a couple Dell suggested file(s), in (f6flpy-x64.zip) extracted those 6 files to 2nd USB and chose that 2nd USB memstick when Win7/10 install stopped and asked for drivers for the on-board mmc 29gb device. What seems to be the drivers and driver install program starts~stops, and still Win7/10 will not install to the 29gb MMC drive!

If the Sandisk MMC 29gb drive is configured as UEFI, and the Win OS install isn't recognizing it because BIOS isn't controlling it, AND I change BIOS from Legacy to UEFI to control it, then this Dell won't boot from the (non-UEFI) USB memstick(win7 or the Win10)!

I don't think the installation medium(CD/DVD vs USB) is the problem. It's Dells screwy idea for a hard drive
(Sandisk/MMC) that needs special(?) drivers to be recognized by the Win OS!

 

HI, and just read your post, Yes OMG if you wipe the soldered on 32gb eMMC on any of these kind of laptops its a nightmare to reinstall the OS. Anyone who reads this know that its 10000000% worth it to pay a little more and get the laptops with HDs not these puny 32gb eMMC, they have almost no room on them for programs. real usable space after Windows is about 12gb for programs and files................I sold my acer 11 inch because windows could not update due to no room.
I now have a Dell 11 3168 but the 4gb 500HD version which I swapped out the HD with a 240gb Sandisk plus.
Since I bought it refurb from Dell it was 149 for laptop and the Sandisk was 59 at Christmas its not bad at all

If you do have one of these eMMC 32gb windows laptops, do not wipe the hard drive to reinstall unless you have read the procedure, as far as I know these are meant to never be wiped and reinstall the OS

Good luck

 

DRFP, yeah I thought about that AFTERWARDS . . . . but my thinking at the time (also not knowing it was a 32gb-29gb MMC) was that there was something on the hard drive affecting the OS install and many times in the past a hard drive wipe has solved problems. But seriously who in their right minds puts a "32gb/29gb" hard drive in a computer?
Anyway, whether I wiped significant data off of the MMC SSD device ( with the exception of a restore partition) the install error is not looking for LOST/WIPED data, it's looking for a device driver to access the MMC!!

Anyhow, all other avenues expired, I posted this message at Dell forums . . .

" I have a Dell Inspiron 11 3168, that will not allow the re-installation of Win10 or a Win7 OS. I have tried all combinations of the BIOS Legacy/UEFI - Secure boot (OFF) settings, along with the USB boot memsticks having multiple different versions of Win10 and Win7.

I have even loaded Linux/GPart on to a USB memstick, booted into Linux Gparted and wipe the hard drive clean.
This laptop was given to me because someone, prior to me, had done "something" and it would not boot whatsoever or respond to any keystrokes other than Bios setup(F2) and boot order (F12), and I would get an on screen display of either generic DOS "No boot device" message or a Dell message saying "No boot device"!

As it stands with the hard drive wiped, and a bootable USB memstick loaded with either Win10 OR Win7, the installation process proceeds normally right up to the point where you choose the hard drive to install OS, and then an error message is displayed that says "A required drive device driver is missing" that does not appear to be on either version (Win10 or Win7) of the bootable USB memstick.
I opened this machine up and there is NO HDD or SSD in this unit, just a permanently mounted 32gb MMC chip from Sandisk.

The problem lies with WHATEVER OS I try to install with! (UEFI or LEGACY) It needs to access the "MMC 32gb" chip as a hard drive. I shot an email off to Sandisk (mfr of the MMC32gb Chip) and they say it was specially made for Dell and they cannot/will not supply the driver to me!
I was directed by a friend to go here(link below replace xx with tt) and select "Operating System" download for this 3168 and the MMC driver would be slip streamed into the image file download!!

hxxp://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/inspiron-11-3168-2-in-1-laptop/drivers/advanced

I went to the link above to get "3168 " system image with MMC driver, and instead of downloading the 3186 image file, You MUST download a DELL "dellsystemdetectlauncher.application" file first, to start the Dell 3168 Image download! I guess something is supposed to happen after you install the above download, but nothing did.
A GOOD guess would be installing that file on my Lenovo Thinkpad was not the proper procedure. Where else would/could I install the dellsystemdetectlauncher.application" download considering the 3168 is NOT booting up?

How the hell am i supposed to install a Dell system Detect program on a computer that doesn't start/run/boot up?
So, beings the procedure recommended listed for getting the Dell 3168 is impossible to implement, how do I acquire/supply/provide that MMC driver or the 3168 image file to start the OS installation process?

Thank you in advance . . ."

I am currently awaiting a reply from Dell which most likely will be on Monday!

thanks, DRFP for your input and reply

 

DRFP, you also stated, "do not wipe the hard drive to reinstall unless you have read the procedure, as far as I know these are meant to never be wiped and reinstall the OS"
What would ( or where can I find the correct procedure if MMC SSD drives proliferate) the correct procedure be?
. . and could you point me to your source that said these MMC's are never to be wiped? They are relatively a new PROPRIETARY idea/device developed for Dell and as above Sandisk would offer no help!

thanks once more.

 

I'm truly sorry and feel your pain on this, It is why I sold my Acer and went to what I have, I learned a lesson and hope others will read our stories. I agree these 32gb eMMC systems are not bargains to those of us who want to upgrade to more or change the OS

 

Hello PClaptop, did you ever get anywhere with this, I have fallen into the same trap, and its not even my computer?

 

well I was able to download a custom windows 10 image from the link in your post it was weird though they made me install dell system detect into my non dell pc before the download would start. I will report back tomorrow to see if the image works. I have a feeling it will the bad part is the image is 6.37GB sounds like a lot of bloatware to me, which is probably the reason they make you use their custom image, man i hate dell. At least this customer will have her computer back fingers crossed

 

i am also on same trap.i bought dell inspiron 11 32gb model then i wiped out the preinstalled winodws 10 home now i am struggling to install linux into it,i tried arch linux,gentoo,centos,bodhi linux but pathetically failed in everything so please tell me is there a way to install os into it

 

hello DRFP i have dell inspiron 11 32gb one and i wiped out the preinstalled windows 10 home and pathetically trying to install new os the linux one i tried arch linux ,genttoo,centos,bodhi,ubuntu etc but couldn't able to install anything please tell me how to install it please help me

 

hi i found a way to install new os you need to turn off legacy boot and secure boot then turn on boot mode to UEFI to install linux. i tried with many linux like centos,arch linux,gentoo linux,ubuntu but i failed in them then i searched a lite weight linux on google then i found the bodhi linux and i tried to install it.after many trials i successfully installed it on my dell inspiron 11(3162)2gb ram 32gb model and celron processor and preinstalled with windows 10 home.hope this will help you i am not a tech i just tried it so dont know about any technical errors so be careful when you tries it i just tried it luckily got success.

 

Hello .After thouroughly going through all the forums and viewing all the videos on this problem I think found a solution( atleast it worked for me). tried installing the OS through an external dvd drive instead of a Pen drive. I pressed F11 and then tried selecting the F12 booting options, it took me to the booting options screen , there i selected the UEFI cd/dvd option and it started to boot.

regards


PS: I dont know if this has anything to do with the installing process but i tried 'ctrl + F11' , it gave me a diagnostic clear message and then rebooted the laptop again

 

For the Dell flavour of these cheap laptops I suggest the following;

you can download an image using service tag of the device, in my case it gave a me a windows 10 image straight to USB key.. Win10 is too large for 32gig thats obvious, my preference was windows 7 but not enough drivers and failed to start so opted for windows 8.1 still much smaller.

I used an UEFI bootable USB created in rufus and a iso containing both win7 and win8, this loaded the required USB drivers which are not present in the win7 iso.
I assume here you have erased your Emmc disc already!!

Go ahead and insert the recovery usb from dell, boot up from it now..
once the device reaches 44% completed turn of the machine and remove the flash drive, I only used it to setup the Emmc format and partitions.
now insert you windows installation disc , ideally an iso containing win8 and 7

 

continuing on ... sorry wrong button hit !
and reboot tapping the manual boot key to select the uefi usb key we have made, interestingly the bios on these machines is happy to accept and NTFS format instead of fat32 and still boot fine..

Win 8 will load out of the box missing some drivers, these are easy to find just add the wireless driver and use windows update to locate the missing drivers...

Win 7 is a bigger problem as it can't boot the laptop out of the box, drivers will need adding to the install i expect - just gets in a boot loop after installation.

 

As i can understand in that topic you cant solve this issue, ive got a Dell Inspiron 11 3000 (duck Fell!) and have the same problem. Ive find out a solve https://community.spiceworks.com/to...indows-10-on-dell-inspiron-11-3162-emmc-drive
If you had a black screen after booting from usb, just turn off legacy boot in bios - intel integrated garphic problems. Also i turnd off tpm-module (whatever, just turn it off - dont let evil to prevail!).
Best regards
from mother-Russia
P.S. because i have to spend for this problem 3 days of my life, register on this forum just to post a link.
P.P.S. Also duck a fell support team. U guys suck.

 

I found on my Inspiron 11 3162 that if you turn on UEFI, you can't boot to anything other than the hard drive, regardless of the settings on legacy or secure boots. It will not boot to linux.

My solution, so far, has been to install Linux (in my case Linux MInt) from one USB stick (my multi-boot) to another USB stick in the other port. The new main drive is the USB and the internal emmc drive will be storage. This laptop came with Windows 10 on it and it is stupidly slow.

 

Let this be some information. Buy the 11 3000 that has the hard drive in it, not the 32gb. It's only a little bit more, but it saves so many headaches in the long run. I understand the frusturations. I never had any issues with dells C.S. however. They walked me through everything on my systems no issue.

 

Thankfully, this laptop was given to me, otherwise, I would never have gone for something so small. My main laptop is a 17" --- SO much easier to see!!