Dell Inspiron 1505 - Vista & stupid Dell Media Direct

I am really regretting this laptop purchase and ready to send Dell a sht sandwich. I am at my wit's end.

Dell Inspiron E1505, Intel Core2, Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit.

Purchased computer in early 2008, installed XP pro because wasn't confident in Vista with its issues. A little over a year later, the HD crashes. Computer service store replaces the HD, and installs the original OS with Dell DVDs (by this time SP1 had been released, so was comfortable with Vista).
Everything is running fine until last summer. Pick up the computer and the Dell Media Direct screen is on (can’t remember if it said Ntldr missing or if partition was missing). Couldn’t get the computer out of the loop, so back to the service store. They manage to get it running again preserving all of the files and it was at that point we invested in an external HD.
For the past several months, we’ve been noticing that the laptop wasn’t actually sleeping/hibernating when closing the lid. You could see that the screen was still on and it would occasionally make a sound like something was being plugged in the USB.
Realizing something funky was going on again, I shut the computer down. A few seconds later it turns back on with the DMD – Partition Missing screen. I hit the power button once to shut it down, and then again to turn it back on (to boot Windows).
At this point, decided to reinstall Windows (copied everything to ext HD) and did the full reinstall. Turned computer on/off several times, installing updates, etc.
Everything seemed to be fine. The laptop had been off for about 2 days when it turned itself back on, received a series of beeps and returned to the DMD partition missing screen. Hit the power button twice to get back to Windows and decided DMD was the problem, so I inserted the DMD reinstall, followed the instructions for reinstalling Vista as well and turned the laptop off for the night. Reinstalled all of the software and Windows updates and everything seemed to be fine, so I shut the computer down for the night. Woke up this morning and lo and behold! The laptop had turned itself back on and DMD was up and running again (fortunately, it was actually functional, so I was able to exit through the software and start Windows up again).
In the BIOS, the power-on functions from Shut-down mode are disabled, auto-on disabled. I changed all of the tasks in the task scheduler so that none of them would wake the computer from shut-down mode. The power options are set for either “do nothing” or “shut down” depending on the power state (no sleeping, no hibernation when closing the lid).

Why does Dell Media Direct continue to start on its own after the computer has shut down? We don’t use DMD and am fearful that it will eventually corrupt the system again.

At this point, I feel like my only option is to purchase Windows 7 (full install, not upgrade), format the hard drive and start over.

 

I couldn't say why Media Direct is messing with your system... but have you tried wiping the entire disk and doing a clean Windows install without Media Direct?

 

I thought about that, but wasn't sure if the Dell Windows installation DVD is only set up to install for the DMD. I think when the laptop repair place fixed it, they removed the DMD, but had to leave the partition there.

I am just wondering if there are any other conditions that would cause the laptop to power up after shutting down... but can't find any other BIOS settings that would cause it.

 

I think this article confirms my suspicions.

Tech Handbook - How to Upgrade the Hard Drive in a Dell Laptop

 

The Dell disk won't install DMD by default. There's a separate disk for that. If you boot to the Windows disk, it'll go through the regular Windows install process. You can format the entire drive and load it with a single partition.

 

OK, DMD started up from shutdown this morning. Opened the lid and exited.
Started up again from being shut down and it said DMD needed to be updated, exited and started Windows.
Was browsing the web looking for answers and DMD started up from within the Windows environment completely on its own.

What setting am I missing that is causing it to launch?

 

There's two things I can think of:

- Perhaps network boot? If this isn't already disabled in the BIOS, might as well disable it. Shouldn't be causing it, but it's something to rule out.
- The MediaDirect is supposed to start up when you press the "House" button near the top of the chassis. Perhaps that button is partially jammed? You mention using the power button to turn the laptop on and off, which makes perfect sense, but you never mention using the house button, so if it's jammed, it may be staying jammed. You ought to be able to remove the panel that includes the house button by moving the screen all the way back and using a flathead screwdriver or other wedge-like device to pop it off. Even just popping it off and putting it back might fix the issue, but checking for anything that might be causing the button to register as "pressed down" on its contact couldn't hurt.

But it might be just as easy to simply nuke Media Direct and install Vista without it. I believe Vista's setup will let you delete the Media Direct partition; if not, you can definitely use the GParted part of the SystemRescueCD to delete that pesky partition as well as the other two non-Windows partitions Dell includes by default. As long as you have your data backed up, you might as well delete all the partitions on the hard drive. Dell laptops certainly work perfectly fine without Media Direct; after it's gone, the house button is entirely non-functional, and everything else works fine. I haven't had Media Direct installed in almost three years. Best of luck.

 

Thanks Apollo, I appreciate the insights. Last night I disabled the wireless and it was still booting DMD without a network.
I doubt it is the MD button as well. It hasn't been pressed until the past 2 weeks when DMD started giving me problems.

Best thing I've heard in 3 weeks. I'm not familiar with Vista, which is why I was hesitant to do anything for fear of messing up the laptop. I will probably have more questions over the next few days (going to do some research first)...
Appreciate the insights!