Dell MediaDirect v3.0 button STOPPED working after New Motherboard Install

This is the the last Dell I will ever purchase. Recently Dell shipped me a new motherboard which I installed. Consequently today I wanted to boot directly into MediaDirect when the laptop was off. So I went ahead and instead it started up windows XP, meaning that somehow the MediaDirect 3 is now broken. I can boot into it fine within window by hitting the MediaDirect button but its not booting into it from the "off" state.

I tried the repair utility on the dell site that is an iso BUT that didn't work. And since Dell does such a POOR job of adding descriptions to there software downloads, there is no way to tell if that fix was for MediaDirect 1-2.0 or 3.0.

Anyone out there have any advice on what I should do? I have the reinstall MediaDirect 3.0 cd but that requires a complete install (not an option).

 

bump. Come on so no one else has had there Dell mediaDirect 3 stop functioning from a power off mode??

 

Did this happen immediately after you installed the m/b, or did it function as advertised for a period of time after you installed the m/b? What laptop do you have? Was the motherboard an exact replacement? What link did you follow to get the repair utility? Have you contacted Dell about this problem, or asked them to send the Media Direct 3 disc?

 

hi kegobeer,

Ok I am not 100% sure when the MediaDirect 3 stopped working. I haven't used the application since I had installed the motherboard. All the partitions are there as they should be including the final 2GB which houses MediaDirect. Only other thing that may have caused any sort of change was that I applied that MediaDirect update that I saw when I was inside the application in the settings. The following day I lauched from "off" with the MediaDirect button and it went into XP.

I have an inspiron e1505/6400. Dell sent me the exact same motherboard as a replacement.

Things are nuts now. I ran the MediaDirect repair utility (Didn't realize that it was for 2.0 since Dell site says nothing about specs) That didn't fix things and so I went ahead and uninstalled MediaDirect via the Add/Remove function in windows (thinking it might have been the patch). Well that uninstalled the whole application and when I put the cd in to reinstall it, it tells me to reparation on reboot.

Dell's software sucks! I suspect something changed in my MBR when I installed the new motherboard and now I cannot find any info on getting it fixed without a clean install.

PS here is the Dell file that has the fix but I am almost 100% sure its ONLY for MediaDirect 1.0-2.0
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=25&fileid=212557

 

You should be able to install Media Direct 3 again within Windows without problems. You shouldnt need to reinstall your OS, since when you run the MD CD on a reinstall, all it does is create the partitions. Since your HDD wasnt replaced the partitioning should still be intact.

Try another reinstall of the MD software. I installed my OS without MD, since I rarely use it from boot, only within the OS. I then installed MD within Vista, and it went through fine.

 

I haven't actually found myself using Dell Media Direct (though I haven't got around to uninstalling it to reclaim the disk space either).
My feeling is that with the machine usually in the sleep state it is quicker to resume Windows than it would be to boot Media Direct. Is that so?
If that is the case - is it possible that what is happening is that the Media Direct can detect Windows is asleep and therefore resumes Windows instead of launching Media Direct?

[I also had my m'board changed and also installed BIOS A09 - I suppose I might test later if Media Direct is still working]

 

You just have the boot manager messed up. If the button works to start up something, it is not a hardware issue.
MediaDirect is nice if you installed the codec for watching MP4 files.