MediaDirect Resintallation CD for E1705?

Hi Rob

Thanks for your instructions re post#182 - they worked perfectly. After trying many methods including Nucomers, these were the best and didn't need a 1308Mb partition as per Dell's instructions.

The only strange thing is that on a clean install, when XP booted and I ran the MediaDirect reinstallation CD it got to 4% and stopped (about 10 seconds in my DVD drive). I thought it hadn't worked but continued with your guide and everything is fine. Can boot XP and MD using the laptop buttons, and can search my HDD for files.

Thanks again!

 

Chimp_Nabers, I m glad it worked for you. Trust me when I say this. I spent many hours trying to get MediaDirect working. Many tips came from other users from Notebookreview. If it was not for these little tips here and there, I would never have gotten this little bug working. . Thanks all for posting here at notebookreview.

 

Dear All,

Finally after waiting for close to 2 weeks, Dell has finally shipped me the CDs they say I would need to reinstall MediaDirect:

1) CD titled "Application - For Reinstalling Dell MediaDirect"
2) CD titled "Application - For Reinstalling Dell Tools System Software" - Contents: Antivirus software, Support software, Multimedia software, Internet Software.

I did not see a CD labled Dell Media Experience.

Question is, I am hestitant to try to install #2 CD as this CD seems to contain all the bloatware that came with the computer in the first place. Should I not install CD #2?

The OS on my system is Win XP Pro and I want to know if I do need the to find the software called Dell Media Experience as stated here on the board before I go ahead to reformat and reinstall MediaDirect. From what I can gather, I need to install Dell Media Experienec before trying to install Dell MediaDirect? If this is the case, than which CD that came with the PC will contain the Dell Media Experience software?


Thanks again for any info.

 

I recommend that you do not reformat all the partitions. the only one you should reformat is the OS partition(the biggest) and another one that is around 5 gig os size(where restoration is with all the junk) the smallest partition is around 30-40 megs, Dont reformat that one. Thats where MediaDirect is if you have E1705/9400. After reinstalling Windows in the Big Partition, all you have to do a MediaDirect Repair. You can download MediaDirect repair ISO at dell.com. Just trying to help you with future trouble with MediaDirect.

 

for the life of me i cannot get my laptop to boot from the cds i use to create the MediaDirect Repair Utility.

 

I also have some trouble sometimes booting from a cd. This is what you do. Make sure that the cd tray is open when you boot your pc. Press F12 to show the boot options. Put the bootable cd into the tray and right when you close the tray competely, you will hear this click(that click happens when you close the tray competely) then you hit enter to boot from the cd. That shoud do it. If not, another way is when you close the cd tray, wait until the drive reads the cd..it take a second or two. When you hear that the drive is spining fast, hit the option to boot from the cd/dvd drive. Hope this helps.

 

Butterfinger, to answer your question whether to use the Dell Utility CD or not. I would suggest to download the drivers on-line at dell.com rather than use the dell utility cd. I say this because through the web page you can select nicely and clearly what you need and what (junk) you do not need.

To do this go to the download center and select your computer, I do not know what computer you have but for sure for m140/630m everything is there at dell.com. I know this because I have downloaded all the drivers I needed there.

I am sure you know how to do this but if someone is not that expert better to use the utility cd but if a person has a little knowledge how to download and install drivers go for dell.com download center.

Could someone answer the question regarding the Dell Experience Program. Can this be ordered for free at dell.com or downloaded (I did not see it on-line at dell.com)? I have windows media center edition 2005 therefore, I did not need it for MediaDirect.

Comment on this forum: great people here always very helpful!!!!

Cool!!!

 

Great work everyone! Thank you all for your efforts to fix this and help other users. I've been lurking this thread for a few days to prepare me for the arrival of my new e1705 that is coming this Wednesday. My first task is going to be to remove MCE from it and install XP Pro as I purchased the unit from the Dell Outlet store and could not adjust the OS to my liking. To avoid as many problems as possible I wanted to see if I got the explanation right.

My understanding is that I should be able to remove the main MCE partition as well as the next largest partition that houses the image and restore info, but should leave the <100MB partition alone. If I combine the main and utility parition into a single partition and install XP Pro and install drivers and quickset and then boot from and use the MediaDirect Repair CD. I may be OK? I'm trying to avoid having to rely on Dell to send me the right CD to get moving on the new system. I plan on ordering it from them for the future, but would like to be able to use the system as I want as quickly as possible.

Thanks again!

 

Howdy again!

Just thought I'd share a quick success story with getting MD to work after a reformat/reinstall of my E1705. When I formatted, I left the 40 MB "diagnostics" partition (NOT the 5 GB "recovery" partition) intact. As best I can tell, that is where MD resides. Of course, if one were to delete ALL partitions, then Rob's plan for partitioning and reinstalling sounds like a good one. All I had to do, in my case, was to run the downloaded MediaDirect Repair Utility once. No unbootable XP, no BSOD, all good-to-go. I can, by the way, search the HD for media from withing MediaDirect.

So, for any readers who have not yet nuked their E1705, I highly suggest deleting the big C: partition, the smaller 5GB partition, but again, leave the smallest (30-40MB) partition intact! That will save the pain of having to reinstall MediaDirect from scratch. In my case, the repair utility did the trick, but only because that that partition was still intact.

Many thanks to Rob and everyone else who patiently contributed to this very helpful discussion!!


Take care!

~Oats

 

I gave up on the Media experince. It didn't even work for me out of the box! My 9400 came with MCE and it seems to be tied to the media direct button. I tried the repair cd etc. no joy - so I'm going to abandon it (I could fix it with time and effort but I wouldn't use it much anyway). Pressing it with the notebook off brings up the bios splash screen for MeidaDirect but then boots to windows and loads windows media center. Dell Media experience 3 etc is installed, and I tried reassociating it etc. I wouldn't mind it not working after a format but out of the box pees me off.

 

Wingnut, see if this works. After pressing the MediaDirect button while the laptop is off, immediately keep tapping the F8 key. If a menu comes up with 2 choices, continue with restart or delete..., CHOOSE the Delete...so MediaDirect can reprogram itself with your machine hardrive. If the screen did not show such option, did you reformat your entire hardrive when getting the laptop? Or it never worked when you got the laptop? If things don’t work out, try this also. Reboot your pc with MediaDirect repair cd. You can download the ISO form dell.com and make a cd out o it. After booting the pc with the MediaDirect repair cd, type cd md2 then repair then OK to repair. After it shows done. Power off your pc and then Press the MediaDirect button and keep tapping the F8 key. It should show you a screen like I described above; to continue with pc restart or deleted.... Choose Delete. If that does not work, follow the steps thread #182 here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=40902&page=19

Hope things work out for you.

 

OATS - Great! I was hoping that would do the trick. I will confirm success here when I get my machine on Wednesday.

Again, thank you all for your help in the frustrating issue.

 

Thanks robjbw. It never worked. All partitions for meidadirect are present and correct never touched. Ran the repair CD batch file and it says repair successful. The boot options are for Windows Media Center only there are no repair entries etc in the boot.ini so f8 only brings up advanced boot options for the one instance of the OS.

The strange this is it shows the media direct splash screen when the button is pressed. I have a feeling that the windows media center is overriding the dell experience somehow. When I first pressed the button in windows it loaded the dell software, but since running windows media cener the dell experience no longer loads on the button, only windows media center.

Its exactly the same problem as doughy and I'm convinced its Windows MCE to blame. Ho-hum

 

Hi all,
well i tried to follow robjbw's install notes but it still never worked for me, I thought id give it a go today but was a waste of time, Wingnut my problem is the same as yours, if you do get a way to get it working then please message me mate.
Many Regards

 

Has anyone actually figured this out yet? I've been reading this thread and I've spent countless hours trying to get MediaDirect back on my E1705 with no luck. I thought today I found the answer when I ran the Repair Utility BEFORE installing Win XP. The dang thing actually worked and I didn't even have Windows installed! I had already wiped out all my partitions, so I think this proves that mediadirect is in a hidden partition, but I guess everyone here already figured that out. Soooo... when I tried to install windows after getting mediadirect working, it wouldn't install- saying my hd was corrupt. Ugh, back to square one I guess. This is really getting old.

 

im not really new to reformatting, but i am new to creating partitions and dealing with them, can rob or anyone please send a detailed explanation to me at [email protected] or post something to let me know how to reformat my e1705 notebook with the dell media direct. I know its been all over this forum but i am just so confused and i dont really know what to do. I also have another question, do i need the dell windows xp cd for 10 extra bucks? or can i use my own windows xp home or pro cd that i have? Thanks a lot guys plese let me know what i need from dell and how to get my computer clean and reformatted with media direct. i am also not looking for multiple partitions, just one for operating system and media direct

 

I realized that if you password protect your notebook and make folders private, you won't be able to see your music and photos using MD. I believe when you create a password for your Windows log in and it asks you if you want to make your folders private, you must say "NO".

The only thing I cannot get MD to read is the 5 in 1 card reader... Also, MD Repair Utility CD I created does not work when I try to boot into it... any one else found a solution.

 

I've read that MediaDirect lives in the Utility partition. I have a hard drive image of the whole factory e1705 setup, and can mount the individual partitions under linux from the image (using the sector offset). I have it mounted right now, but where is Media Direct? Is it in the FAT filesystem in the "de" partition? I don't see any executables that look promising. Or is it in a non-filesystem portion of that partition? I have a bunch of .mdm files, dellbio.bin, dellrmk.bin, etc. Any ideas where MD2 is?

 

Has anyone been able to get the correct cds from Dell because I'm having a HELL of a time?

 

Thank you Rbjbw, this worked for me! Well, almost. I wasn't able to install MediaDirect as stated in step 9 because it said that "setup was unable to allocate to the partition" or something like that. So I just skipped it and continued and the da** thing works anyway! So maybe you really don't need to re-install the software?? Who knows.

This was to be my last effort. If it didn't work, then I was offically giving up and just going to accept the fact that MediaDirect won't work and never will work on my system. My cat hadn't been fed in 3 days, LOL! I can't tell you how many times I've reformatted and reinstalled Win XP within the past week, it's ridiculous.

Is Dell aware of the problem people are having with this? I hope they update their documentation soon because the tech sheet that was shipped with my MediaDirect CD is pretty much useless.

Anyway, I'm glad to be done dealing with this! Thanks again rbjbw!

 

So do I actually need the MediaDirect Reinstall CD or are people just using MediaDirect Repair CD? This whole thing has me confused.

 

From my experience, I didn't need the reinstall CD, just the repair CD. It seems like if I didn't need, why would anyone else? The whole thing has me baffled too. Did anyone ever figure out for sure where the MediaDirect lives? In the RAM? In with the restore software?

 

Well I guess I should tell everyone that I completely wiped every visable partition upon my original reinstall of XP.

 

bigmo- I haven't had a chance to go back and read all the posts on this thread, so sorry if I'm being redundant. Did you follow robjbw's steps? Did that not work for you? Do you have an E1705?

 

Well I haven't followed those steps because I thought I needed the MediaDirect Reinstall CD but it kind of looks like I do not after coming back and reading more(I gave up for a couple weeks and it was last left that we needed a reinstall cd), my reinstall cd should be here tomorrow so I will do it then!

 

supposedly media direct is in the 40mb partition (use to be utilities partition). If you delete that, then you'll have to follow rob's or one of the other methods.

I'm just not sure what all you have to do if you leave the 40mb partition there.

 

Alright I'll give it a try, Thanks

 

When i make these partitons and try and continue windows wont carry on unless i format the first 8mb partiton, how do u carry on?

 

Doesn't Oats's post, #209, say what to do?

 

Bigmo -, If you deleted all partitions using the Windows OS setup CD, but did not do the Full format (wipe and erase. Wish takes forever if you choose this option), and rather used the quick format, then you “might not” need the reinstallation CD. Quick format only deletes the partitions. But it does not wipe/erase the files from the hard drive/that partition permanently. If you use the full erase/wipe format option, then you need to reinstallation CD. Full format, totally wipes out the MediaDirect files (every files, programs etc...) from the hard drive.

 

doughy, did you read all my instructions?

…after you create the partitions, restart your pc with the MediaDirect repair CD. Boot the laptop with the CD and type CD md2 the repair and ok to repair. Then restart your laptop with the Windows OS CD again. Now, delete only the Windows OS partition that was created before and then recreate the Windows OS partition and choose that partition to install windows XP. Choose quick format.


PS: MY INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR PEOPLE THAT DELETED THIER ORIGINAL 40 MB "diagnostics" partition (WHERE MEDIADIRECT IS). IF YOU DID NOT DELETED THAT PARTITION, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS RUN THE MEDIADIRECT REPAIR CD AFTER REINSTALLING WINDOWS OS.

 

I had done a full format (not quick) prior to following robjbw's instructions, and I still didn't need the re-install CD. I thought the difference between a full and quick format was that the full format checked for bad sectors....they both do a full wipe/erase of the hard drive?? I could totally be wrong...

 

Isn't your instructions for the users that did delete all of their partitions? Just trying to make sure i have which instructions for each situation correct

 

SouthernGirl , I made a mistake typing. Thanks for correcting me. MediaDirect is so confusing and here I come making huge typo such as this, is bad. . My instructions are for people that deleted all the partitions when they were reinstalling Windows XP. But if you did not deleted the 40 Meg partition, all you have to do after installing windows xp, just run the MediaDirect repair cd. If that does not do the trick, you have to follow my complete instructions. And sarathan, you are right. Windows Xp does not have the ability to wipe your hard drive. Windows Partition selector screen can delete partitions, but that does not completely wipe your hard drive. Acronis Disk Director 10 has the possibility to reformat and wipe your hard disk. If you wipe your disk, then you will have to reinstall MediaDirect cd. Sorry for all the confusion.

Here are the steps.
TO BOOT FROM THE CD/DVD DRIVE: When Laptop is started, Press F12 key and select the DVD/CD Drive to boot from it (make sure the correct cd is in it).

1) Boot your Laptop with the Windows XP OS CD. When in Windows OS installation, in Windows OS partition selection screen, delete all partitions.

2) Now create FIRST! An 8 Meg bytes partition...and do not format It. Now create your Windows OS partition with the remaining space.
YOU should have now, first an 8 Meg partition (FIRST!!!)
Then your Windows OS partition (The Windows XP OS partition will be the biggest)
And then a 7.8 or 8 more unallocated space left (not a partition but space remaining depending in the size of your OS you created)

3) Now, quit the Windows XP OS setup by pressing F3 and then hold the power off button on you laptop to shut off the laptop.

4) Power on the laptop again and press F12 right away to boot from the CD/DVD Drive. Put the Dell MediaDirect Repair CD into the drive and boot your laptop with it. At the command prompt Type CD MD2, then type Repair and choose Yes/OK... to repair. When it shows DONE! after you click OK to repair. Take the Repair CD out of the Drive and put your Windows XP OS CD into the drive and boot you laptop with it.

5) At the partition selection screen in Windows XP setup, delete your Windows OS partition you created (the second one, the biggest) (You have to delete it cause the repair process changed it) After deleting it, recreate it.

6) Now choose that partition (biggest one) to install Windows XP OS. Choose Quick Format with NTFS file system (quick, because it’s fast).

7) When Windows XP OS is done installing and you have loaded into your Windows XP desktop screen, shutdown your laptop by clicking Start-Turn off Computer-Shutdown.

8) Put your Dell MediaDirect Repair CD into the drive and boot your laptop with it. Then type CD MD2 then Repair and OK to repair. When it shows DONE! Take the Dell MediaDirect CD off the drive and restart your pc to load Windows XP again.

9) Now, in Windows XP, install all device drivers starting with the Notebook system software, (always restart the laptop if asked then proceed with next device installation), then install the Dell Chipset. When all done, put the Dell MediaDirect reinstallation CD in the drive and press Enter to start the installation process. It will take a few minutes.

10) Now reboot your laptop with the MediaDirect repair CD. Again, type CD MD2 then Repair. When it Shows DONE!, turn off your laptop.
11) Now that laptop is off, press the MediaDirect button and right away keep tapping the F8 key. The screen will show a message to either continue with pc restart or delete…..”something”. You want to select the second one, DELETE… ,Now, MediaDirect will reprogram itself with the Windows OS partition. When done, you now should be able to browse your internal Hard Drive for pictures and Videos etc…. also watch DVD if you have a DVD drive. All should work like it should.


PS: when you restart your laptop again into Windows, you might see in “my computer”, another Partition. This is the Dell MediaDirect partition. DO NOT delete it or move anything. I recommend hiding the partition by using either Partition Magic or Acronis Disk director. HIDE it, do not format it or delete.

HOPE THINGS WORKOUT FOR ALL.

 

One thing seems to be clear though. If you have the xps 140m or 630m you just need to
1. format everything and make an unpartitioned space of MB1038 .
2. you intall windows media edition
3. finally with windows booted up which means with windows on
4. just follow the dell paper instructions for the MediaDirect installation CD in other words you instert the installation CD inside (not the repair CD) and you simly follow the instructions

Now, if this doesn't work follow Rob's instructions.

 

yes i deleted all my partitions and followed your instructions but windows insists on formating the first 8mb partition. Ive give up now im not ruining my windows setup any more, Perhaps i'll try again but for now for me there is no solution yet.

 

Hi all. I have some bad news regarding my Dell MediaDirect instructions. The instructions will only work if you did NOT wipe clean your original hard drive. If it is a new hard drive that you are installing, my instructions will not work also.

PS: Windows Partition screen does not wipe your drive. It only deletes. Wipe is an option in software’s such as Acronis Disc Director that deletes a partition and also wipes/deletes permanently files so it cannot be recovered. I tried my instructions after wiping clean my drive, but it did not work. Thank god I made an original hard drive image. Now I guess we all know why to some people the instructions did not work. If you never wiped your original drive, and the instructions still didn't work, then I have no clue to what's going on with Dell MediaDirect. Hopefully Dell will correct this problem.

 

Thanks Rob, you've solved my problem (REP for you!)

Anyways, I had my mediadirect semi-working, where it would boot to mediadirect, but not show any buttons or options or anything. The key is when mediadirect starts, to press the F8 key and select "Delete the Restore data...whatever". It then starts mediadirect and I can browse everything.

The good thing: I DID NOT NEED THE MEDIADIRECT 2.0 INSTALLATION CD!

Here's what I did (note that MediaDirect will use MediaCentre if it's there, as opposed to it's own software - so if you have XP pro or home, you might have different results):

1) boot from XP OS CD (I have Media Centre)
2) delete all partitions, except the 48MB diagnostic one (I wanted to keep that 'cause it's small enough and 'just in case' - plus I read that may be where mediadirect is). Note that you do NOT need a 1308MB partition
3) create a windows partition, or just select the remaining unpartitioned space and say "install windows here" (I did just a quick format). Forget about the extra 8MB thing, 'cause it creates that automatically and it's NOT used for anything
4) install windows however you want, tweaks, drivers, software, etc. (dell Quickset as well). I also started Media Centre once to set it up
5) insert your MediaDirect repair CD (you made one, didn't you?) and boot from it
6) type CD\MD2 and REPAIR
7) reboot, start windows (it will detect some new device or whatever...
8) reboot again
9) shutdown from windows
10) press MediaDirect button, and once it starts to load, hit F8 (only need to do once after first repair)
11) select "Delete previous Restore"... or whatever the second option is
12) MediaDirect will take a few minutes to "boot" (or whatever it's doing)
13) DONE! You may now use MediaDirect

Note that this did NOTHING to my XP partition - windows loads as normal.

Thanks again!

I wish I could say that this will work for everyone, but I don't have everyone's setup or laptop to test it on

As usual, RFBW! (Reformatter Beware!)

 

Just wanted to add a few things I noticed about MediaDirect in regards to functions/limitations:

1) does not support Divx
2) supports USB mouse/keyboard (and of course USB storage devices)
3) does not support firewire
4) does not support DRM (DRM-WMA to be specific)
5) supports external monitors (it cloned my display onto my DVI monitor)
6) does not support external USB soundcard (reverts to onboard sound)

Just in case any of this matters to anyone

 

I encountered problems, please make suggestions.

Did all this, except my Dell Image partition was ~4.5GB.

May have a problem here. My XP MCE was not Microsoft, rather a Dell CD. After the XP install it threw up a large flashing banner saying wait 30 minutes to install more software. Hidden under the banner were the windows install dialogs. To me it was reintalling the bloatware. I used Task Mgr to kill it. Comments?

This has to be a bootable CD, not just the files. Nero had a bootable option.

There was no MD2 directory, I got an invalid directory. BTW, I believe this should be entered CD \MD2, needs a space.

Dead in the water at this point!!! Any idea what the next step is?

Hermit

 

Can you guys please let me know what exact cd's I need to ask Dell for to do this. I am building up my confidence to try it.

I didn't get any cd's with my E1705. So it looks like I definetly need Windows XP Media? Do I really need any others? Sounds like it can all be downloaded? I also wonder what I need to tell the Dell rep. my reasoning for needing these cd's.

Thanks

 

1) I had three partitions to begin with. Windows, Restore (4-5GB), and Diagnostics (48MB - no drive letter). I removed all the partitions except the Diagnostics 48MB one.

2) My XP MCE is also a dell cd (DVD actually, and orange). It's a complete MCE version, that works only with your Dell laptop.

3) Yes, you will have to wait for that flashing message to quit itself (do not kill it - I don't know what will happen if you do). It is updating MCE (service packs and a few MCE games). There is NO bloatware installed, except for one thing I found: "ESPN motion". This is a clean install, and you just have to be patient until in finished

4) Download the Dell MediaDirect Repair file and run it. It will extract into a directory. Run Nero and select "Burn CD Image". Locate the MediaDirect Repair ISO file that was just extracted and burn it. This will create a bootable disc.

5) You can enter CD\MD2 (no space). That works.


SLEEPER: I have only 2 discs from dell: The Drivers Resource CD (useless because it doesn't even support the 9400/E1705), and a backup disc of my OS (in my case Media Centre 2005), which I paid an extra $10 when I ordered my laptop. You can call dell if you do not have your OS backup disc (note that I did see an I386 directory on my computer with all the OS install files, so you should be able to burn that onto a disc). The MediaDirect Repair CD you have to create yourself from the file off the dell website. I did not need the MediaDirect Reinstallation CD because I'm running MCE 2005. You may need that disc if your run XP Pro or Home.

 

My complete instructions:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b294/kbahrbarrie/install.jpg

Kudos to kamiraa (raymond j) and robjbw for the solution that worked for me.

 

The cd has to have the md2 directory. Download the compressed package which contains the iso at dell.com http://support.dell.com/support/dow...&typecnt=1&vercnt=1&formatcnt=1&fileid=148039 Make a cd out of it using Nero or an iso burning program. Boot your pc with it. Type cd\md2 (or cd md2) then type repair then choose OK to repair.

 

Have eventually finished reading this thread

Have experienced similar problems to many others.

630m arrived safely from DELL, 'We want it setup to our liking, we know what we're doing' famous last words.
In went the XP Home CD, deleted all three partitions (Big mistake... Funny thing about hindsight, it's always 20/20 ) and set it up with one big partition.
We then realise that media buttons aren't working as they should, so we start digging on the web and find this site.

Thanks to Rob for the walkthrough, still working through it, doesn't seem to fully like it. Have yet to try it with just a big C: and 1308mb unallocated

Have requested disks from DELL twice now, twice gotten 'wrong' disks
Have tried the MD repair and had limited success.
Another ray of light may be a local DELL agent.

It's getting to the point of asking DELL for new HDD in original state.

I realise that some software can't be posted on the forum.

But, if someone has a clone of a factory fresh HDD (all 3 original DELL partitions) would they be willing to send me a copy?
Anyone obliging enough would be compensated.

If I shouldn't ask the above, please excuse a noob.
If you can help, drop me a line.

Thanks,
Rich

In hindsight there are two points to consider;
1) Leave the system as DELL intended
2) Leave the system as DELL intended
Now, I know that strictly speaking these are the same point, but I feel it's an important one.

 

I gave the chat tech the very DH371 . . . MD2 info. Now two days later I received this item:
Item#: RJ262, Desc: Kit: SW;MDRT;KEYLARGO;WEST
The CD-ROM says: P/N PJ422 Rev. A00 Feb 2006

Wondering if I have the correct Reinstallation CD?

I'm currently half way throught Dell's 30 min banner. Had to start over, C: was on a 8MB partition, not the 35GB partition.

Hermit

 

A quote from my most recent Dell chat:

This is what we're up against folks.

Hermit

 

What exactly did you tell them Hermit? If you haven't already, you might have to explain every single thing to them about this problem.

Awhile back, i had to explain to them why my computer was not playinig DVDs, so I could get the discs.

 

After you done this six times for the same problem, you get a bit frustrated.

• First you enter your case #, that links to the last chat. Of course the CSR doesn't read it.
• Then you get the standard survey at the end blurb. They're more interested in points than your problem.
• Then they want your name, rank and serial #.
• Then you mention Media Direct 2.0 for the 9400/E1505.
• When they see Media Direct, they immediately push either the repair or reinstall downloads for the 9300/6000. Just download this, it'll solve all your problems.
• No Dammit, I don't have a 9300/6000, I have a E1505!!! It uses Media Direct 2.0.
• I even gave the previous CSR the Dell Media Direct 2.0 Item # from this forum, and he still shipped me the old MD CD-ROM.
• At the end they give you the survey pitch again.
• I now reply, when I see the correct CD then you get brownie points.

It not a language problem, they just don't know their new products/problems.

Hermit

 

yeah, i can imagine that it is frustrating.

Let me talk to the admins and see what I can do.