Media Direct (No longer direct)

I have an XPS M1330 laptop. Media Direct functioned correctly for about 3
months, but then I had the motherboard replaced and after that when I ran
media direct the logo appeared at startup but it no longer goes directly to
the media direct shell. Instead Vista is installed and all the other
programs that install when Vista is installed. It is only after that, that
the Media Direct Shell appears.

I discussed the issue with a Dell Chat Tech and was advised that I would
have to do a Dell factory restore to get it working again. I have done that
2 times with no luck. I still can only get to Media direct after Vista has
been fully installed. It works fine that way but I would have liked to get
to it without the operating system being installed as it once did.

One other point I should make is that I have not been able to get to the
Dell factory restore and pressing Ctrl + F11 as I did before the motherboard
replacement. I was advise by Dell Chat that in Vista I have to press F5 at
startup which which got me to factory restore.

I would appreciate any help I can get to be able get to media direct more
directly as I once did.
Thanks.

 

This is exactly what happened to me on my Inspirion 1520...'right after I
set the passwords for the firSt time in Admin, System & HDD. It was fine
prior to me doing that btw! A very touchy system by Dell I'd say.

Joe.

 

More details of "what happened to me"....

All was well and then I set the passwords for Admin, System and HDD.
I did notice the really slow boot up when I did the HDD
password...'important? Hmm.
Then I decided to check out the MediaDirect and pressed the button from
cold.
Instead of MediaDirect loading on it's own, the whole Vista system booted
up...'then MediaDirect.
And that's the way it's stayed ever since.
I have installed nothing! Only set these 3 passwords for the first time
ever.
Tempremental...??

Joe.

 

interesting indeed...
when you went to media direct, didnt it prompt for the system password
before going to vista? you didnt say that.

probably the media direct is working in a funky way, and perhaps dan
goodells website may shed some light on it. he knows how to fix all the
dell partition issues.

i dont use media direct.... IMO its kind of dumb to buy and carry a
laptop to play music when all you really need is a sony walkman, or mp3
player.
Jay

 

I agree with you Jay, the MediaDirect is a gadget really, but it comes with
the package as they say.
The MediaDirect partition does indeed ask for the password, or at least, the
bios asks, then it boots the whole sheebang.
Do you have a link to the website you mentioned?

Cheers.
Joe.

 

this ought to get you started.

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/

 

I don't use Media Direct and always wiped it out anyway when I did my
usual reinstall of the OS when I get a PC. I use sleep and rarely
reboot my laptop so I don't see what advantage Media Direct has. In
fact, I hate that the buttons are at the front of my XPS M1210 --
sometimes I hit the volume when it's in my lap. I much prefer Fn key
combinations for the volume.

As far as the OP getting it to work, if all else fails you should be
able to send it in to Dell to have them service it and get it to work.
Of course it's a lot of hassle to do that and you'd have to back up
all your data and reinstall.

As far as Vista restore, I did that once and it was not nearly as easy
as on XP -- I think I had to have the OS disk and go through a few
more steps.

 

No I don't really like the idea of too many passwords so I don't normally
have passwords to access any of my computers.

My position is why carry walkman or an MP3 player if I have to carry the
computer as well, and I an not using it for walking. There is also the
situation that in IMO I'm a little too old for those gadgets.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay B" <>
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 1:31 PM
Subject: Re: Media Direct (No longer direct)

 

Yes you are right with the Vista restore from a Image file.
I have had to do this several times for friends? who let their
kids stuff the computer.
Everytime after the Image restore (Ghost or True Image) on
boot Vista says it needs to correct a problem and requires a reboot
from the Vista DVD. Only takes a couple of seconds to do not like
the repair on XP if needed which takes forever.
Sorry for the people with HP and other brands that don't come with
a DVD. All the people that needed help and had a Dell or white box
with OEM DVD got their systems back in great shape. The one HP and
two friends? that had Acer were SOL and had to do a full restore from
the built in restore. The HP person of course had not made their
restore DVD so they were turned over to HP. Can't/Won't comment on
their experience.

Art

 

In my opinion (which you didn't ask for) Media Direct is a waste of time.
First thing I did was blow away all partitions and start from scratch.
Installed Vista on a 35GB partition and left the remainder (75GB) for data
and storage. Moved all my files to the second partition so if I reformat
and reinstall, I only have to worry about the OS.

 

My Lenovo ThinkPad X61 didn't come with a Vista DVD. I haven't had
time yet to find out how I would do a total restore on that laptop.
It's very irritating when a system DVD isn't provided.

 

I respect your opinion but for me I rather liked the idea of getting to and
playing my music without going through the operating system. The second
partition also incudes the dell factory restore files which allows you to
return the system to the state in which it came out of the box. I find this
useful. It is much quicker than reformatting using the windows disk, and
all the original drivers are installed instantly.

I'd like to make a correction in my original post. The restore key is F8
and not F5 as stated.