Stuck in Dell MediaDirect loop - can't escape! pls help!

JasperKat

like the subject says my laptop (dell inspiron 4600 windows XP pro) is stuck in an infinite loop of MediaDirect.... i've spent 3 days trying to get it to work correctly & i'm now tearing my hair out & absolutely desperate for any help.... please!

this is what happens:
when i turn it on, i don't see the usual dell bios flash screen because it goes straight to the MediaDirect flash screen & then the MediaDirect menu;
choosing exit it shows a Windows logo & the word Exiting below with a blue bars beneath it,
but then it loops back to the beginning i.e, the MediaDirect flash screen & then the MediaDirect menu - i'm back to square one!

by pressing a combination of the MediaDirect & Power on buttons at varying times when I've turned it on I can sometimes see the line at the top of the screen that says something about loading mbr2... (it flashes off very quickly) & if i see that i know it'll actually boot into windows ok... but over the last 3 days it's taken me over an hour sometimes to get the combination right & actually get into windows - can't carry on like that!

If when in windows i then choose to switch off it'll then start the whole cycle again, if I choose to restart it will actually come back up into windows ok.

I've got all the cd's that came with the laptop, I did put in the re-install mediadirect cd (got to the two options) but stopped short of doing anything with it because I didn't want to loose all my info...

Please can anyone help, i'm absolutely desperate for this to work.....

thanks in advance

Jasper

Voodu Child

You could try repairing the mbr using the Dell 'Mediadirect repair utility'.

It might be on one of the CDs you have, or you can download it on Dells website. You need to burn it to a CD (in iso form) and boot from it, and it repairs the mbr.

JasperKat

thanks for the reply & suggestion, Voodo_child, i d/loaded the file & instructions from dells support site & tried it but it didn't work....

Progress so far is that I've actually wiped the drive & started again using the instructions that I'd got with the cd's & booted from the Dell MediaDirect Cd; chose option 2 & created a C:\ partition of 85gb out of the 120gb available, then when i put in the Win XP cd & got to the partitioning screen it showed 4 partitions available (sm un-named partition1; C:\ partition2; d: partition3 & DelMediaDirect partition4) so I went ahead & installed Windows on to C:\ & it's done it ok...

Once up in Windows i put in the MediaDirect Cd but as it wouldn't autorun I read in the instructions that it should be running an installer & when I did that it appears to have re-installed the MediaDirect program but I haven't tried it yet as I'm now doing the drivers...

I'll post back if it actually allows me to use the MediaDirect....

Jtk
P.s. can't believe i'm the only one that's come across this....

BostonB

Have to say I rarely use Media Direct so usually delete it off a machine. Its a bit of a long winded install to get it back. Why they make it so complicated I dunno.

gaurav131981

I am also facing the same issue. Consulted with Dell support but no success. Please let me know in case u get any solution.

DrewDelawhere

Hey friends... Had to replace a motherboard in my Dell M2010 due to a "Won't boot" issue. Now Media Direct 4.7.2912 won't open up in the battery friendly dos version... it opens vista and then pulls up the interface which is USELESS for saving battery life.

So... after reading a bunch of boards... I think I can do the following... Since I have MD installed already... and I'm already partitioned... (I did break my raid when I got this and elimiated the dell recovery partition. I kept the Dell diagnostic partition). I should just be ablet to re-run the Dell Media Direct 3 install CD... with one very important exception... All of the following info is stuff I've read on other boards... I have yet to try it. Hopefully it will get my button and Pre-Boot dos version of MD working again.

---

Since Vista is already installed go straight to "Control Panel" and open
"User Accounts and Family Safety" then into "User Accounts" and TURN
OFF "User Access Control" from here and reboot when asked.

Once rebooted put the MD3 DVD in the drive and CANCEL the automatic
install (Press ESC to CANCEL or you will HOSE your partitions and all your data and files!!!)

Explore the DVD and go into the folder called "DELLKIT" and right
click on the file called "DELLKIT.EXE" and select "Run As
Administrator".

Run file DellKit.exe to install MD3 to your Hiden Partition and
Windows System

This will then bring up the same install screen for MD3 and hit
Enter. This should now let you install MD3 into Vista with no
problems and now REMOVE THE DVD from the system.

---

So we're gonna try that once I get back to my rents house to retreive my install disks.... as always, run a FULL Backup prior to this.... I don't claim to know that this works... It's only my best guess based on what I've read. That and I've been told not to run the repair junk as it was built for Media Direct Version 1 and Version 2. (when they tell you to load \MD2 - ie media direct 2 - that is a bad sign if you are running version 3)

Please respond if you have any thoughts.

--drew--