Volume up / down buttons stopped working on M11x after Tuneup Utilities application installed.

The popup I get at start up is: "(Alienware On screen display) On screen display guest user deny"

I used tuneup roll back to undo any changes, but this didn't work.

I don't have a back up to restore to.

I'd prefer to keep tuneup running.

Why don't you just restore the system to its state prior to installing TuneUp Utilities?

Whether you use it or not is of no concern to me. I'm only interested in solving your problem. Have you restored the system yet?

Because you said you installed TuneUp 2011 and the current version is TuneUp 2012 and has been since August, I get the impression you have a pirated version in which case the likely culprit is either the keygen or the installer itself. Windows has its own System Restore function which you are unlikely to have disabled. That should be your first port of call prior to attempting any registry changes. On my machine it is found by opening Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore. If yours is not the same open your Control Panel and select Restore.

If you wish to continue using TuneUp Utlities after solving this issue we can look at how to install it without causing trouble to your Alienware OSD.

Ok thanks for your help & apologies, I meant tuneup 2012. I installed the legitimate software from their site & used a legitimate serial key.

Please don't assume I'm using pirated software. I'm not.

em, ok. Look like communication break down here.

I'm looking to resolve this problem without restoring my system; I'm looking to find out which process/service is used by the volume short cuts?

Alternatively, if I knew the software linked to the "Alienware On Screen display, guest user deny/start hook fail" error/pop up I could try reinstalling that software.

will system restore impact document versions?

System Restore does not reinstall Windows etc. All it does is restore your computer to its state at the restore point you select. You should be able to select the day before you installed TuneUp and that will undo the errors your system has now. This is the easiest and fastest solution to the problem because the errors you are encountering come from a corrupted registry. Reinstalling Alien OSD is possible but I doubt it will fix the problem with the volume controls.

Try System Restore first and see if that solves everything. I would be surprised if it doesn't.

No, however I'm going to take this opportunity to recommend you to install an imaging program to safeguard your system and data from hereon forwards. The way they work is to take a snapshot of your hard drive at first boot of the day or at every restart depending on your personal preference. This is all automatic requiring no input from you. In the event you get a problem with your system like registry corruption, accidental file/s deletion, a virus/trojan, or even Windows corruption, you can simply rollback to the previous day or any other snapshot.

This sounds a lot like System Restore except that you have 4 significant advantages:

- It will work with RAID 0 because it sees both drives as one,

- previous snapshots can be mounted as virtual drives to recover any previous data that you no longer have but require,

- you can specify folders or files not to be touched (your mail for example),

- you can access the program via a subsystem (prior to boot) so that should Windows ever fail to start you simply rollback the system to the previous boot.

There are many such programs on the market. The one ALL my PC's are protected with is called Rollback Rx. I find it indispensable as it gets me out of trouble on a regular basis. Read more about it and watch the video demonstration at www.horizondatasys.com/169614.ihtml

It doesn't matter whether you use Rollback Rx or another snapshot/backup program but you DO need a backup solution if you want to avoid serious heartache further down the road.

Could you please share, how your recommended software solve the actual problem? Your recommendation may work after solving the problem, right?