Why do my settings keep changing back?!

No, I'm shutting it down correctly. Privileges?


Dirinda Skelton
Raintree Miniature Schnauzers
NW Arkansas
Dimension 4400
Brand new and loving it!
©

If you don't shut the PC down correctly ie using the shutdown procedure and allowing it to shut down or you shut the power off prematurely it reverts to whatever the previous settings were since its last shutdown process. If this is not the case then you might be missing some privileges.
banjo



Dimension 8200
P4 1.8GHz
512 Mb PC800 RDRAM
60Gb HDD (Maxtor)
64mb GeForce2 MX w/TV out card
15" Flat Panel
16-10-40 CDRW (Samsung)
16x DVD (NEC)
Dell Quietkey keyboard
Microsoft USB Infra Wheel IntelliMouse
Altec Lansing Wireless Speaker System
SB Live
Cambridge Sound Works FPS2000 speakers
HP 4L Laser Printer via USB extension
HP 1315 PhotoSmart Printer w/SmartMedia drive
UMAX Astra 3400 Scanner
10/100 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
3 Belkin F5U001 USB Hubs
eUSB SmartMedia Adapter
Logitech WingMan Force USB
Logitech Webcam Pro 3000 w/mic
Westfall DSL Modem via Verizon
Win XP Home Edition
Win XP Sm Bus Office
Norton Utilities System Works
Zone ALarm
IE 6.0, Netscape 4.7 and 6.2 and Real1Player
Sevice Tag 5QVS011
BIOS Ver A03

Skelty,
This may be a minor point. But you said "OK" then "Apply". Some things only work when you "Apply" first then "OK". Sorry if you didn't mean to say it in that order, I believe Sound has to be Apply first then OK.

Love your little Doggies,

Marvin P

XPS B800r
512MBz Ram
Windows XP (2/1/02)
&
8200
512MBz Ram
XP
Truck Vanity Plate "Dell4Me"

Marvin, Yep, I said it backwards....well, not backwards, just didn't get all of the OK's in there. Haha
When I choose the sound I want to change to, I click OK from that box and then from the "sound window" I hit apply and then ok again to close.
This morning after turning on computer the sound has stayed. It may or may not stay all day and if I turn computer off and reboot it may be default again. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason behind it. It's probably something I'm doing and I have to say that XP is a whole lot different than 98 so I have lots to learn.
Thanks for your input.

Dirinda Skelton
Raintree Miniature Schnauzers
NW Arkansas
Dimension 4400
Brand new and loving it!
©

n/t
Marvin P

XPS B800r
512MBz Ram
Windows XP (2/1/02)
&
8200
512MBz Ram
XP
Truck Vanity Plate "Dell4Me"


XPS B800r
512MBz Ram
Windows XP (2/1/02)
&
8200
512MBz Ram
XP
Truck Vanity Plate "Dell4Me"

No.  This is a real problem that I have seen happen to others, and is now happening to me too, on this Dimension 4600 that I just bought from Dell.  In my case, it doesn't matter how many times, and in how many ways I tell it to show window contents while dragging.  (Display Properties->Appearance->Effects)  Upon reboot or log off/log on, this setting is lost, reverting to dragging an empty frame.  It is extremely annoying, and I need to find the solution.  Any tips would be welcome.  Thanks.

 

Privileges?  My acct is a full system admin.  What privileges could I be lacking under that?

Oh, my my.  Egg on Dell's face on this one.  I found ther answer:

 

C:\Program Files\Dell\Media Experience\PCMService.exe

 

If this startup item is removed (using msconfig.exe) the problem disappears.  If the Dell Media Experience icon on the desktop is double-clicked after the bootup component no longer works, it does nothing, *except* screw up the window-dragging setting again.  Clearly, Dell has some bug fixing to do before their Media Experience software is useful.  My sympathies to those who bought the remote control for it.  Thankfully, I did not. 

Ah, I also bought a 4600 earlier this month, and had the exact same problems.  It was driving me crazy... I even spent a couple of hours on the phone with dell-all to no avail.  I ended up reinstalling Windows XP from scratch, which fixed the problem.  But from what you're saying, maybe what fixed it was that I never did reinstall that annoying "Dell Media Experience"...

Yes, that was definitely it.  I removed the Dell Media experience icon from the desktop, and have not re-enabled the startup-initialized service.  Window dragging is exactly what it should be, and has been that way since my last message above.

Just as a general tip from a programmer with over 20 years experience, when tech support tells you to reinstall from scratch, it means that they have absolutely no clue what's causing your problem.  They want you to blast away everything, hopefully including the cause of the problem.  It saves them from having to do any real work on the issue, and saddles you with the heavy task of rebuilding your software system.  I have yet to reformat once to solve an issue other than a dead hard drive.  It's a shotgun approach that leaves you in the dark, and from which you learn nothing.  The popular "when in doubt, reformat" advice did not come from me.