Support Assist fails to install

Question

I have an Inspiron 15 7000 now running on Windows 11. The latest version of Support Assist will not install simply saying 'Installation failed please restart your computer and try again'. I have tried uninstalling the old version of Support Assist (3.10.4) and then reinstalling but without success. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

XPS_Man · Accepted Answer

@filbert Dell's support website uses SupportAssist to identify updates. Without supportassisst, OP will have to go through each driver and compare it with existing driver. Dell Update app is a good alternative for Supportassist for driver updates.

@SteveWeb49 Please follow this guide from start to end.

You may find that a few thing I am recommending to delete are already deleted from your computer so skip those steps.

1 Use Microsoft's Installer :

This step is crucial as Microsoft's uninstaller disables the services as well. Choose SupportAssist and uninstall, Uninstall Dell updates by running the the uninstaller again. If Support Assist doesn't show in List ignore this step.

Reboot (important)

Delete following folders and ignore the once which are already deleted.

C:/ Program Data/ PCDR

C:/ Program Data/Supportassist

C:/ Program Data/Dell/Dell data volt

C:/ Program Files/ Dell/Supportassist

C:/ Program Files/ Dell/ Dell data Volt

C:/ windows/Temp (everything inside the folder

Remove these Registries

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services key.

Delete Dell hardware service, Delete Dell client management service, Delete Dell updates.

Open device manager > system devices : If you see 2 Dell dala volt devices, please uninstall the second one.

Reboot

install SupportAssist

filbert · Answer

I think your model is a few years old, so out of warranty, right? In that case, you really don't need SupportAssist. You can periodically check Dell's downloads page for your model, to see if there are any updates that you need.

XPS_Man · Answer

Yup Typo

filbert · Answer

@XPS_Man wrote:
C:/ Program Data/Dell/Dell data volt

C:/ Program Files/ Dell/ Dell data Volt

Open device manager > system devices : If you see 2 Dell dala volt devices, please uninstall the second one.

Do you mean Dell Data Vault?

SteveWeb49 · Answer

Thanks. I'll give that a try and let you know how I get on.

SteveWeb49 · Answer

Followed the guide but Support Assist still refuses to install. The Microsoft Uninstaller doesn't find Dell Support Assist or Dell Update files, only Dell Digital Delivery Services. Also couldn't find any of the Dell files in the Registry and no Dell Data Vault in System Devices. Perhaps this is an issue with Support Assist and Windows 11? I'm really grateful for the advice and would appreciate any further suggestions

XPS_Man · Answer

Download .NET 5.0 Runtime https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/thank-you/runtime-5.0.17-windows-x64-installer and follow above steps one more time

SteveWeb49 · Answer

Downloaded the .Net Runtime programme as suggested (although please forgive me for being dim but I'm not sure what I was supposed to do with that) and went through all the steps again to no avail. Looks like this new version of Support Assist just won't run on my laptop with Windows 11 although the old version certainly did!. There are still none of the Dell files mentioned in the Registry and no Dell Data Vault devices in Device Manager >System devices.

SteveWeb49 · Answer

The solution below suggested by XPS_Man should work for most Inspiron laptops still running Windows 10. Unfortunately it turns out that my model (7570) is not supported by Dell for Windows 11 and this probably explains why despite all the helpful advice in this thread Support Assist still refuses to install. This is in spite of Windows Update confirming that my computer was compatible with Windows 11 which installed without a problem. My work around has been to install Dell Update which seems to work OK and should keep me informed of BIOS updates etc. Many thanks for all the advice.

filbert · Answer

@XPS_Man wrote:

@filbert Dell's support website uses SupportAssist to identify updates. Without supportassisst, OP will have to go through each driver and compare it with existing driver. Dell Update app is a good alternative for Supportassist for driver updates.

But, are they reliable? Entering the Service Tag on Dell Drivers & Downloads page has never been reliable.

I'd welcome your comments in this new thread:
Are SupportAssist and Dell Update reliable to show relevant updates?

Inspiron

Support Assist fails to install

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