Optiplex 960 - Dell Support site does not detect PC

Hi,

sorry for the late reply.

Did you need any futher assistance?

regards Martin

Hi, Thank you for your response. No, it was just to advise people who had this problem how to circumvent it by using a compatible browser. In fact there are 2 problems with Dell SupportAssist wich may be compatibility problems with Microsoft Windows 10: 1) The subject of this posting; 2) since version 3.1.0.142 Dell SupportAssist fails to launch properly. For the latter problem I devised a special shortcut which solves the launch problem after which all functionality is ok (also shown in my postings, 2 subjects). Recently the shortcut had disappeared from my desktop so I suspected that SupportAssist had been updated. As I had saved a copy of the shortcut that was quickly solved and the latest version appears to be 3.2.0.90. With this new version both problems still exist when my fixes are not used. Kind Regards, CoS2

Hi Dell-Martin S,

I just wanted to check SupportAssist for a specific question and noticed that my special SupportAssist desktop icon had disappeared which is indicative of a SupportAssist update.

Indeed the software has been updated to version 3.2.1.194.

The described problems are still the same.

Kind Regards,

CoS2

Hi,

Please remove SupportAssist and install it again.

The following steps can be used to uninstall the older build and do a complete clean-up of files from your laptop. From Step 3 onwards, if the mentioned folders are not present in your system, they can be assumed as already cleaned up.

 

• From Add/Remove Programs, uninstall “Dell SupportAssist”
• From Add/Remove Programs, uninstall “SupportAssistAgent”, if you have very old SupportAssist version.
• Open a Windows Explorer and traverse to below directories and delete the folders completely manually if any leftover files are present.
  1. C:\Program Files\Dell\SupportAssist
  2. C:\Program Files\Dell\SupportAssistAgent
  3. C:\Program Files\Dell\DellDataVault
  4. C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\SupportAssistAgent

Note: Ignore (x86) in above path, if your system is running a 32-bit OS.

 

• From Start-> Run type %ProgramData% which will open a window with multiple folders. This is usually a hidden folder.
  1. Select “SupportAssistBusinessClient” folder and delete it.
  2. Select “SupportAssistAgent” folder and delete it, if you have very old SupportAssist version.
  3. Select “PCDr” folder and delete it.
• From Start-> Run type %appdata% which will open a window with multiple folders. This is also a hidden folder usually.
  1. Select “PCDr” folder and delete it.
• From Services console, ensure following services are NOT present.
  1. Dell SupportAssist
  2. Dell SupportAssist Agent
  3. Dell Data Vault
  4. Dell Data Vault Wizard
• From Registry, ensure following keys are NOT present.
  1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DELL\SupportAssistBusinessClient
  2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Dell\SupportAssist
  3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Dell\SupportAssistAgent

Note:- Incase if your Laptop is running a 32-bit OS, ignore the “Wow6432Node” in the above path.

• Reboot your laptop once after clean up, before installing a new SupportAssist build.

 

regards Martin

---

Hi Martin,

Thank you very much for your elaborate procedure.
Although I have uninstalled and installed Dell SupportAssist many times before to address the issue and also went with a comb through my registry which did not solve the problems I have given it a try.
Unfortunately both the launch problem and the browser issue have remained.
Please find below the results: I copied your procedure and put my comments in bold red.
If you need more information, please let me know.

Kind Regards,
CoS2

 

• From Add/Remove Programs, uninstall “Dell SupportAssist” Done.
• From Add/Remove Programs, uninstall “SupportAssistAgent”, if you have very old SupportAssist version. Not present.
• Open a Windows Explorer and traverse to below directories and delete the folders completely manually if any leftover files are present.

1. C:\Program Files\Dell\SupportAssist Not present.
2. C:\Program Files\Dell\SupportAssistAgent Not present.
3. C:\Program Files\Dell\DellDataVault Deleted Dell\Data Vault
4. C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\SupportAssistAgent Not present.

Note: Ignore (x86) in above path, if your system is running a 32-bit OS. It is.

• From Start-> Run type %ProgramData% which will open a window with multiple folders. This is usually a hidden folder.

1. Select “SupportAssistBusinessClient” folder and delete it.
2. Select “SupportAssistAgent” folder and delete it, if you have very old SupportAssist version.
3. Select “PCDr” folder and delete it. Done.

For items 1. and 2.: only SupportAssist present, deleted.

• From Start-> Run type %appdata% which will open a window with multiple folders. This is also a hidden folder usually.

1. Select “PCDr” folder and delete it.

Deleted from Local folder: Dell Inc\Service (contained folders of the last 3 SupportAssist versions: 3.10.142, 3.2.0.90 and 3.2.1.94).

Deleted from Local Low folder: PcDr.

Deleted from Roaming folder: Dell\Dell Stage

• From Services console, ensure following services are NOT present.

1. Dell SupportAssist Not present.
2. Dell SupportAssist Agent Not present.
3. Dell Data Vault Not present.
4. Dell Data Vault Wizard Not present.

• From Registry, ensure following keys are NOT present.
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DELL\SupportAssistBusinessClient Not present.
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Dell\SupportAssist Not present.
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Dell\SupportAssistAgent Not present.

Note: Incase if your Laptop is running a 32-bit OS, ignore the “Wow6432Node” in the above path. This node is present but did not contain the items as well.

• Reboot your laptop once after clean up, before installing a new SupportAssist build. Done.

Went via the Microsoft Edge browser to Dell Support and had it detect my PC.

For that it required Dell SupportAssist. A new almost empty page appeared: Home > Support > SupportAssist. Created a lot of activity on my HDD but when that had subsided for a while nothing had been installed.

Using Firefox it went without a problem.

But it was not shown in the Start menu or under Apps.

Using a copy of my special shortcut I could run it without a problem.

After again rebooting the PC, for which Windows needed quite a while, the program was visible in the Start menu but had the same launch problem as before.

It now was also shown under Apps: Dell SupportAssist 151 MB and SupportAssist (Dell Inc) 16,0 KB.

But now my special shortcut had disappeared both from my desktop where I had put it and from the folder where I kept the original. So I created a new one.

When after the installation I have my PC detected using Microsoft Edge, the same problems as described before occur: it does detect my Service Tag and Express Service Code, shows my PC model but then says that my system is not supported (identical to my earlier postings on this subject). Using Firefox it al works fine.