Support Assist claims hard drive failing; hard drive tests pass

Hi Epidem,  We truly understand and sorry for the inconvenience it is causing. We will help to resolve it.  Could you please share service tag of your system and following logs for our team to troubleshoot to identify the root cause.

1. Open command prompt as administrator and navigate to

2. Execute pcdrcui.exe -enabledebuglogs

3. Close command prompt so no process has a lock on the folder.

4. Open SupportAssist and reproduce the issue (Hard drive not found alert)

5. Close application or any browser sessions which may have launched the application.

6. Open an ADMIN command prompt and navigate to

7. Execute LogGrabber.exe

8. When that is completed, run the following from the command prompt:

9. Pcdrcui.exe -disabledebuglogs

10. Locate pcd_logs.zip which is created on the desktop and share it with us.

Thanks,

Dell- Kumar

I have been working on this issue with Sampath Rajkumar for quite some time. It is Dell System Incident # 37183388 . I sent him email this past weekend but he was away. So I sent it to Advanced Resolutions. I am still waiting for an answer.

The problem occurs at random. It is not reproducible all the time. So I cannot follow your instructions.

I have been informed there is an issue in SupportAssist and it is known. However, I have not received the bug fix. I do not think there is one.

I am going to uninstall Support Assist. I will use Control Panel to do this. Will this cause any problems with my computer? Does Support Assist have hooks into any other files that will cause those files to crash?

This problem has existed since the beginning of October. It lessened for a while so I put up with it. At that time, they wanted to give me a new hard drive and take my old one, which had very important data which I did not want to lose. So I put up with the bug.

I also did not perform any dell updates because I don't trust them any more.

When the problem came back, I performed a dell update and it has been happening far too often since then. Whatever was in that latest update - which I installed on Nov 4 2017 - made my computer less stable.

I'm getting supremely annoyed with Support Assist and all its failings. Since the day I bought this laptop (August 2017) it has been randomly telling me the fan motor fails to start, when I can feel and hear the fan running. I've removed all the files and folders I could find associated with Support Assist from the system as directed in another thread; a search turns up no further versions or files, but I'm still getting the Support Assist alarms. When Windows updated at the end of October, I set it to install while I was (planning to be) asleep. Only every restart Windows required for the install set off Support Assist's failing-fan notification alarm and woke up the whole house. I've wasted far too much time on this already and am seriously wishing I'd NEVER chosen a Dell laptop.

Do you have a screen shot, I'm now wondering if it's really SupportAssist or some other app.

Joe, I've done all of that. And I've gone back again and again following those same steps... but still have Support Assist pop up when I wake my laptop up or turn it on after it's been shut down. Ready to rip out my hair.

janfrn - if you removed SA and it's files and folders I wouldn't think you'd be getting any notifications.

You could try this:

• From the Control Panel, uninstall Dell SupportAssist and Dell SupportAssistAgent.

• Remove the following directories by opening start menu and run %appdata%\

• Remove PCDr

• Run %programdata%\  and remove

o PCDr and/or PC-Doctor for Windows and/or PC-Doctor, Inc

you can always install again at

o content.dellsupportcenter.com/.../aulauncher.exe

I don't. I can't seem to do anything when it's up. The mouse moves very erratically and it takes me several seconds to be able to turn off the speaker. It "says" it's Support Assist... But I can try and grab a screenshot next time I see it.

Nope, couldn't get a screen shot. Next time I see it I'll get a photo with my phone.

Made no difference. No, wait, it did --- my computer now freezes and crashes more.

No, SupportAssist freezes the system. It's impossible to run any programs or get a screenshot.

I followed your directions yesterday. Today I had 6 crashes, one right after the other. I had to reboot after every crash, which was difficult because the computer would freeze and I was forced to reboot in a way that is not safe for the machine. Thanks a lot, Dell, for not fixing Support Assist, forcing me to ruin my hard drive while I attempt to use the PC again. Is that your way to get me to purchase another computer? If I do, it won't be from you.

I don't know the cause of the crashes and I don't know why all of a sudden they stop. I have 17 years experience in testing and development and have never encountered such a random issue before. I *will* say one thing ---- since I have uninstalled Support Assist and totally shut my pc down, I should not see it running whenever I start it up later. But it's still there !!! It's not listed in Services, or anywhere else in Task Manager, including StartUp. I've even deleted its folders and it still runs !!  It refuses to uninstall and it gets into my machine  with every boot up. AND it's still in my registry !!

Please make a program to delete Support Assist !!! We're ALL having problems with it and I don't see anybody posting that their problem is fixed !! How Long does it take for you to eliminate this program and fix our problems?

Also, I have requested to be called many times. 95% of the time, I receive a phone call at a time of day that I did not  request. I'm allowed to request a time of day so why do you not call me at that time? I don't sit around and wait for your call - when I specify a time, I expect I will be called then. The last time you called me, I requested a new call at the exact same time but you didn't call me then.

My computer is almost useless. My next plan is to contact management. After that, I'll go to a forum which is not Dell's.

Janfrn – Thank you for the screen shot.  I realize this says SupportAssist but it’s not tied to the SupportAssist Application that is or was installed on the computer.  It’s an Enhanced Pre-Boot System Assessment (ePSA) diagnostics.  So it makes sense now why you’re still seeing this.  I believe this check is tied to the BIOS and outside of this forum.  Let me ask around internally to see if there is anything you can do to stop or perhaps apply a fix.  Have you called Support and have an SR#?

No, I haven't called Support. Believing the screen pop-up was SupportAssist and that it had been removed was frustrating enough without spending time on hold while the next available agent became available, explaining the problem to the first voice, being passed to a second voice, going through the whole story again, authorizing remote access and all the other hoops involved in the process. Also, given that the "report" at the end of the diagnostic states the information on the supposedly-failing fan motor has been relayed to Dell and new parts would be dispatched, but never followed up on in any way, I'm seriously unimpressed.

If this ePSA diagnostic testing process is truly not related to the SupportAssist software/application, might I suggest the screen be changed in future iterations to avoid confusion?