Help with "Dell Solution Center", please...

Bakeman,

Many report problems with this after SP2 installation....if you do a search (upper right hand corner on this screen) for Dell Solution Center you will be able to read the posts.

WildOne

Bakeman,

You may want to post the response from Dell concerning the issue as someone else may want to give it a try...

WildOne

Message Edited by WildOne46 on 09-15-2004 10:35 AM

DOH! (This was my first post to these forums, I should have thought to do a search...) Anyway, thanks for the tip, WildOne, I did find some interesting info in the threads. I also emailed Dell Tech support and got back from them a fairly complex ( to me!) answer which involves uninstalling SP2, messing with the registry, then re-installing SP2. I'm not sure I want to risk messing up my machine just to have the "Solution Center" back, when everything else seems to be OK. It's just not that critical an application...

WildOne,
Another good suggestion! Here's the response from Dell. Not being a true computer guru, as it were, working in the registry kind of scares me...let me know what you think of Dell's solution.

Thank you for contacting Dell Technical Support.
>
> I have gone through your e-mail and I understand that you are receiving
> the error message "The page cannot be displayed." and the Dell Solution
> Center does not work after installing Windows XP Service Pack 2. Kindly
> correct me if I had misunderstood the issue. I apologize for any
> inconvenience this issue may have caused you.
>
> To fix this issue, let us start with the following process of
> uninstalling Windows XP Service Pack 2 from Recovery Console:
> 1. Boot to the recovery console as described in the following Microsoft
> KB article:
> http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/recovery_run_console.mspx
>
> 2. Type "cd $ntservicepackuninstall$\spuninst" and then press Enter.
> 3. Type "batch spuninst.txt" and press Enter. This will start the SP2
> uninstallation process. You may get several "Access Denied" error
> messages during the uninstall. This happens because the files are in
> use.
> 4. Type "exit" and press Enter. The system will restart, and it should
> restart into Windows.
> If the system does not restart into Windows, then the only option left
> at that point is to reinstall Windows. Otherwise, finish the SP2
> uninstallation process using the following steps:
> 1. Click Start ->Run, then type "cmd" and press Enter. This should open
>
> a command prompt window.
> 2. At the command prompt, type "cd
> %windir%\$ntservicepackuninstall$\spuninst" and press Enter.
> 3. Type "spuninst.exe" and press Enter. Follow the on-screen
> instructions to finish removing SP2.
>
> Once the uninstall process is finished, check the registry to see if the
> PendingFileRenameOperations key is corrupt. Microsoft has seen that as
> a cause of service pack installation failures. To do this, perform the
> following steps:
> 1. Click Start -> Run, then type "regedit" and press Enter.
> 2. Navigate to the following registry key:
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager.
> 3. Check to see of the PendingFileRenameOperations key is present. If
> it is, delete it.
>
> At this point, please run a full virus scan on the system and scan the
> system using the free online spyware scanner at
> http://www.pestscan.com/Scan.asp
>
> If any viruses or spyware are detected, they have to be removed before
> attempting to reinstall SP2. If the problem comes back, have the
> customer contact Microsoft at 1-888-sp2-help.
>
> Please email back if the troubleshooting steps given did not resolve the
> issue so that I can provide you additional steps to help resolve it or
> provide you with another corrective action for this issue.


What do y'all think?
Thanks,
-Bakeman

---

@Bakeman wrote:
What do y'all think?
Thanks,
-Bakeman

---

I think I'd rather simply uninstall the Dell Solution Center. As you noted, it is not a critical application.

On the other hand, thanks for posting the instructions you received. It will undoubtedly be helpful for users who can't live without the Solution Center.

Bakeman, When I e-mailed Dell Support concerning the Dell Solution Center not working after applyinf SP2, the reply was to " uninstall the program" which I did. I also discovered that this program was not on any of my Dell Dimension 8300 discs so that this cannot be reinstalled-at least for me.

As someone else pointed out, Dell Solution Center is on the Dell Windows XP reinstallation CD. Browse the CD, I believe it is in the $OEM$ folder.

I cannot understand why some are having problems with DSC. It still works on my Desktop and Laptop.

Desktop was delivered 3-29-02

Laptop was delivered 3-17-04

I guess it may be the model of PC you have, or whether you did a clean install of XP, or if you disabled background running programs or not while SP2 was being installed.

Another guess is SP2 security. I set mine to default.

The dell solution center preinstalled by Dell and on the $OEM$ folder on the Dell CD are two different things with the same name.

Hi, Denny

How to uninstall Dell solution Centre ?

Inspiron 8500:
P4 2.5Ghz
512MB DDR RAM
60gig Ultra ATA HD
64MB NVIDIA GeForce FX Go4200
100Mb Ethernet
15.4" Wide Aspect Ultrasharp WUXGA

Go to Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs and then locate Dell Solution Center and remove it or uninstall.

The Dell tech's advice seems to be more related to a faulty SP2 install and provides the most complicated method for uninstall, to be used only if you can't boot into Windows at all after SP2 install. In fact if, after installing SP2, Windows works normally (apart from Dell Solution Center not opening pages) but you want to uninstall SP2, just go to add/remove and uninstall it from there.

The registry key referred to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\FileRenameOperations

only contains default (value not set) on my PC (after SP2 install). I don't know if that is the cause of Dell Solution Centre not functioning properly, but I doubt it, as everything else works fine. I had uninstalled Dell Solution Center some time ago, reinstalled after reading the posts on this forum to check it out, and found the same problem, so uninstalled it again.

" If the system does not restart into Windows, then the only option left
 at that point is to reinstall Windows. "

When I saw that statement in the Dell tech's instructions, I got the heebee-jeebees and thought that's way too much to go through for this problem...

And I agree with JRosenfeld in doubting that this would provide a solution.  As I said earlier, I'm no computer guru, so it looks like I'll be uninstalling the Dell Solution Center, as everything else is fine.  No great loss...

Can Dell-Mel who promised to update us on Dell Solution Center as regards SP2,  confirm for us the only fix available is that complicated one everyone is referring to.

If that is the case, then I will feel comfortable uninstalling Dell Solution Center.