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Dell Media Direct
Hello All,
I don't know if this would be considered a problem, but I just received my XPS M140 notebook, and being that I'm a stickler for a perfect software installation, I paid the 10 dollars extra to get the Windows XP installation cd so I could format the drive and reinstall windows and only software titles that I choose after that. Well, that went fine, but here is where the problem is, the "preboot" environment that is supposed to load when you have the machine turned off by pressing the media direct key on the front panel does not work properly. I was under the impression that this is supposed to enable you to play, media files and/or music cd's and movies on dvd without booting into windows to conserve power. Well now when I press the media direct button, the computer boots up normally then launches the media center application, which works, but now windows is completly loaded.
When I reinstalled windows, I did notice that there were 2 other partitions, one for the dell diagnostics, which is on all dells and is only about 35 megs, then another partition that is like 4 gigs, I figured that 4 gigs had something to do with the "preboot" environment so I left it alone. Has anyone had a similar problem? Is there something else I need to install? Please help. Thanks
Brian
- your systems are performing as designed; media direct will launch the BIOS rom if the system is closed. the idea being to watch the movie or whatever on a different monitor using the controls on the portable. if the system is open media direct will launch windows first.
Matrix-2002
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Posted January 5th, 2006 03:00
To get the MediaDirect button on the Inspiron 630m / XPS M140 to work you must have Dell send you the reinstallation cd for MediaDirect.
On the CD -- P/N YG694 Rev. A00 October 2005
On Order Status Page -- Item: DH371 Description: KIT,SW,MDRT,REPAIR,WEST
Hope this helps, it did for me.
- I actually have an XPS M140, they're pretty much the same computer, I don't know if that makes a difference, the only thing I am concerned with is, if I get the media direct reinstallation cd from dell, in order to reinstall it, will I have to reinstall windows again, or will it just use the old media direct partition that is still in place on the disk?
Matrix-2002
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Posted January 5th, 2006 20:00
Theoretically, if you leave that partition alone when you reformat Windows, all you might need to do is run the MediaDirect repair utility. If you delete the partition with MediaDirect, you'll need the Reinstallation CD.I downloaded the media direct repair utility and media direct is now working as it should, for the future, if I replace the hard disk in my laptop and need to reinstall media direct rather than repair, how do I do that, is media direct bundled on the dell resource cd? is it something I need to buy? My thoughts are dell should provide it! Anyways, to everyone who helped me with this problem, thank you.
Brian
Marlic
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Posted November 29th, 2005 19:00
yes, I do have exactly the same problem on my i6000 and I don't know what to do. Actually I would like to disable the booting completely by pressing the Play button but I can't find any option to do so. Not in the BIOS, not in Windows.
Did you find a solution to it please?
Cheers,
Marlic