m15 R3, Alienware Client Management Service

Confirmed Dell Update application version 4.3.0 did not fix service issue. The issue is Alienware Client Management Service app will not start via Automatic, Trigger or Manual. This app never shows a "running" status, it always creates an Error 1053.

Spent an hour with Dell Support Tech Rep. He repeated all the steps I had already performed and could not fix Alienware Client Management Service or get Dell Update for Alienware Windows 3.4.0 to install without errors. 

He recommended a factory reset of Windows 10 with  Dells SupportAssist OS Recovery.

Anyone use this SupportAssist thing and fixed the Alienware Client Management Service?

What a pain to have to re-image Windows 10 because of Dell Apps not functioning correctly. 

Yesterday, I worked this issue via Dell Tech Support, and I have an active effective warranty. Dell Tech took remote control of my Aurora R12 and could not fix the Alienware Client Management Service. They want a factory reset via Dell OS Recovery. I noticed my issue after Dell pushed a software update (version 3.10.0) to the Dell SupportAssist App; uninstalled SupportAssist and no changes to Alienware Client Management Service - did notice that trying to re-install Dell SupportAssist resulted in a prompt "unable to complete install, restart and try again". You see Dell Support Assist need Alienware Client Management Service to load - ironic. 

I told the Tech Rep about the this forum's issue with Alienware Client Management Service, and it was affecting several other Dell PC platforms. He said my issue would be passed to the Dell Software Department?

Someone (a high level software troubleshooter) at Dell should be able to figure this out and fix without re-imaging the OS. 

UPDATE. 

Per the recommendation of the Dell Tech Representative I did a "factory reset" of my Aurora R12. BTW, my PC is an Aurora R12 not a X51 R2 - can't get rid of the signature popping up?

Good News: Factory reset returned Alienware Client Management Service to normal "running" operation. Downloaded all drivers via Alienware Dell Update App and by running Dell Support Website "Check for Updates". Even Dell SupportAssist functioned correctly and in all modes including finding and downloading drivers. 

Bad News: Alienware Client Management Service operated correctly, UNTIL I ran Windows Update and installed a bunch of Windows 10 updates, and system driver updates. Running Windows Update was the last thing I had to do for full recovery of my system after the Factory Reset. Once I had completed all the Windows update which only allowed me to download the 20H2 baseline,  Alienware Client Management Service would not run and continued to display Error 1053 - Windows could not start Alienware Client Management Service on Local Computer. 

The key words in the Error 1053 is "Windows could not start . . .".  The is only observable from this OS recovery process, and is Alienware Client Management Service and Window 10 Version 20H2 appear to be incompatible.

This issue has now been upgraded to the Dell Product Engineering Team. I will get feedback sometime next week. 

So it seems to be an issue with windows compatibility right? Have you tried running the compatibility troubleshooter for the application? And also check mark the one where it ran fine on an earlier version of windows. Have you also checked if there any corrupt files by running sfc /scannow 

My Windows 10 version is 21H1.

Thank you very much for your sharing, I hope the Dell team can now make a patch to fix this problem.

This worked for me on few PCs where Command Update was busted. It's using WMI so I found a way to reset it. Basically to see if WMI is broken you can run as admin wmimgmt.msc. Right click on WMI Control (local) and properties. If you get "Failed to initialize all required classes." and similar WMI is busted. If you get proper processor and system info it's not. All my failed PCs were busted. So I run as admin 

net stop "Windows Management Instrumentation"

winmgmt /resetrepository

Reboot ... that fixed my problems ... so happy I found it.

Some info here: Microsoft WMI – Invalid Class Error [0x80041010] - Virtually Boring

The Dell Tech Rep (via remote) ran compatibility checks and found no issues. The factory reset removes all previous versions of Windows 10 from the registry,  and the reset, in my case, loaded factory baseline Windows 10 20H2 version 19042.985. The Windows 10 version 19042.1151(Release Date 29 July 2021) is what was updated via Windows Update after OS Recovery and subsequently, Alienware Client Management Service stopped running. 

I do not know Dell's time sequencing of their client management service software (i.e. Dell Update, SupportAssist, Alienware BIOs, Alienware Software Components) versus Microsoft 20H2 series updates, so if there is a compatibility mismatch, that is where I would expect the Dell Product Engineering Team will have to assess. 

The only issue I have had with the Aurora R12 (purchased 17 June2021) has been the Alienware Client Management Service - everything else works and continues to work without errors or software violations (before and after factory reset).

Based on what I have read, there is a chance that Windows 10  21H1 Ver 19043 will solve issue. I'm still waiting on call back from Dell Product Support Engineering Team and at that point I'll ask to use Microsoft Creation Tool and install 21H1.

sfc scannow ran clean. DISM ScanHealth ran clean  - before and after factory reset. 

Final Update:

Dell Tech Rep completely removed all Alienware support and application software including OS (C:) applicable folders and supporting registry items. Then reinstalled all Alienware applications, services and support apps. The Alienware Client Management Service did not start. 

Dell Product Engineering Team is now recommending to completely erase Windows 10 and install Windows via Microsoft site; in essence, creating a new "factory" Windows 10 in the PC. 

I do not intend to execute an erase and new factory Windows 10 strategy.  It is too much of a hassle just to gain Dell Support Services when I can manually update my PC without an "auto" update service. I will wait for Windows 11 and see if that fixes it?

Ran wmimgmt.msc. It stated "Successfully Connected to: " and listed the listed computer characteristics. 

Thats good I think now we just have to wait for @Janwww 

That's all I got. Perhaps running the resetrepository.... I'm running Optiplexes at work . so ..

Thx

No thank you for everything you've been able to help with.

Hi @Shreyank.M  is there an Event ID 1053 (.NET Runtime) in Event Viewer that says the "Alienware Client Management Service" was developed targeting the .NET framework X.X.X (say 4.5.1) but the Windows instance did not have that version of the .NET framework installed. Backing the service down to target .NET 4.0 should fix the error. 

Hi crimsom, my machine has .NET Framework version 4.5.1 installed but the Dell Client Management Service doesn't work anyway.