There are two separate issues. 1 the memory changed error message and 2 the no boot problem.
Initially it was only the Alienware 17 R4 and the Inspiron 15 Gaming 5577 models. Later the 15 R3 was added. These are the only models that I am aware of with the memory change issue.
The memory change error can be eliminated by uninstalling as I did with Revo Uninstaller Pro, or as later reports by uninstalling Support Assistant with the Windows Uninstaller and then running registry cleaner with Ccleaner. One model Alienware also has a Support Assistant entry in the BIOS and disabling that has been reported as a temporary fix for the memory change error. I have escalated it to our Dell Rockstar interface and its also been escalated to the Dell Alienware support. No updates have been reported by Dell, yet.
@fireberd You was right. It was 2 separate problems. After tinkering some more with it, I found that I had a bad Hard drive. I unplugged the 2.5 HDD and left the new SSD drive in and it booted up with my windows flash drive. I just had to do a fresh Win 10 install and lost the data on the old drive. I can live with that. I am also still getting the memory message which I will be fixing soon but again it's better than a $1000 paper weight. Now since I bought new RAM and A new SSD card this thing is cookin! A blessing in disguise if you will. Thanks for the responses!!
Hi @Stew welcome to this user to user discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.
We are inviting @fireberd to join this discussion because this strange problem has been acknowledged within the Dell "Rockstar" user group.
Internet research of this problem found @fireberd tenforums post Dell's reporting amount of memory changed at bootup and a remedy that this user could use, if only it can be deployed. This post says: Only two Dell model users are reporting this error, Alienware 17 R4 laptop and Inspiron 15 Gaming 5577 laptop.
The Alienware 15 R3 & 17 R4 have the same system board, and now apparently share the same "amount of memory changed" phantom error message. The 15 R3 & 17 R4 laptop symptoms appear to be identical, except that @Stew is unable to boot into the windows operating system. How does @Stew apply the @fireberd fix/solution to get Revo Uninstaller to delete the apparently troublesome SupportAssist? Then delete the troublesome windows update (KB4580980)?
Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from another user. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
Not sure why the the 15R2/17R3 isn't mentioned. So I paste in the answer from the referred trhead:
So to summerise the (differences in the) problem on the affected models:
15R2/17R3: Solves the problem after completely uninstalling all entries of SupportAssist (This models do not have the option to disable SA OS Recovery in BIOS)
15R3/17R4: Solves the problem after disabling SA OS Recovery in BIOS, and the error does not come back even after re-installing SA (as tested by @drivel2787 )
As stated by @fireberd : On the Inspiron 15 5577 the BIOS Support Assist is disabled by factory default BIOS setup. So the reporting memory changed problem would appear to not be Support Assist/BIOS related in the 5577 model. So this is then similar to 15R2/17R3 (missing this option in BIOS). The solution: Completely uninstalling all entries of SupportAssist on these models.
So what have we learned?
This is after my understanding a issue with SA since the reseat memory message appeared "out of the blue" back in December 2020, after SA and Windows was updated. Nothing else regarding drivers or BIOS was updated on my end when the error popped up after the first restart required to finsh the Windows December 2020 update.
fireberd
9 Legend
•
33.4K Posts
2
February 15th, 2021 03:00
There are two separate issues. 1 the memory changed error message and 2 the no boot problem.
Initially it was only the Alienware 17 R4 and the Inspiron 15 Gaming 5577 models. Later the 15 R3 was added. These are the only models that I am aware of with the memory change issue.
The memory change error can be eliminated by uninstalling as I did with Revo Uninstaller Pro, or as later reports by uninstalling Support Assistant with the Windows Uninstaller and then running registry cleaner with Ccleaner. One model Alienware also has a Support Assistant entry in the BIOS and disabling that has been reported as a temporary fix for the memory change error. I have escalated it to our Dell Rockstar interface and its also been escalated to the Dell Alienware support. No updates have been reported by Dell, yet.
Stew
3 Posts
0
February 15th, 2021 10:00
@fireberd You was right. It was 2 separate problems. After tinkering some more with it, I found that I had a bad Hard drive. I unplugged the 2.5 HDD and left the new SSD drive in and it booted up with my windows flash drive. I just had to do a fresh Win 10 install and lost the data on the old drive. I can live with that. I am also still getting the memory message which I will be fixing soon but again it's better than a $1000 paper weight. Now since I bought new RAM and A new SSD card this thing is cookin! A blessing in disguise if you will. Thanks for the responses!!
Stew
3 Posts
0
February 14th, 2021 14:00
New ssd and it still will not boot up from USB. Didn't think it would but I figured I'd try.
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
2
February 15th, 2021 00:00
Hi @Stew welcome to this user to user discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.
We are inviting @fireberd to join this discussion because this strange problem has been acknowledged within the Dell "Rockstar" user group.
Internet research of this problem found @fireberd tenforums post Dell's reporting amount of memory changed at bootup and a remedy that this user could use, if only it can be deployed. This post says: Only two Dell model users are reporting this error, Alienware 17 R4 laptop and Inspiron 15 Gaming 5577 laptop.
The Alienware 15 R3 & 17 R4 have the same system board, and now apparently share the same "amount of memory changed" phantom error message. The 15 R3 & 17 R4 laptop symptoms appear to be identical, except that @Stew is unable to boot into the windows operating system. How does @Stew apply the @fireberd fix/solution to get Revo Uninstaller to delete the apparently troublesome SupportAssist? Then delete the troublesome windows update (KB4580980)?
Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from another user. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
ThomasAAT
2 Intern
•
392 Posts
1
February 15th, 2021 07:00
Not sure why the the 15R2/17R3 isn't mentioned. So I paste in the answer from the referred trhead:
So to summerise the (differences in the) problem on the affected models:
15R2/17R3: Solves the problem after completely uninstalling all entries of SupportAssist (This models do not have the option to disable SA OS Recovery in BIOS)
15R3/17R4: Solves the problem after disabling SA OS Recovery in BIOS, and the error does not come back even after re-installing SA (as tested by @drivel2787 )
As stated by @fireberd : On the Inspiron 15 5577 the BIOS Support Assist is disabled by factory default BIOS setup. So the reporting memory changed problem would appear to not be Support Assist/BIOS related in the 5577 model. So this is then similar to 15R2/17R3 (missing this option in BIOS). The solution: Completely uninstalling all entries of SupportAssist on these models.
So what have we learned?
This is after my understanding a issue with SA since the reseat memory message appeared "out of the blue" back in December 2020, after SA and Windows was updated. Nothing else regarding drivers or BIOS was updated on my end when the error popped up after the first restart required to finsh the Windows December 2020 update.