PowerDVD DX issue

In hopes of getting a patch for my current Power dvd dx  (to see if that would correct my freezing problem) I asked which of their patches was the correct one for my software. This was their reply:

Thank you for contacting CyberLink Technical Support.

We understand your concern related with crashing in PowerDVD DX.

We wish to inform you that you are using Dell customize version software which is supplied with Dell and pre-installed on your computer, we request you to contact Dell and resolve the issue.

Please feel free to contact us for any further clarification or for any assistance related to CyberLink Products.

.....

**Update**

So today the on site tech comes to replace the Bluray drive which freezes at the menu screen but plays regular dvd's fine. He puts in the new one and it doesn't work at all..Doesn't even recognize a disc. Runs a diagnostic gets some weird error message  and says he has to call dell..Calls dell can't get thru reschedules for next week...

This is so bad.....

Just as a follow up.  I was able to remove Power DVD 9 (trial version) and downloaded Power DVD DX from Dell's web site then installed it and set it to run in Windows XP mode.  The movies still do some skipping sometimes but they were doing that when the thing was new.  The Bluray Discs will play now.  Hope this helps.

This is a 2 week old XPS 9000, i7, 8g ram, upgraded video card, power dvd dx 8.3. I think I probably did read your post Judgemeister but to be honest I've read so much on this board and so many others it seems like everyone has the same  problem with  a different solution.  If I can even get a drive that "works" at this point i will probably try to solve it myself because Dell certainly doesn't know or care about whats going on..I've seen several other people at the bluray forum board that did the same thing you did and it worked for some and not others.

Thanks

hello all,

so has anyone been able to get Dell to send out the disk for Power DVD 9?

In my case im running 8.3.5452 did an update and it locked out any blu ray playback. regular dvd playback was fine, reinstalled 8.3.5452 from the disc and blu ray works fine..yes some discs will not play without going for the update, which crashes the playback...

Last conversation with Dell support, the discs for Ver. 9 were not available...

I was hoping to find help with my newly arrived xPS900 when I tried to play a Blue Ray DVD and all I got was PowerDVD go as far as the Loading window and stay there.

I did not expect to find the issue unresolved by DELL.

I wish you luck and hope it works for you and all of us.

OK The onsite tech came back today and my bluray player seems to be working fine. Here's what we did, notice I said ..we.

He came back with another new bluray drive AND a motherboard..Scary right. So he put in the new drive to replace the one he put in last week that totally didn't work. It did the same thing the original drive did, played to the menu and froze. So at that point he says we'll have to put in a new motherboard. I was like wait a minute this drive plays regular dvd's fine, CD's, and data discs, it has to be a software problem. Plus it froze at the exact same spot every time. So he halfheartedly agreed and called a Dell service tech which is what I did to start this whole process out. The first thing the tech says is, have you updated the software. I told him I couldn't because the online update line in power DVD was shaded and would not click. ( I even contacted Cyberlink about the update and they said I had to go thru Dell)...

Anyway we look down at the update line and its highlighted.!! I couldn't believe it. He clicked it and it downloaded a large update..Power dvd version 8.3.1.6107..

The Bluray player immediately starts reading the disc and brings up the Power DVD menu, thru Windows Media center which it never did before.. I tested all the Blurays I tried previously that skipped and stuttered and they all played fine. I think there was something corrupted or something the first time out since the update wouldn't work and Power dvd worked independently from WMC not with it.

So I'm happy to have it working (so far) and if anyone else has an onsite tech come out don't let him replace the Motherboard...!

Thank you Sig98 for the information and the details

After reading your Post I went to my PowerDVD and saw the Online Upgrade greyed out also.

I then closed it, removed the DVD from the Drive and opened the PowerDVD again and lo and behold the Online Upgrade was active.

I used the link and upgraded the 8.03.5714 to 8.3.1.6107

After that without any direction I rebooted just to be sure.

I replaced the Blu-Ray DVD "Night at the Museum, Battle of the Smithsonian" into the Drive,

Slowly sutoplay brought up WMC and PowerDVD started the Movie. It skipped here and there, but at least it was playing.

Then I realized what you said and closed WMC and brought up PowerDVD independently of WMC.

It now plays great withou any hesitations.

Thanks again!!!

I'm still wondering why,  even after we upgraded it's now greyed out again and unclickable. The only explanation has to be when Cyberlink has an update the line is not greyed out, their way of telling you there's an update available.

Good luck to everyone.

Sorry, but no...

I have been using PowerDVD DX 8.03.5714 since receiving my new Dell in January, and yes I have been able to play all my Blu-Rays and DVD's but NOT without that ANNOYING jittery play.....it usually starts about 40mins into the play and steadily gets worse as the movie continues....it is as if the movie stalls and is waiting for the disc to catch up? I have 2 disc drives on my new Dell(a Studio XPS 435MT), one for the Blu-Ray Discs and both drives of course play the DVDs....but at the moment neither drive plays Blu-Ray Movies or DVD Movies without this annoying pausing effect during the play...which also leads me to believe that it is a software issue.

But following on.... I did finally after your helpful advice manage to upgrade today to the PowerDVD DX 8.3.1.6107 thinking that this would finally be the answer as Cyberlink and Dell have worked tirelessly together to finally sort out our issues....NO I DON'T THINK SO...the annoying issues as outlined above are still there....the Movies will just not play continuously without interuption...be it Blu-Ray or DVD on either disc drive or by playing them on PowerDVD or through the Microsoft Media Player the same issues still exist.

To get uninterupted play with my DVDs... I am having to use my older Dell Dimension 9100.... which has Windows 7 installed.

This is a software issue I have no doubt...why do Dell not just give us the Cyberlink PowerDVD 9 Ultra software... as this would appear to be the only software on the market at the moment that works with any stability...why should we have to buy it?

Come on Dell and Cyberlink whats happening....we have paid the money now where are the goods!!!!

Newer isn't necessarily better. I had version 8.2.5202 which wouldn't recognize Blu-Ray but played "regular" DVDs.  Initially Dell told me to upgrade PowerDVD with patches on the PowerDVD website.  No joy.  I couldn't get a patch that was compatible with the version I already had loaded.  Then I got 8.3.1.6107 but it still didn't help the situation.  Then tech support had me buy (yes, you read correctly - buy) an "upgrade" to the software, which oh by the way, was supposed to work out of the box but didn't.  So the upgrade comes and it's version 8.2.5408 - lo and behold - it works! 

But I still can't use the mouse to totally interact with PowerDVD when a Blu-Ray disc is being played.  I can use the play/pause buttons, as well as everything else along the bottom of PowerDVD, but I can't interact with the Blu-Ray disc menu - like selecting the scene or bonus materials.  For that, only the arrows and Enter key on the keyboard work.

But I'm still upset that Dell has no qualms about selling something that they know doesn't work - I think that's referred to as "fraud".  I'm seriously tempted to report Dell to the Better Business Bureau! 

I received a brand new Studio XPS 9000 this week: 8GB ram, nVidia GTS240 with 1GB.  It would not play blu ray disks.  It froze on the "loading" screen.  Dell tech support removed and reinstalled the PowerDVD software and then allowed it to update.  It started working but later I discovered that the movies would stutter very badly, getting progressively worse throughout the movie. 

I did some searching and found that someone had recommended removal of the Dell Datasafe software to fix this problem.  I used Datasafe to create recovery disks and then uninstalled all of the Datasafe apps (local and online).  Now Blu Ray disks play perfectly!

I can't believe I pay $1800 for a new computer and have to spend hours making the included software function!  If it is known that Datasafe causes this problem, why hasn't Dell addressed it?  It has a process that continuous pings all of the system drives (including the Blu Ray).  That is what causes the poor playback.  Why not just fix the software and allow the user to exclude the blu ray from access?

Thank you, shepsal!  I'd been desperately trying to find out how to get to an "Upgrade" option in PowerDVD while a disk was in the drive, it didn't even occur to me that the interface would change totally when the disk was removed.  Note to Cyberlink: modal UIs went out of fashion in about 1985.  When I finally got to the screen with the "Online Update" option, it looked grey, but when I clicked it twice, it started anyway (!) and it's now dowloading a 34Mb update.  I'll have to see whether that stops it from crashing.

(Some background: XPS 1645 Windows 7 64-bit pro, i7, ATI 4670 graphics.  Just tried playing back a DVD for the first time, got about 10 minutes in, and it hung.  Machine just about responding but not usable, had to power off.)

OK, it's upgraded me from 8.3.5something to 8.3.6107.  Here goes.  Let's see if I can find out what Dirty Harry does after he leave's the mayor's office...

Hmmm.  It crashed once while playing, requiring a power-off reboot, and when it finished, the mouse pointer was stuck at double or maybe three times the normal size.  Odd.  Anyone know where to get the latest display drivers?