Remove Dell Support and Dell Solution Center

Question

I am trying to remove the above two programs. When I go to Add/Remove on my Control Panel and try and remove them, I get the following message:

[For Dell Support]:

"The feature you are trying to remove is on a CD-Rom or other removable disk that is not available. Insert the 'Dell Support' disk and check OK'

[Note: there is a window below that labeled 'Use Source' which has a '1' in it; I assume this is where it's trying to find the removable disk; before inserting one of the CD's below I have changed it to D;\ ]

The labels on the removable CD's which came with my computer are as follows:

1. APPLICATION ALREADY INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER; For reinstalling Dell Tolls System Software Contents: - Antivirus software; - Support Software; - Multimedia software; - Internet software

2. DRIVERS AND UTILITIES ALREADY INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER; Dell Dimension Resource CD; Contents: -Device drivers; - Diagnostics and utilities; - Computer documentation

3. DRIVERS AND UTILITIES ALREADY INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER; For reinstalling V.9X (Capable)/56K Date/Fax Modem; Software for Microsoft Windows; Contents: - Drivers; - Diagnostics and utilities; - Online documentation; - Modem on Hold

4. OPERATING SYSTEM ALREADY INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER; Reinstallation CD; Microsoft Windows XP Professional Including Service Pack 1a

5. DELL E172FP COLOR MONITOR USER DOCUMENTATION

When any of these CD's are inserted into the D:\ drive I get the following error message:

The path "d:\Sherman.MSI cannot be found. Verify that you have access to this location and try again or try and find the installation package Sherman.MSI in a folder from which you can install the product Dell Support."

I'm not sure where to go from here. I can't find the file "Sherman.msi" on any of the removable disks or on my c drive. I think I don't have the correct removable CD but I was careful to save *everything* when I bought this computer. If I don't have the correct one, where can I get it? Or is it some other sort of problem?

I have a similar problem when trying to remove "Dell Solution Center". However, it appears to be looking for a file name "DSC.MSI" Any ideas or suggestions?

Alexandra_P · Answer

There were several versions of Dell Support software, with various names.. It sounds like you're talking about fairly old versions dating back several years, so I'm assuming this is XP on an older system - search results for "sherman.msi" go back to 2002. The "disk not available" is sort of a red herring - XP spits that out for anything that can't be found, regardless of whether it was originally on a disk or not.

Easiest option is to try again to find it the original folders on your drive and run the uninstall manually. This article may help you find them. Besides C:\Dell\Drivers, look in C:\Program Files\Dell .

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&dl=false&l=en&s=gen&docid=F74FFBBF6DBC0460E030030ABD627CA2&doclang=en&cs=

Second option is to try and find the original software on Dell's site, download and install it to overrwrite/correct what's already there, then run the uninstall again. Problem is actually finding it - Dell won't have older versions readily available - but if you can identify and post the folder it was in (eg, R49440) might still be able to track it down.

Third option is to just force it to uninstall. Other members have had luck with Revo Uninstaller - there is a free version under Downloads on the site:

http://www.revouninstaller.com/index.html

queenmab99 · Answer

I found in c:\Program Files\Dell, the following folders:

Help and Support Customization

Solution Center

Support

But how do I "unistall them manually"? When I try to "add/remove programs" through the control panel, I get the error mentioned above.

I could not find the drivers on the Dell Web site.

Also, the article mentioned above has two uninstall procedure for Dell Support 2.0 (which is what is on my computer). The first one goes likes this:

Click the Start button.
Click the Control Panel icon.
In the Control Panel window, click the Add or Remove Programs category.
In the Add or Remove Programs window, click the Add or Remove Programs icon.
In a list of currently installed programs, locate the Dell Support listing and click to highlight it.
Two Dell™ Support listings might be display. If one of the Dell Support listing has a version number to the right of it (for example, 5.0.0), it is a newer version of Dell Support. Uninstall the version that is listed as Dell Support only.
Click Remove to begin the uninstall process.
In the message screen Are you sure you want to remove Dell Support from your computer?, click Yes to uninstall Dell Support.
When the uninstall completes and the screen disappears, Dell Support 2.x has been removed.

When I try this I get the error message in my original post. When I try the second suggestion:

Uninstall Dell™ Support 2.x After a Failed Attempt

When Support 2.x is unable to uninstall properly, it may be necessary to run the Dell Support 2.x installation program to remove the program. To uninstall Dell Support 2.x, perform the following steps:

Click Start, then click Run.
In the Run window, type c:\dell\drivers and press the key.

Look for the a folder with one of the following names:

R49440
R49442
R49446
R49447
R49448
R49450
R57848

R78569

	Note:
	When folder is not present, you can download it from Dell Support page.

Double-click the folder found from the list above and then double-click setup.exe to launch the installation.
In the Dell Support – InstallShield Wizard window, click Next, then Remove.
When the uninstall process completes, click Finish. The Dell Support - InstallShield Wizard window closes.

I cannot get past step 2 where I get a message saying it cannot file the file c:\dell\drivers. :-(

When you write this:

but if you can identify and post the folder it was in (eg, R49440) might still be able to track it down.

I'm not sure exactly what am I looking for? I'm pretty proficient with Windows Explorer, but I'm not sure what "it" is that you are referring to in the statement above. If you give me the name of a file I will locate it. However, I searched for sherman.msi and dsc.msi on my c drive and they are not *anywhere*.

I tried the Revo Uninstaller and I got the same error messages mentioned in my original post. :-(

Thanks for your help.

Alexandra_P · Answer

Reason I asked if you could find any reference to those folders is it may be possible to download and install it again - just to hope it'll overrwrite whatever's there so you can uninstall it again. Most any file that comes from Dell has an "RXXXXX" type name, and the files in that support article are archived below, but I honestly don't know which one is the right one.

ftp://ftp.dell.com/app/

The basic problem is, there are a LOT of versions of Dell Support, or Dell Solution Center, or whatever, and whenever a new one came out, Dell would take the old versions off the regular download pages. To be honest I've only directly dealt with a couple of them - one that came out in late 2007 and was called Dell Support Center 2.0, with a blue wrench icon, and the one just prior, called Dell Support 3.4 with an orange E icon.

May be a good idea to check my assumptions. What model computer is it, what operating system, and what year did you buy it? All references to sherman.msi I found dated to the Dell versions dating to the early 2000's, which led me to believe it was one of those versions - for example, the threads below, though there were others.

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/12207064/5375271.aspx

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/2368835/2496281.aspx

Windows General

Remove Dell Support and Dell Solution Center

Was this post helpful?