1.  I bought an I8600 with 8xdvd+rw and it had overheating problems, so I received a replacement i8600 with 8xdvd+rw. I received the repalacement yesterday and I've been trying to get this fixed since.

  2.  I used the dell media experience on the defective laptop just fine.  When I received the replacement laptop, I tried to use dell media experience with the EXACT SAME movie.  So, I know the movie is able to be viewed. 

My problem is that the dell media experience on the replacement laptop has a different icon on the desktop (Brown box with DELL words on defective laptop Brown box with house figure on replacement laptop), and has a different look and response than the defective laptop had.  When I enter the replacement laptops dell media experience, it puts me in the setting screen, allows me to select wide screen and then displays the audio setup screen.  The audio setup screen has a list with no choices, so I continue to the registration screen where I receive the following error:

PowerCinema Main Program for Dell has encountered a problem and needs to close.  We are sorry for the inconvenience.

  3.  When I go back to the main menu and select DVD, I receive the following error:

Dell Media Experience does not currently support DVD or SVCD playback.  If you would like to use Dell Media Experience on disks in these formats, please upgrade your Dell Media Experienceby purchasing PowerDVD
or by clicking the Extras Button on the Home Page.

  4.  The only thing that I notice is that the file that the shortcut executes (the target in properties):

"C:\Program Files\Dell\Media Experience\PCM2.exe"

When I look at PCM2.exe on the replacement laptop, it has a newer version number than the same file
on the defective laptop.  On the defective laptop, the PCM2.exe is version 1.0.0.1212 and the replacement laptop that has the dell media experience problem is 1.0.0.1611.  Another interesting thing is that I can go to the file system under c:\program files\cyberlink\powerdvd and execute powerdvd and it plays the movie. 
That makes me think that the sound card is ok and that PowerDVD is fine.

This all leaves me with the belief that the DELL Media Experience is the problem.  Is there a way to see if I have the correct product?  Is there one version that can read DVD and another verion that cannot?

I even tried to reinstall dme from the disk that came with the defective laptop and I get the 1.0.0.1611 version.  That leads me to believe that the installer is seeing something different on the replacement laptop that it didn't see on the defective laptop.  And this is causing a different version to load, look differently,, and perform differently.

I have spent over 6 hours reinstalling several pieces of software that hasn't found the problem.  I'm hoping that someone has a better depth of experience and can point me to what is wrong.  I have tried email tech support, but I have reinstalled everything they said and they cannot see beyond that.  I tried phone support, but I seem to never be talking to the right department.

Your assistance is desperately needed and greatly appreciated!