Hi all

Just wanted to bring everyone's attention to a recent issue that I've had with my Dell system and the "Sonic RecordNow" software that came preinstalled on it.  One day, when booting up my PC, the system started to ask for the Sonic installation CD immediately upon entering windows.  As I hadn't manually started the installation of that software, I just pressed cancel to end the unwanted installation.  Instead of ending the cancellation, this just restarted it.  This continues over and over for around 10 times until eventually it stops.  Then, after a random period of time, the whole process starts again.  I rang technical support who then referred me to the software support line.  I was then told that I would have to buy their software warranty or they wouldn't help me.  I  bought the warranty and they then took me through a complete system reinstall.  Everything was then fine, except for the fact that I'd had to buy the warranty.

The next day, my uncle came to town and brought his Dell laptop with him that was suffering from exactly the same problem.  As it then became clear that the fault I'd had must've been known to Dell, I decided that I would ring Dell and ask for an explanation.  They told me that Sonic has a known issue that causes the above problem and that the way Sonic wants you to fix it is to go to their website and buy further software from them!!!  The person I spoke to then took me through the simple steps to stop the problem and then remove the offending software.

To sum up:  Dell are completely aware of the issue with their preinstalled software and are duping customers into buying a software warranty to fix it.