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LearningDan
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July 3rd, 2006 15:00
Media Direct (MediaDirect) Runtime Error
Hello,
I'm new to this board and to my Inspiron 6400 (E1505) and am recently having a problem with Media Direct (MD) not working/loading properly.
Problem:
After pushing the MD button from an off state MD appears to load properly, but along with the intro screen (the one about licenses) I get a little window indicating a Runtime Error. It states "This application has requested the Runtime to terminate in an unusal way. Please contact the application support team for more information." This window/error message repeatedly returns after clicking on its "OK" button (or "X" button). MD seems to still function normally (with some loose of cursor control), but the error message won't get lost.
Cause:
Not sure really. It was working "just fine", but I think I shut down MD once with the manual off button while MD was loading, after which the error began appearing on every susequent MD power-up.
Fix attempts:
1) Did something which caused the error message to get lost, but then none of the options on the main menu screen acted properly. Upon clicking them the cursor disappeared briefly as if something normal was going to happen, but nothing did; just got stuck with the main menu screen. Today I read about use of "F8" on MD power-up to "Delete restoration data..." and tried it. It only returned me to the Runtime Error message state.
2) I've run the MD Repair Utility. It didn't fix anything.
3) Also, I haven't found the MD reinstalation program on the disks (Operating System, Drivers and Utilities) I received with the notebook so I've not tried that yet.
I've contacted support via email and am waiting for a response/solution, but hope to get help posted here.
Thanks
LearningDan
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Posted July 8th, 2006 19:00
Hi MennoX, thanks for the reply.
The so far poor (though timely) email response from Dell was to tell me they understood I wanted to reinstall MD, and so they quickly sent me a MD reinstalation CD. The instructions for its use are minimal and confusing. As best I can tell, it is only to be used after repartitioning your hard drive, or after install and partioning of a new hard drive. I tried it on my drive, which has not been repartitioned, hoping it would delete the original but damaged MD software from its partition, then reinstall a clean version. But, at the 10% progess mark it stops and gives me the error message: "Installation stopped due to failure when copying files. Please check your system and try again."
Does anyone know what's going wrong here? I don't want to try and repartition my hard drive. Should I try manually erasing the software on the MD partition so that I can reinstall? If so, how is that done?
Yeah, its a complete headache. The only instructions I have for reinstalling Dell MediaDirect are for when reinstalling the OS on a new hard drive or a hard drive where all partitions were deleted. Since that's not your situation, I wouldn't know what to do in your case. Since no partitions were deleted, MediaDirect Repair should have fixed your issue. Are you sure you ran it correctly? One person I know downloaded the Dell MediaDirect Repair utility from Dell's site, didn't burn it onto a CD as an ISO, and thus it didn't work when she attempted to repair it.
I would try attempting to repair once more.
1. Insert the Dell Drivers and Utilities CD into your computer (MediaDirect Repair is located within it), and restart.
2. At the Dell logo screen, press F12 to access the boot menu.
3. Select the CD and/or DVD drive.
4. Type in cd/MD2 and press Enter.
5. Type in Repair and press Enter. You may see a prompt, select OK.
6. Turn off your laptop, and then press the Media Direct button; hopefully it'll work again.
Mennogreg
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Posted July 3rd, 2006 16:00
I had the same error with my MediaDirect before (after I deleted a partition on my hard drive), however in my case the MD Repair utility corrected the problem.
You can call up Dell (or do so through Dell Chat; its generally quicker) and ask them to send you all the Reinstallation CD's for your model. The Dell MediaDirect Reinstallation CD is one of those CD's; Dell doesn't include it in the shipment of your computer.
From what I read though, Dell MediaDirect is a headache to reinstall, though in your case it may be easier if you did not delete any partitions.