Direct2Dell

I just received my new PC a couple of days ago, and have yet to get Dell Support Center to work, even after a Dell tech support agent via remote control work on it for hours last night. After uninstalling, reinstalling, installing a number of different versions...it always says "No Internet Connection Detected"....

You have to appreciate the irony of having a Dell Support Agent remote-controlling your PC over the INTERNET CONNECTION repeatedly getting the message there is no working Internet connection on the computer. 

Thank you, Todd!  I appreciate your responding so quickly.  I'll try the forums again.

How do I remove Datasafe from my system, not just uninstall it through the control panel, remove it altogether, all traces of it? 

I've had my Inspiron 1520 /Vista Home Premium for exactly a year now, but I didn't register for Datasafe until two months ago,  Nonetheless, my Datasafe subscription showed as expiring, so I just cancelled it.   

I have external hard drive backups for this laptop that automatically update daily, and they backup everything I want, not just what Datasafe deems important.  I saw no reason to renew it.

Funny, I kept DellSupport on my laptop, even after I installed DellSupportCenter, just for my PCTuneup subscription.  I went to use PCTuneup  yesterday for only the second time, and guess what... my subscription had expired.  It seems to me, when I pay for a three-year Complete Care contract with all its bells and whistles, it should include the subscription that will keep my system running efficiently for the entire three years. 

Anyway, how do I remove Datasafe completely?  Thank you for your time.

I got a popup a few months back (June 2008?) while surfing the web that it was "critical" that I update my Dell Support Center from 1 to 2. I complied downloading the 40MB package and installing it. As soon as I ran a scan I got the blue screen error message "Special_Pool_Detected_Memory_Corruption

Stop 0x0000000C1 or 0x000000D5

PCD5SRV.PKMS

Not sure if this was bogus software (dated December 2007) or had been modified with a virus payload or was just detecting signs of a virus that was already there. System had more and more crashes.

It is now a brick as I believe the virus corrupted the BIOS and I am unable to overwrite it with an update from Dell.

I love dell support

Warning to All!!!!  Installing Dell Support Center caused my  Windows Update to stop working (it hangs).  It took many days and countless hours of troubleshooting to figure out this connection.  If you decide to install Dell Support Center then run Windows Update immediately afterwords and make sure that it still works. 

hello i am trying to reinstall "the dell support center"  i am having alot of troubble with this . i am also trying to reinstall windows explororer can you please help me as i am new to computers

thanls eva moore ps i can't contact you on line!!

after reading all of this I am scared to try downloading . I have been trying to contact dell for the past couple of days and it appears that I just keep getting the message that I am not on line?? but I am able to use my internet connection  and get web sites normally . So why is it that dell isn't able to remotley access my computer and fix it?

I thought that I was the only one getting @content no longer available' message.

This after using the self help tool once and one ofthe other tools once.  

Dell Support Center does not recognize my Dell desktop as a Dell. Adding memory, a few extra hard disks, and a new operating system apparently cancels any automated support capacity on the new program.

Need help with getting microsoft works 8.5 to install properly on my computer.Wont install run time? Please help me resolve this problem!!!!

Hello ,I need support from dell company for my new labtop.

thank you; Mousavi

BrOdBaNd,

I am sorry your parents are having problems. A good place to look for technical assistance is the Dell Community Forum.

www.dellcommunity.com

Joanne

My parents Dell Dimension 4600 is having some problems...  The monitor wont come on and the diagnostic lights I have are as follows. A (Flashing yellow) B (Yellow) C (Green) D (Green) 

I installed Dell Support Center on a 4 year old Dimension 8300 with XP Professional.  I have had no BSOD or anything-just slowed my boot up times.  However, the information on the opening screen of DSC says, "Service tag-unavailable", "Express service code-unavailable" and "Warranty expiration date-updating".  I have extended hardware warranty with Dell and can go online and the information is in "my account" but doesn't seem to ever get transferred back to my computer. Maybe mine is too old?  Kind of annoying!

I am happy to say that my grandson came over and went into MsConfig and clicked on Startup and he looked through it until he found the Download that was sitting in my systray. He then unchecked it and then went and found the Dell Support and unchecked that box and now its not running in the background. Didn't bother to uninstall it as it was only 14 mb. Even tho Dell said it doesn't work anymore anyway. He also found the FAT 32 partition where Dell keeps its own special little backup. Course it doesn't have a name on it as to what it is but from the forums I knew that it was the partition they put in because it was 38 mb. I haven't had anymore popups from Dell so I guess it worked. Keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for all the info I got from this forum. Its the greatest.

My 530 came with it installed.  It is a really an annoying, nagging program. 

I changed the settings to stop all notifications except for "critical alerts", which helped, but Dell has classified advertisements for their DataSafe Online Backup as a "critical alert" so there is no way to stop these alerts (ads) other than to sign up for the DataSafe service.

I'd like to find a way to disable startup of DSC (rather than uninstalling it) so that I can just use it when I need it, but I don't know how to do this so I will likley uninstall it 

This Dell Support 2.0 notice came up in a popup window. I didn't know what to do so I clicked Remind me later hoping to find out something about it first. Then much to my chagrin the download is just sitting in my Systray and when I put my cursor over it it says DOWNLOAD. Is there anyway to get it off there? After reading all these post I don't want it. I have never used any of there tools in the old one. I am a novice and I don't need any dreaded blue screens. I had enough of those with Win98. I have XPsp2 and I don't have automatic Windows Updates checked. Please advise.

I just downloaded Dell support Center. After it completed the down load, I got a message statiing "Please wait while Dell Support Center setup process completes."  Unfortunately, that screen just hung up for over a half hour and when I tried to stop it I got this message. "Dell Support is busy.  Please wait and try again"  I finally had to force a restart.  I am NOT impressed with this new software!!!

There is one great thing about Dell Support Center; when you uninstall it, your computer starts up faster and runs better.

 Awesome works guys!

     I fully concur with the other posters  - Dell Support Center (DSC) 2.0 is a piece of junk, which Dell refuses to even talk to about, unless your computer is still under HARDWARE warranty - unless you pay $$$$. 

     DSC 2.0 will not let me get any information about the alters it displays, claiming "No Internet Connection Detected."  But when I click on DSC 2.0's "About Your System/System Information" tab, it clearly shows my Internet Connection is up, active, has DNS servers and the correct gateway.  In other words, this software isn't even internally consistent!

     Nobody should have to put up with this kind of junk! 

I have just received that  "pop-up" for a new version of Dell Support Centre but no option to refuse it - it just installed. Then everything slowed to a crawl.

I was able to remove it via Control Panel and things seem to be back to normal.

 I simply don't want this sort of thing. I would much prefer an update service that works like Windows Update when you have automatic updates turned off - you get the choice of what to download. Even better if it could made to work with Firefox.
 

Today I read on the Dell website:  There are known issues with the October 31st release of Dell Support Center 2.

No kidding!

Last week, I received a "pop-up" from Dell Support, indicating that I should download and install Dell Support Center 2.0.

After I installed Dell Support Center 2.0, my computer froze.  It would not boot properly; it would not load or open programs; if programs opened they would not work; and I could not print.

Of course, I finally figured it out, and uninstalled, and hopefully removed all references to Dell Support Center 2.0.

Good luck to all who are trying to uninstall Dell Support Center 2.0.  It can be done with perseverance.  (I never got the blue screen.)

I am now going to uninstall the old Dell Support.  Good riddance to the whole concept.

This is how you 'fix' or get rid of the blue screen 0x8E (aka BSOD) caused by Dell Support Center and specifically the file PCD5SRVC.PKMS

+++++++++++++++++++++ 

1. Start in Safe Mode

2. Open up MSCONFIG - Start -> Run -> msconfig (Enter)

3. Under Services click on 'Hide all microsoft services' and then disable all

4. On start up click on 'disable all'

5. Restart in normal mode, and uninstall Dell Support Center

6. Very Important: reverse the changes made in msconfig, and make note to yourself, 'Do not install Dell Support Center (until Dell comes up with a fix)' 

+++++++++++++++ 

I am suprised so many people have a problem with this!

 
I installed Support Center and now my laptop takes a long time to boot up (the hard disk is spinning for ages).

 I tried deleting but could not, can anybody help please with how to successfully delete this from XP.

Minus points for this one Dell!

I have achieved an even better solution ... by accident.

Having read all of the above, I turned on to sort out the issues but let it boot up fully one last time make sure the symptoms were identical.

It turns out that Dell have sent out a fix and the prtoblem has been cured.  All the features of Support Centre are now working again.

My wife had borrowed my laptop the day before and inadvertantly left it turned on and logged in overnight.  All I can think is that the fix was sent out and installed itself during that time.

Who cares quite frankly - my laptop is working again.

I ran this for exactly one day and then I uninstalled the "Dell suport center".

The reason I tossed it that each time when I started my machine this thing used up so much resources doing some strange scan that the system was unusable for about 10 minutes.

OK I may miss out if I ever have to make a support call but basically the machine has been very stable and reliable. I do not feel the need.

I had the same BSOD problem with pcd5srvc.pkms. The only thing I have to add that has not been said here by others: Today I reached a phone support person in Utah who was much better informed and more knowledgeable than the fellow and his supervisor in India, who handled my calls yesterday. At the suggestion of the Utah guy, I wound up renaming the Dell Support directory, then rebooting, renaming back to the original, and using Add/Remove programs (in Control Panel) to remove DSC. All the fellows in India could suggest was to re-install my OS, which would have been a massive undertaking, as you probably realize.

The follow-up email from the support guy in Utah includes this phone number for the Dell support centers in Utah or Canada for service on Dell XPS systems: (800)-232-8544.

I hate this "improvement." After rebooting, it crashed my computer. I could not access anything and not being a computer-savy user, I had to take it to a repair shop where it cost me $110 to have it corrected (Got the blue screen w/white text with a load of error messages followed by "Preparing to dump physical memory - physical memory dumped." Great.

Thanks Dell. Never again.

Thank God for this forum. Followed John P's guidance and completed removal.

When is Dell gonna acknowledge this and publish a fix?

I installed the new Support Center(2.0.07311) on a perfectly stable and healthy PC(Win XP/SP2) and immediately had numerous problems - very troublesome and time-consuming. Eventually contacted Dell who uninstalled and re-installed by Remote Access. It is better now but still occasional glitch such as showing 'No Internet Connection Detected' even though I have always-on Broadband. Surely a 'SUPPORT' Center that causes so much trouble is a contradiction in terms.
 

Thank goodness for googling PCD5SRVC.pkms....and finding this. I am currently uninstalling that dreadful 'Dell Support Center' on my laptop, but what about the 'Dell Support 3.2.1'... is this likely to cause any worry?

Thanks again for this blog! 

I had the same problem today for the first time, and appear to have temporarily fixed it by uninstalling the DELL Support Center.  Is this the place where DELL will likely post an official response and fix to this problem?

Same deal here.  John P's fix worked for me as well.

Thank goodness for these forums.  I've spent about 5 hours rebooting, uninstalling programs, installing drivers, trying to run memory test programs, etc. If Dell can send us the prompt to install the Dell Support System, certainly Dell could alert us aboout this problem.  

Wow, I just had a coworker come to me with her Dell laptop in hand... I googled for the pcd5srvc.pkms and came to this thread. What time saver!!!

 I had to follow the same steps as John P. and I'm clean now, coworker happy again. No more Support Center on her laptop.

 
Thx again!     - Steve
 

I too have been getting the blue screen with a pcd5srvc.pkms problem on my Inspiron 9300 laptop, but interestingly not on my Dell 4600 desktop.

I pressed f8 to open in safe mode, navigated to c\program files\dell support center\hwdiag\bin and changed pcd5srvc.pkms to pcd5srvc.pkms.old

Seems to have fixed the blue screen problem, even if the support center does not function fully now.

Looks like this file was written by PC Doctor

I installed Dell Support Center yesterday and today began getting the 'blue screen' with the issue with PCD5SRVC.pkms. 

 Thanks, John P.  I followed your suggestion and it corrected my problem.

Same issues here; protracted load time on my Inspiron 640m and the occassional BSOD implicating PCD5SRVC.PKMS as the culprit.  I've uninstalled Dell Support Center and will be a bit more circumspect when installing future software releases from Dell.  Now I have to consider what is to be done with the dozen or so Dell laptops that we have in the field. 

Dell has in my estimation lost a great deal of credibility with this breach in quality control, and it will definitely weigh against them when it comes time to purchase our next batch of systems.

Hello all,

 What a pain in the neck.  It slowed my boot up and the pc was not usable until 5 minutes after I logged on.  Not only that but it was butting heads with my Norton AntiVirus auto protect since it seems it too was scanning all of my drives.  WEIRD.  I uninstalled it and my problems went away.

DELL can we do a little better next time, please?

I've been having all of the above... I had been getting by but with lots of restarts. Eventually I had a BSOD that wouldn't go away.  I found that there was less chance of BSOD upon restart if I chose not send an error report...

I had run the RAM memory test - everything fine.  I downloaded a slew of updated drivers from Dell - some marked urgent.  Why doesn't Dell tell me that I need these? (In the same way the Windows Updater does)  

I noticed that when I restarted in safe mode that my windows user sign on page has a new completely unknown user on my machine called Administrator with a kick boxing icon. 

I got an error message saying I couldn't uninstall in safe mode.  So 2 more BSODs and then... The uninstall wizard spent a long time configuring DSC before removing it.  Lets hope its done the trick...

And of course the fix is... Go directly to the Apple Store and buy a Mac because... "They just work"  Never again.  I am an utter convert: My MacBook - Ah! It is beautiful, well thought out and it just works - effortlessly 

After "updating" to vers 2 of Dell Support Center, at every boot I received a blue screen of death indicating that: PCD5SRVC.PKMS is causing it.

I tried to uninstall Dell's Support Center but could not do so in Safe Mode. I had to finally uncheck it in msconfig just to get my brand new computer to boot-up without a blue screen of death.

I just hope it will boot tomorrow - what a Support Center this is, or should I call it UN-Support Center?

I booted this morning (2007/11/25), and got the BSOD as well, attributed to PCD5SRVS.PKMS.

Tried safe mode, and several reboots, and am back in business.

This was the 1st time I had rebooted from shutdown in weeks;

New stuff:

Trillian update.

Nikon D40X was attached at re-boot.

PFG.

"Then my computer started crashing repeatedly to a blue screen. It identified PCD5SRVC.PKMS as the culprit"

I had the same problem. In safe mode I could not uninstall it. In msconfig I received a privledge violation even form administrator and could not stop the startup services. Eventually in safe mode I deleted the Dell support center direrctory in program files. Rebooted the system and uninstalled Dell Support Center.

I had the same bluescreen problem after installing Dell Support Center.
Also for me the blue screen talks about PCD5SRVC.PKMS, which seems a component installed by a software named "PC-Doctor" which is probabilly what Dell Support Center really is.

Going in safe mode and uninstalling Dell Support Center solved all my problems.

I am having a terrible time with this thing. When I installed, I started getting an error message about a failed C++ process. Then my computer started crashing repeatedly to a blue screen. It identified PCD5SRVC.PKMS as the culprit, which I eventually identified as part of the Support Center. It took me awhile because I could not keep from crashing on boot. I tried uninstalling this terrible program, and was told I did not have enough privileges. I next went in and tried to disable it from starting up when Windows boots, but it still starts up. I cant stop it and I can't get rid of it. I am still trying to recover, and I am having to post this from a different machine.

I just uninstalled it. 

 
Not only was this piece of bloatware consuming roughly 80MB of my hard drive, but each time I rebooted, Dell Support Center was responsible for running some unknown procedure that was sequentially accessing each of my hard drives, internal and external, for a few minutes at a time. 

I've no idea what it was doing; it had the look and feel of a full-disk antivirus scan, but I'm already running AVG antivirus, and I long-ago directed it NOT to run automated full-disk scans.  So I have no idea what Dell Support Center was doing, save that it was not something I could manage from the sparse user controls.

I have just updated to Dell Support Center after being advised that Dell Support would soon no longer be supported (is that clear?).  I am having the same trouble with bogus alerts and the "c:\program files\dell" folder opening.  This last problem is invariably caused by a command to execute a command file in the folder shown.  In other words, some command has been added by Dell Support Center to execute c:\program files\dell\xxxxx\xxxxx.xxxx and it does not exist. Usually this means the directory structure was changed but the software wasn't.

I am surprised Dell has not responded to these problems.

They've updated the specs to clarify that it does work with Vista

 Minimum Supported System Requirements:

How much does "Dell Support Center" difference from "Dell Solution Center" which was pre-installed on my system (Inspiron 5160) about 3 years ago?

Because "Dell Solution Center" also provides me my hardware-specs, support links, tag information, ...

Isn't it just the same, beside the GUI? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Sincere greetings.

Verstraete L.