"Jay B" wrote in message
...
interesting indeed...
when you went to media direct, didnt it prompt for the system password
before going to vista? you didnt say that.

probably the media direct is working in a funky way, and perhaps dan
goodells website may shed some light on it. he knows how to fix all the
dell partition issues.

i dont use media direct.... IMO its kind of dumb to buy and carry a laptop
to play music when all you really need is a sony walkman, or mp3 player.
Jay


Joe wrote:
"Joelee" wrote in message
...
I have an XPS M1330 laptop. Media Direct functioned correctly for about
3 months, but then I had the motherboard replaced and after that when I
ran media direct the logo appeared at startup but it no longer goes
directly to the media direct shell. Instead Vista is installed and all
the other programs that install when Vista is installed. It is only
after that, that the Media Direct Shell appears.

I discussed the issue with a Dell Chat Tech and was advised that I would
have to do a Dell factory restore to get it working again. I have done
that 2 times with no luck. I still can only get to Media direct after
Vista has been fully installed. It works fine that way but I would have
liked to get to it without the operating system being installed as it
once did.

One other point I should make is that I have not been able to get to the
Dell factory restore and pressing Ctrl + F11 as I did before the
motherboard replacement. I was advise by Dell Chat that in Vista I have
to press F5 at startup which which got me to factory restore.

I would appreciate any help I can get to be able get to media direct
more directly as I once did.
Thanks.

More details of "what happened to me"....

All was well and then I set the passwords for Admin, System and HDD.
I did notice the really slow boot up when I did the HDD
password...'important? Hmm.
Then I decided to check out the MediaDirect and pressed the button from
cold.
Instead of MediaDirect loading on it's own, the whole Vista system booted
up...'then MediaDirect.
And that's the way it's stayed ever since.
I have installed nothing! Only set these 3 passwords for the first time
ever.
Tempremental...??

Joe.



I agree with you Jay, the MediaDirect is a gadget really, but it comes with
the package as they say.
The MediaDirect partition does indeed ask for the password, or at least, the
bios asks, then it boots the whole sheebang.
Do you have a link to the website you mentioned?

Cheers.
Joe.