785. CAUTION: Dell 15-5000 Bad Opt Drive Mount and Need to fix AC3165 driver/setup

Update 1/2/17 - BINGO! It took another level of escalation to convince Dell that the drives could be ok, but the drive mount or connection inside were at fault. I considered that to be the case when I had to physically remove the drive to clear an error condition and than reinstall it. The next manager up immediately initiated a PC System Exchange and I received a new PC in 2 days. Installed it and tested immediately before any other installations/customization. It was SO-O-O-O QUIET! I can't believe I wasted over 10 hours with the first-line technical support idiots who HEARD THE NOISE (clattering, chattering, tick like a Big Ben clock) and saw the failures and instead of instantly doing the right thing, continued to bug me about compatibility of CDs. I finally looked up that concern on their site by looking at optical drives and reading the additional documentation re them. In that documentation it clearly states that ALL types of previously recorded discs WILL run! Today I built the new system and started to wipe my data off the bad PC. By tomorrow it will be on a UPS truck going back to Dell. I suppose I should give kudos to the manager Ankit who understood the issue and problems and did the Exchange along with prepaid return of the bad one. Thanks. However, he was also given an earful re his support team who monumentally screwed up! But, what's about 15 min-hours of their time worth?


Conclusion: Don't take crap from a Dell first or second line support and if you are confident re your problem and likely cause, get on the escalation train quickly. I still haven't had an Internet hit, so I'm quite happy now with this Dell.

Update 10/21/17 - Internet running fine now. Dell, after escalating 2 levels is sending a new PC. The problem with the drive might be related to the gouge hole on the drive bezel (face plate) reported. It might be that the mounting bracket is damaged. In 2 weeks we'll be testing new PC and optical drive.

Initial Problem:

So far I have tried 3 HL-DT-STDVD+- GU09N optical drives, the one that came with my NEW 15-5000 series 5700. All are a piece of crap! The first could read only 1 of 13 disks (CD,DVD,Commercial Audio, Commercial movie) and only one time. In other words, the drive failed on every disk tried. All disks run flawlessly in two other Dell PCs (older ones) and the movie runs in DVR Player attached to TV. Dell has been unhelpful other than taking over my system to look at info and run the same tests I ran, which failed! Dell did get two REFURBISHED drives to me, but all 3 were failures in one way or the other. Such as: Never got recognized by Windows 10, never loaded, never did autoplay, failed during play (movie) every time, crashed system once, hung applications, etc.

It amazes me that a company like DELL, selling fine processors, continues to put trash components inside. The drive I had had a date of 6/30/2015! Despite updating all drivers, 2 days after installing the new preinstalled system, the results were as stated. During the 3rd removal, the plastic connection on the bezel finally had enough and broke off! I used electricians on what was left and stuffed it on successfully.

Meanwhile, the tech rep Nio who proudly said she would handle the service request exclusively by email, hadn't responded to 4-5 emails sent until I emailed DELL customer support about the issue. Then she sent me a phone number to call, obviously begging out! Needless to say, she'll get a 0 stars from me on a survey.

So, I don't know where I stand on the Dell Service Request. I reinstalled the 2nd drive since it is the best of the worse. At least audio and data disks, except for one DVD-R worked. Movies are still a problem and I have yet to test burning to a disk which I have read on Internet help sites that I should not expect much, or should I say, more than little.

This entry is a CAUTION to those buying Dell products which I have used for over 14 years and enjoyed! I think I'm old enough to build my own now with good components. Oh, the Wireless adapter, AC3165, has also caused unrecoverable (automatically) intermittent Internet drops, crashed my router twice, blue-screened (seems MSFT on Creator version at least catches things and didn't present a blue screen, but instead a screen to tell you you have crashed and being restarted). I have downloaded a newer driver directly from Intel to try to fix problems (not available yet to Dell).

784. New PC with Creator Version Installation Example

 I thought I'd share with you my experience installing a new Dell PC with preinstalled Windows 10 Creator Version where I was coming from an older Dell with Anniversary Version.:

1.      Note the new PC’s support info. For the Dell 15-1500 Series 5700 being installed, thefollowing applies:

a.      Dell Service Tag: xxxxxx

b.      Dell Express Svc Code: xxxxxx

c.      Dell Warranty: Expires xxxxx

2.      Attach power and Ethernet cable and power on.

3.      When asked for logon credentials by Microsoft’s popup asking for its account ID and password, do NOT use it. Instead create a Local Logon with your desired UAC name. But, since I did not catch this, the steps will proceed with using the MSFT Account ID and password. It will ask for a PIN to for the account also: xxxx.

4.      Fingerprint Setup … I believe later you can ADD a fingerprint. We will try additional users by doing Start > type HELLO you can proceed to fingerprint processing.

5.      Cortana Setup … Cortana is a waste. Dumb it down here and later kill it.

6.      Dropbox … No need for this, did NOT setup

7.      Onedrive … No need for this, did NOT setup

8.      McAfee … Will not use this 1-year trial, so did NOT setup and remove later

9.      Netflix … will never use, so did NOT setup and remove later

10.   Kill Cortana: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Policies > Microsoft > Windows. Now, setup a Key  (there already or create one) called AllowCortana equal to DWORD32 = 0. If you want to reenable Cortana, set it to 1. Note: Cortana task cannot be diabled permantently and will still pop up under active tasks.

11.   Somewhere it automatically set up the Network, including wireless, but has not yet set up password to wireless.

12.   Chrome: Download from Google website. When it installs and you login with Google Account, it automatically creates same bookmarks, add-ons, passwords, from before. Change default Download pointer by Settings > Advanced > Downloads. Set to d:\Downloads from c:\users\me\downloads.

13.    Netgear Genie: This was difficult to find on Netgear site. Instead had to search Google for it and then go to the link owned by Netger. Downloaded and installed.

14.   CCleaner downloaded and installed, version ccsetup.535.exe.

15.   Network Adapters: Note wireless AC3165 in this PC, driver=Intel, 19.51.4.2, 7/2/17

16.   Backupper: Get from site and installed This is used to backup/recover personal data on D:

17.   Create RECOVERY drive and save system files. Start > RECOVERY

18.   Speccy: Downloaded and installed

19.   Thunderbird: This is Email Agent used. Download and install.

a.      Set up email accounts using EXISTING email addresses

b.      Set up Local Folders by copying them from old PC. On that PC do Help > Troubleshooting > Open Profile Folder to get their location. Now, open File Explorer and go to the location > Open Mail > Local Folders and copy the files to flash drive. On new PC, repeat the steps until you get to Local Files subdirectory in File Explorer and copy Flash Drive files into it. You are done.

c.      On old PC Thunderbird, go to Address Book and EXPORT LDIF or .CSV file to Flash Drive.

d.      On new PC Thunderbird, IMPORT them from Flash Drive calling them My…..whatever

20.   Note the entire Configuration:

Processor: i&-8550U @ 1.8 GHz

Memory: 8GB (capable up to 16 GB) in slot 1. 8192 DDR4 (2400 MHz), SMBIOS, Mfr = 01980000802C, Part # KMKYF9-MID

etc.

21.   BIOS: When Dell Logon screen comes up, QUICKLY hit F2

22.   Set up File Network sharing: Network Sharing > Advanced . Then turn on “network discovery” and “file and printer Sharing”. If asked for network credentials when trying to get to old PC, they are the user name TPANC13 and PW for getting on that system. Make sure the old PC also has these file settings. ALSO, Shut everything down including Router (unplug for 30 secs). Now, bring up router and power up PCs.

23.   SAFE Mode: Hold Shift and do Restart AND keep holding Shift until menu comes up for Troubleshooting, Select Windows Startup Settings and select Safe Mode.

24.   Dell Diagnostics: Power off. Power on and continually tap F12 until menu comes up.

25.   Remove McAfee and ensure Windows Defender comes active.

26.   Install broker software

27.   AxCrypt: Installed by copying 1.7.28930-x64-en-us-beta.msi to d:\AxCrypt Install Files. Then run it. The KEEPTIMESTAMP reg hack must be redone to keep timestamp equal to underlying file. Got this from old PC and now in d:\Hacks folder.

28.   AnyPassword: Copied AnyPassword to d:\AnyPassword and execute apwp.exe 3/19/12 file. Once installed, copy database PSW2016.PW from old PC into same D:\AnyPassword directory. You will need Key. Should be in folder, but have to change extension to .reg and run it. Now, customize when started the the default folders/files to use pointing to new PSW2016.PW.

29.   SyncToy: Downloaded 2.1 and installed. Will probably not use this since it got things all messed up!

30.   Office 2003: Install from the CD. Get Office Service Pack SP3 from Microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8 and install it to get last level of last updates before being discontinued. Also need the Office Compatibility product that allowed 2003 to use 2007 and above files. Set up the default libraries in both Word and Excel to point to D:.

Problem: EULA prompt every time Excel brought up. Fix is to start Excel as Administrator,load a file, and close. Next time everything will be ok.

Problem: Clicking on a .xls file does not get you to Excel. File Associations need to be updated. The installation of Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, Powerpoint File Formats needed to be installed. It assigns .xls to Open XML Converter. The download to install is actualled called File FormatConverter.exe

31.   Problem: At this point noisy Optical drive Problem and failures to data CDs. Called Dell Tech Pritam and after many hours showing problem manager Mohammed on 10/19 committed to send out new drive due here on 10/23.

32.   Brother Printer (DCP-L2540DW Series): This will work automatically. Driver some how works with anything. However, we needed Utilities to use scanner, etc. Tried disk, but Optical drive went into a loop (see 32 for more problems). So, installed Full drivers, Network MF2-Prosuite from the Brother site. Bring up CC4 app and change default libraries for scanned files to d:\Harware\Brother…\Scanned Documents.

33.   Cute PDF: Download from site BOTH Cute PDF and Prereq GhostScript Converter and install.

34.   Window Title Colors: Go to Settings > Personalize > Colors and set

35.   Display Theme. Find Yosemite file and run it.

36.   Accuweather Gadget. This uses Air, so both the widget download was required after searching Accuweather Stratus download AND Air from real ADOBE site.

37.   Downloaded ACDSEE for Pentax, but did not install. We’ll use default application Photos. Quicktime was required for other one.

38.   Decrypted all picture files so we can find them via Photos. Actually use less disk space.

39.   Ancestral Quest 15. Downloaded from searched site and got Key from old PC to enter. Copy old Ancestry Stuff on Desktop of old PC to new location D:\AncestryStuff

40.   Powerpoint Viewer. Download and install.

41.   Touchpad Blocker: Download and Install. Changed toggle to Ctrl+T because Ctrl+F9 was used elsewhere.

42.   UAC Picture: Search and go ahead and update.

43.   Customized Start ICONs. Removed crap from install and built mine using smaller Icons and groups.

44.   Create subdirectory under d:\Family\Nancy called Books & Movies and used file sharing to copy most recently updated Books, Movies, eBook .doc files. Now they will be backed up with normal backups. However, I do need to copy periodically her files into this new folder on my PC.

45.   Create SymList link for Thunderbird folder containing address book, etc. data. See Post 783.

Hope this is of use to someone. The install and customization took less than a half day when you remove the time wasted with the Optical Drive problem -- see post 782.

783. Symbolic Links (SymLists, mklink)

·       Symbolic Links: To create a “Symlink” to make Windows believe a folder’s data is still on the C:  drive, but really in D:\SymListFolders, do the following:

1. Create a Target-folder with same name as Source-folder path that is to be linked, using “-“ instead of “\” in full path name. [Really don't need the same name, but doing so gives you a visual indication of what the full path was.] For example, to link the data Thunderbird uses for addresses and other things, the Source-folder is originally c:\“Users\teob6\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\hqme2hyq.default”, and the Target-folder to create will be “D:\SymListFolders\Users-teob6-AppData-Roaming-Thunderbird-Profiles-hqme2hyq.default” folder
2. Copy all subfolders and files from the Source-folder [in the example,  c:\“Users\teob6\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\hqme2hyq.default”] to the Target- folder [“D:\SymListFolders\Users-teob6-AppData-Roaming-Thunderbird-Profiles-hqme2hyq.default” in the example]. The Target-source will now hold the data, not the Source-folder on the C: drive)
3. Delete or rename the existing Source-folder on C [in our example, c:\“Users\teob6\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\hqme2hyq.default”]. It must before attempting an mklink command. This frees up all space used by it in exchange for space now on the D drive.
4. Bring up CMD box by typing CMD in Start then RUN as ADMINISTRATOR
5. Create the Symbolic Link by doing: “mklink /d  Source-folder  Target-folder”. [In my example, do “mlkink /d  C:\Users\teob6\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\hqme2hyq.default  D:\SymListFolders\Users-teob6-AppData-Roaming-Thunderbird-Profiles-hqme2hyq.default].
6. Now, whenever an application or anything goes after the Source-folder which was on C: originally, it instead operates against the Target-folder on D:. Specifically, the Target-folder will be in D:\SymListFolders\Target-folder [as created above].
7. I am now able to backup system data, like Thunderbirds data, using normal backup procedures, plus, space is used on D: instead of c:

 To remove the link, simply deleted it on C:. It will have a folder ICON with arrow in it designating a SymList to another location. Then if still required, create the folder back to the path on c: removing the “-“ and replacing the “\” and the md command, or just create the paths via File Explorer.

782. Windows 10 Creator Version Problems

Yesterday I received my new Dell 15-5000 Series 5570 Laptop and it came with Creator Version installed. I suppose I should be grateful that that saved the reinstallation step from Anniversary Version. So, what issues did I discover with version 1703, Build 15063.540?

1. File sort when clicking on Name does not work correctly. I am still diagnosing problem, but for now it appears that the sort is limited to just the first x number of characters. For example, if I have a long named file like a statement coming from a broker where I added at the end the year, say 2016 or 2017 all in the same folder, you would expect looking at the list of files after NAME is clicked and expect the 2016 files to appear first, followed by the 2017 files. Well, instead, you get a 2016, a 2017, a 2016, a 2017, etc. When I narrow down the specifics, I'll post back here.

2. Microsoft's implementation of the User Account Name and the User Profile Folder will probably be a problem for just me. Back in the days when Windows 10 came out, all worked fine. If you [mistakenly] installed you system with the Microsoft Account email address, but later determined that you didn't want that and changed to a Local Logon method, the name you picked for the Local Logon, say SAM would be used in the creation of a user profile name, hence, c:\users\SAM. Well, now, if you used an email MSFT Acct name, say abcde13@xxxxx.net, abcde is used to create C:\users\abcde folder for all your account file. Not very nice since you were expecting SAM. There is no easy way, or a 100% sure way, of changing the user fold name; can't rename, except maybe in SAFE mode or via DOS, but the Registry is already populated with programs and other thing relating to c:\users\abce and will fail. Rename does NOT change all the references in Registry, or even possibly elsewhere. So, the workaround for me is to suck it up and go ahead and change my Local Logon, i.e., User Account name to abcde! Oh well!

3. Installing Brother Printer software from disk, a mere 1-1.5 years old, ended up in an infinite read and error recovery/retry that locked up the entire system. The cause seems to be the Optical DVR/CD device installed in my new Dell. The recovery/retry infinite loop is software error! Some piece of software, driver or application should have abandoned the retries after so many and just give an error. After 4 hours on phone with Dell Support, the manager realized in less than 5 minuted that a new drive needs to be installed. Duh. Other symptoms of problem was the loud clattering noise on older CDs, the inability to execute an Autoplay setup without manually invoking it, taking a long, long time in some cases to even see the disks existence by the operating system, etc. New drive on the way.I'll report back with test results. 10/24/17 Update: We have 2 problems here: (a) the Optical DVR/CD drive that came with my Dell 15-1500 Series 5700 was bad. Only about 5-10% of the time could I use it. Problems consisted of never being recognized by File Manager (no disk ID for the drive), ID in file manager, but never loaded, infinite attempts to try to read any info files on it, Auto Play not recognized, Some but not all data displayed after loading, hangs to application trying to run a file from it, etc. May I mention that these problems apply to Audio disks, Video DVDs, and Data disks that all work flawlessly on two other PCs and/or DVD/CD player attached to a TV. Dell replaced that Optical drive with, NOT a new one, but a refurbished one! The second one got through the Audio and Data disks, except initially failed twice -- seems like it needs to be trained. However, the Video Disks failed about 80% of the time for 12 different movie purchased and original movie disks. The problems were the same as initially on previous Optical drive. Round three coming -- a third optical drive. If this doesn't work, the entire Dell machine is going back unless they replace it with a working external optical drive. (2) No progress on number of retries. I did notice that some software can govern the number of retries and the time before retries. I'm looking into driver-specific software now.

10/24/17 Update for 4, 5, 7 below: These could all be user error 😬. I decided to download different backup software, SYnBack Free just in case I had to abandon SyncToy. Its documentation, since they currently support the product unlike SyncToy that has been abandoned by Microsoft, clearly explains and cautions the user on the differences between backing up methods and how to manage your backups. Briefly, MIRROR your drived ONLY if you want the target drive to look identically to the Source drive at all times. This method will delete files on Target if no longer in the Source. Thus, if you had a really old file on Source and deleted it there, it will also be deleted on your backup. You may not want this. BACKUP method copies only changes to source (edits, movement, etc.) to Target disk, NEVER deleting anything from Target. Sounds promising for those who want the Target as a complete backup over many years and want to maintain a total backup while the Source mast only keeps current files. However, beware that if you do what I do, namely have an Archive folder in my key directories that I use to hold the old stuff, keeping my main view with only current files I need to see, the Target after the BACKUP will now get those files under Archive AND keep them outside before they were move to Archive. In all cases, SYNCHRONIZE is another, it is important NEVER to modify the Target yourself. Well, wrong too. You see, unintentionally, I sometimes backup before I notice that one or more of my personal, sensative files went over unencrypted. I I used the BACKUP method, after encrypting it, I now have bothe the unencrypted and encrypted there! To correct this, I need to manually delete the unencrypted files from the Target. I could use MIRROR to automatically do this, but then all other deletions I made on Source will be deleted from Target. There's no nice solution for me with backing up encrypted files. So, in short, I will be using SYncBack Freeware for backups because they maintain the software and support it and have great documentation.

4. Either the file COPY function or Microsoft's SyncToy product is causing copying failures. For example, I copied, one way or the other or both, and ended up with inconsistencies in the number of items in the source and target directories. In some cases, just some files went missing. In another case, entire subfolders were not there and missing with more than a coincidence, e.g., For 3 folders I had subfolders 2013,2014,2015,2016,2017. The target created the folders only for 2013-2016. 2017 was left out for all three upward folders! Strange. Further testing required to determine the culprit. But, beware that SyncToy and/or COPY may not always work right.

10/24/17 Update (see above):
5. Never, never have a folder named ARCHIVE! I had subfolders in at least 10 directories named that where I accumulated past files in so not to clutter the most current ones. One of the copy methods, COPY or SyncToy decided that the files in each ARCHIVE subdirectory should also be copied outside it one directory level up. I also have seen duplicated pictures with the same name! Again, many hours of debugging ahead.

6. Since I am very proficient and satisfied with Office 2003, I once again installed it on Creator Version only to find several fixes/work around were necessary: (a) After installing from disk, you also need to install Office Service Pack 3 (SP3) AND the Office Compatibility which was for 2007. Why? Because MSFT in all their wisdom removed Control Panel from Start menu, which isn't the problem other than to work to fix it. The real Windows issue is that file association for Excel, namely ,XLS, are NOT assigned to ANY application and MSFT, again with great wisdom, no longer let's you search for actual program .exe files to assign (associate) to the .xls extension. The Compatibility product will assign the .xls to an XML Converter program. You won't see Excel there, but instead this designation. 10/24/17 Update: You can select a specific program, however, you have a hurtle to jump now to get to that point. When the file associations are displayed and you click to the right to add or change a default program, you get the available choices on you system. You now have to go to STORE first and see its offerings. At the very bottom of the offerings is a hypertext to select more programs FROM YOUR SYSTEM. This is what puts you into File Explorer and allows you to explore you system for a .exe file. I don't know if I could have fixed my Excel problem doing this or that the converter was still necessary but, this is how you do it.

10/24/17 Update (see above):
7. Did you ever try to find everything on your system with the word ARCHIVE (problem 5 above) so you can rename them all to ARCHIVES to avoid the copy problem? Forget it! Instead, get the product called EVERYTHING. Search Everything file manager and you'll come to the Voids website. Works like a charm and super fast!

8. Of course Creator still uses title bars that are White by default, rendering finding the active one opened on your screen. Fortunately they at least now allow you to change the titles and other ting's colors via Settings, Personalize.

Come on back for resolutions to these problems.