11.11.07
Dell Support Center
I’m trying to finish the cooking book today, so I’ve not been posting. But when the little Dell reminder popped up to nag me about installing the (free) Dell Support Center software—a one-stop support information/request program—I did it. It’s really very slick: installs easily, and will search the computer for the information (service tag number, for example) that Dell needs should you require support. Very nice to have all the support stuff centralized. You can read more about it here, by clicking on “NEW Dell Support Center” at the left.
Obviously, this will be of interest only to Dell owners. But any good idea in the Support area is going to be quickly adopted widely, so some variation will probably be developed for other computers. (I know: Apple’s probably had this for ages. 
)
RichardatDELL said,
12 November 2007 at 3:15 pm
Hi Leisure Guy
Thanks for the feedback on the Dell support center…glad you like it and really appreciate your posting about your impressions so far. We are listening to lots of feedback and deploying more and improved online tools, so hopefully they will all continue to add up to enhance your pleasure with your Dell.
And, by the way….thanks for being a customer
devendra kumar agrawal said,
25 December 2007 at 5:39 am
sorry to disappoint you but this dell support center has been a pain (u know where).after installing it , i get BSOD and had to restore back and this happened five times. i have already uninstalled the older one so currently i am without any support or assistance from dell.my warranty is still valid for about 2 yrs.
do you have any suggestions?
LeisureGuy said,
25 December 2007 at 7:32 am
I have to admit that I uninstalled the Dell Support Center myself: I like the idea, and I did not get computer crashes, but it seemed just to take up too much resources.
I think that I saw a new version is available—not sure whether that’s the same “new” one or something better. In the meantime, it sounds as though you have to depend on phone and email support. You also might check on the appropriate Dell Support Forum to see how others have handled this situation.
DSC_Expert said,
11 January 2008 at 2:39 pm
Dear LeisueGuy and Devendra,
I’m sorry to hear that you guys encountered some difficulties with the new Dell Support Center application from Dell. I would like to take this opportunity to comment on some of the issues you reported.
With regards to BSOD crashes, this is indeed an issue that was caused by a module of Dell Support Center under certain circumstances. After identifying this issue, we have mitigated through a content update as a short term fix and will be creating a permanent fix in the weeks to come. Please go to this site http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/12/01/36988.aspx for additional information about this issue and how to avoid it moving forward.
As far as resource usage from the Dell Support Center application, our benchmarks indicate that we do not use system resources in excess of normal usage for software applications and in many instances we use much less. In a idle state, when the client is not actively running, the resource usage is none for cpu and only about 2,000 kb of memory. When you launch Dell Support Center, very little cpu resource usage is needed momentarily to load the pages into memory, but then it goes back to virtually none. The memory usage while the application running, ranges from 30,000 kb when first launching the application to a maximum of about 60,000 kb if the user visits many pages within the application. When the user closes the application, that memory is readily released back to the Operating system. To give you some context, applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer use on average 100,000 kb, 42,000 kb and 32,000 kb of memory respectively when they are running. While we feel that we are within acceptable levels of resource usage, we continue to actively look for ways to improve it.
I hope this information is helpful and let me know if you have additional questions.
DSC_Expert
Anonymous said,
12 January 2008 at 7:42 am
It seemed that after I downloaded the Dell Support Center My system became slower. After removing it mu system returned to it normal speed.
tomwhelan said,
19 January 2008 at 10:15 am
I had other problems with the Dell Support app; the installation never completed, and at every login I had an empty directory window I had to dismiss.
The likely cause for in the isntallation problem was a corrupted Windows Instrumentation database – I recently had to rebuild this to get the msinfo app to work. So now Dell Support is finally installed. My system has been running slowly, so I’m hoping it will help.
The first thing I noticed is that when you click some links, such as Recommended maintenance, I see a list of five links with the same text (Recommended Maintenance) but only some of them work.
DSC_Expert said,
21 January 2008 at 7:03 am
Dear tomwhelan,
the issue with empty directory at every login has been resolved in the latest build of Dell Support Center which was posted on November 17, 2007. Please clear your Internet temporary files and ensure you download this version of Dell Support Center from http://www.dell.com/dellsupportcenter/
We are investigating the link issue you reported and will get back to you shortly.
DSC_Expert
Cathy said,
31 January 2008 at 8:05 pm
Hi – I’ve had to unistall the Support Center as well. Sometimes all I want to do is log on quickly, check my emails and log off again. With the Center it took forever to log on – after uninstalling it, my laptop’s gone back to normal
Clarence Wood said,
17 February 2008 at 7:06 am
The only problem I have been having is this reminder pop-up to get Dell Support. I have been leery about loading this, as I am with most other programs I am unfamiliar with. And, just because the pop-up has Dell on it, this does not always make that program actually from Dell, as I have found in the past with other applications. Now the pop-up has appeared again so I decided to check it out. I found your web site, thank you. From the comments, I am still leery of the Dell Support Center. I also found the replies from RichardatDELL and the DSC_Expert to be timely except the comments regarding the links issue provided by tomwhelan on 19/1/2008 which remain unanswered. Another concern I have is the amount and type of information has available from my PC (Keyword here is Personal) and what it is used for. Besides the concerns, I am very pleased with my Dell computer. I have ordered many from Dell for myself and family menbers and continue to recommend them to friends. I learned my lesson with other brands and will always remain a loyal Dell customer.
LeisureGuy said,
17 February 2008 at 10:40 am
Clarence, you might install the new version of Dell Support Center and see how it works for you. You can always uninstall it if you think it’s not for you.
GrannyAnnie said,
17 February 2008 at 5:57 pm
I have been a fan of Dell computers for some time. However, life is too short to deal with the Dell Support Center snafu. Because of my experience with the support (hah!!!!), I can no longer recommend Dell computers to anyone, nor will it be my first choice for the next computer I purchase.
Cathy said,
18 February 2008 at 4:06 pm
Could someone please tell me if Dell Support Center is necessary if I have full anti-virus protection and I download all Window updates. Thanks very much.
LeisureGuy said,
18 February 2008 at 4:14 pm
No, I would think not. Its main job is to assist Dell Support in providing support for your computer.
Anonymous2 said,
18 February 2008 at 6:53 pm
Installed this and felt that I had no choice, because there was no option to be reminded later. However, uninstalled it after a couple of days because my system became extremely slow. As soon as it was uninstalled system went back to normal. Would not reinstall until Dell fixes.
The Major said,
10 March 2008 at 1:19 pm
I too have just installed the latest version of Dell Support Centre to find (as others have) that my system runs slower and my internet connection will not show the status screen when connected.
Of greater concern is the fact that my hard drive now seem to be constantly “reading” even though there is no current application running.
Is this a rat I smell?
LeisureGuy said,
10 March 2008 at 1:23 pm
That was my problem…
Jim said,
23 March 2008 at 9:13 am
I have the same problem with the Dell Support center causing my computer to slow down especially during startup; my computer use to startup quickly, but now I need to walk away and come back later.
I am ready to uninstall it unless DSC_Expert or RichardatDell has a fix that they could offer?
Aerogeist said,
24 March 2008 at 5:05 pm
I was working on a customer’s PC tonight and noticed the same problem as some of you encountered- after cleaning up a variety of little things, the computer (a Dimension 3000) would take about 40 seconds till you could see the desktop, but would take about 3 minutes more to be very useable (3.5 minutes from power on till Norton AV’s taskbar item would show up, which in this case was the last noticeable thing loading). The PC was also constantly trying to read from a program CD that was in the drive, which I initially suspected to be part of the issue (I removed the CD while cleaning up a few other minor issues). After removing DSC, the system now is ready to go in under a minute- about 55 seconds from power on till the NAV item shows up. No more problems with the CD in the drive either. The computer is much more responsive now =)
If the Dell folks are still reading this:
If you make it possible to disable the software on PC’s, it can be viable for customers to leave it on their PC’s while you work out the problems. For a program with only minimal periodic value, however, the resource hit is presently far to high for this to be a practical app to leave on PC’s. It is convenient being able to just click through to driver downloads, but it’s not that hard to go to the Dell site and punch in a service tag to access the same downloads.
The resource usage stated above would not be bad at all, if it accurately reflected the impact on system performance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.
I have only dealt with the new DSC on a few customer PC’s so far, but those I’ve talked to have been very frustrated with Dell (even though they were not aware that DSC was causing issues). I hope this is not a good representation of your customer base at large, but if it is you would do well to make some changes very soon. It likely won’t show up in sales figures for a few years, but problems like this, and the export of phone support services to India, are alienating a lot of customers. I used to recommend Dell (and still do, with reservations), but the frequency with which I hear customers saying they’ll never do business with Dell again is a significant concern.
Jon said,
9 April 2008 at 9:21 am
I purchased my Dell Dimension E521 in Dec. 2006. It had Dell Support (not DSC) installed. Shortly thereafter I received noticed about a DSC upgrade which I installed without un-installing Dell Support. The DSC has never operated satisfactorily. The screen is incomplete and it is hard to use.
I too have the slow startup problem.
Recently I had a problem downgrading MS Media Center from version 11 to version 10. When I tried to restart after this operation XP Media Center Center did not complete the restart with a message stating “Explorer failed to start. Normaliz.dll not found”.
Dell Tech Support resorted to a reinstallation of XP after numerous recovery attempts.
Tech Support from India is generally adequate and eager to follow up on problems, although it is difficult to understand their dialect at times. This is not a slur and I understand Dell’s need to find financially viable solution to Tech Support issues.
The computer, sans DSC, now runs like new. (about 40 sec startup time).
I will not install DSC again until Dell convinces me that it is to my advantage.
PS: Belarc Advisor provides hardware/software details, including Service Tag ID, and is free. They may be able to help improve DSC!
Devendra Kumar Agrawal said,
24 May 2008 at 9:56 pm
Dear DSC_Expert, after going thru ur comments I once again, only yesterday, reinstalled dell support center, and found it working fine, but after restart it DOES NOT WORK at all.I uninstalled and reinstalled it five times with the same result.I am sure it is the latest version.It is also a drag on my computer resources.
Further, i am unable to uninstall old dell support thru Add or Remove, as it gives an error massage and asks for some cd, which i am sure, has not been provided by Dell.As advised by Dell Support, I downloaded R 49440 and tried to execute it but in the end it says “Plateform not supportive” or something and abotts.Do you have any solutions to end my nightmares?
devils_advocate said,
15 October 2008 at 11:41 am
If you are unable to uninstall dell support center from the system. Then download Microsoft uninstaller utility from the Microsoft’s website. And then install the program & then remove the software for dell support center.
Dan McCabe said,
29 October 2008 at 10:35 am
I have been very pleased with Dell laptop, which I have used and abused for a few years now. Dell support, however, has turned into a fiasco. I can’t shut down without manually closing sprtcmd and I can’t seem to remove Dell support, which is apparently hostage to another application. Which or what, I don’t know. I’ll try devils advice, but I’m getting pretty frustrated.
Dan McCabe said,
29 October 2008 at 11:34 am
OK, forget it. I’m of the generation for whom computers will always remain new-fangled gadgets, and it’s just too complicated. Anyway, one more step has been added to the shutdown process, that’s all. No big deal. The thing ain’t broke so bad that I gotta fix it, and if it runs for a couple more years it’ll have paid for itself. And then I’ll look for a new Dell, probably; good machine and good people, in my experience.
Justin Dworak said,
12 November 2008 at 5:59 am
Does Dell just troll around websites to try and push their garbage…phhhh. Save some money and make better products and software. That way we won’t have to be wondering why the computers are slower with your DSC software, constant bugs and little crap that big brother seems to put on computers.
Evelyn said,
20 November 2008 at 1:51 am
Today, I did a thorough scan and guess what was found: “Heuristic.Dialer.RAS!A2″ and guess who the source is! C:\Program Files\Dell Support Centre\HWDiag\bin\pcdrmodem.p5x.
I bet this explains the slow systems and the constant ‘reading’ of the hard drive The Major mentions above.
DELL is evil.
Rach said,
22 November 2008 at 7:20 am
I too am having major problems with dell support center on my Laptop. I cannot uninstall it and it is constantly running some thing in the background that is preventing my updates from installing. And I tried to talk to a dell representative regarding this issue to no success. How can I uninstall the dell support center for good. It’s causing so much problems with my system. I really hate that program that dell installed automatically to my system when I purchased my laptop. It is useless to me and crap. Not a big fan.
Rach said,
22 November 2008 at 11:30 am
OK I’ll give you a detailed description of my problem with dell support center. Firstly, when I try to install updates or program the error message is stating that dell support is trying to install plse wait until installation is complete before installing another program.
This is what I have done and still no resolve; I checked for the HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Installer\InProgress in the registry. There is none.
Then I ran checkmypc-registry cleaner for any errors. no errors reported
Then I ran my antivirus and spyware program for any malware, adware etc. There is none-clean
Then I tried to install the windows Cleaner Utility-install failed hmmm my blood pressure rising a bit
Then I rebooted my system to try to install cleaner utility again still failed
I then looked in task manager under processes and services for any unusual going ons and closed any unnessecary process then I tried again install failed
I ran in admin mode as well. I also rebooted again then went into safe mode to try to uninstall dell support – says cannot uninstall in safe mode
While in safe mode I tried to install windows cleaner utility-cannot install in safe mode
blood pressure rising
My bf even connected with me via teamviewer since he is a computer techi who fixes computers to try his magic
He did exactly what I did-failed
He went and checked to make sure i have full admin rights-woohoo I do
He went to user account setting/uac and took the check off and rebooted
He then reconnected via teamviewer and tried to install windows cleaner utility-install failed claims that dell support is installing and to wait until its app is finished and try again.
He updated all my drivers and then tried to install windows cleaner utility-install failed same error
He then went to windows update since I also have three updates that failed-he tried to install one of them-still failed and same error.
So now my blood pressure popped the cuff and boiling way over from frustration. My bf tried for more than 3 hrs to fix this to no avail.
He is just as much at a lose as I am. And he fixes computers for a living. So as you can see my frustration. Any ideas on how to fix this? Any ideas at all that may work and not add to my already boiling blood pressure?
Evelyn said,
24 November 2008 at 3:44 pm
I removed Dell Support Centre from my laptop using Add/Remove, deleted the Program File, then used CCleaner.
No problems.
Rach said,
30 November 2008 at 11:26 am
thanks Evelyn but when I did try that I got an error 1500, 652 and an error window saying an that dsc is installing and to wait for that to finish before continuing lol still an on going problem. I cannot install nor uninstall using add/remove. But thanks anyhow. Still looking for a solution though.
Rach said,
30 November 2008 at 12:29 pm
I took some pics of the error window pop ups unfortunately I am unable to post them in here. The first pop up window titled dell support center then says please wait while windows configures dell support center. I get this pop up when ever I restart my laptop. The second pop up window titles dell support center then says the feature you are trying to use is on a network that is unavailable. Click ok to try again or enter an alternate path to the folder containing the installation package dell_support_center.msi. Then the third pop up window titled dell support center and says error 1706 (lol another error code to add to my list of errors) no valid source could be found for the dell support center. Windows installer cannot continue. This is an example of some of the errors I get. hopefully I have been able to give you a clearer picture of what’s going on. But as you see the error code changes. sometimes it is error 1500, sometimes 652 lol and yes I did research these on the net but the advise is always the same uninstall dell support center. Unfortunately I am unable to uninstall due to an install in process which is dell support center trying to install something. and yes I did go to the task manager to turn off the process of dell suppport unfortunately does not work. I get same results.
Evelyn said,
1 December 2008 at 5:42 pm
Rach
Gosh, I don’t know what to to tell you – I’m not computer guru. I’ve always just done a System Restore when I’ve run into problems.
Perhaps you should run a HijackThis log and submit it online to a technical support forum for an expert to figure out.
Good luck!
Rach said,
5 December 2008 at 10:56 am
Thanks Evelyn I will do that. It is a frustrating problem. Recently some one from Dell suggested to reformat my hardrive. Oh gosh will take hours to do for something that will not guarantee a permanent fix. Oh well this is the 4th forum looking for answers to my on-going problem. It does seem to be a common problem with DSC too with no simple fixes.
Thanks again for your input.
Gord said,
1 April 2009 at 9:40 pm
I just got a Dell Mini 9 a few days back and was almost to the point of returning it due to exremely slow response. It would often take five, ten or more seconds to respond to any mouse click. Totally unacceptable. I thought it might have been the solid state drive (which actually is relatively slow) but eventually tried dissabled everything in startup using Codestuff Starter and found that this completely cured the slow response. It was like a different machine! I re-enabled startup programs until I found that it was the Dell Support Center (sprtcmd) that was causing the problem. I have just left it disabled so that it no longer starts when the system loads. I did not bother to uninstall it. The Mini 9 is quite impressive now. This could also be done with MSCONFIG.
Gord
Nick Evola said,
18 April 2009 at 2:44 pm
Please disable dell support center. I don’t need anymore popups
shalu said,
28 July 2009 at 4:15 am
i have a problem though being connected to internet dell support centre consider me offline.plz help
LeisureGuy said,
28 July 2009 at 6:43 am
Shalu, this is just a blog, with no connection to Dell. If you need assistance, please call Dell.