A look at business, law and life from a technophile.
Dell Media Direct won’t Boot Windows – Maybe Bitlocker – Solution
I’m not sure why Dell can’t actually tell people this. However, if you find yourself stuck booting Dell MediaDirect, and don’t know how to fix it. Try this:
- Turn off your computer
- Hit the button shaped like a home (the Dell MediaDirect button).
Seriously. When the power is off, the Dell MediaDirect button acts a toggle button to boot the other partition. Try to find that on Dell’s site, and well, I couldn’t find it with several good searches.Thanks to GigaMegaBlog.
Thank you very, very much. Simple solution when one knows what to do.
HI! I thought this might be the answer to my problem, but it isn’t. 🙁 Any ideas on this- I can’t get Windows to boot at all-have tried various items in recovery mode and it won’t fully boot–but I CAN access Dell Media Direct. All I really want is to get my photos off of this computer. Is there any way to do that from Dell Media Direct??
Hi Ben! I tried the Media Direct “button” but my laptop (Inspiron 1720-32 bit) will turn on, but it won’t go past the main stage of booting up. I select it to open in “Normal Mode” and then it just sits and “thinks” for hours, not going anywhere….what is going on? Thanks, Kim
Thanks !!!! Man saved my laptop I had all the ideas of giving it away !!! It was so simple to do this !!! Thank you !!
OMG!!!! Virtual Hugs!!!!! I’ve had this happen several times and always took my old laptop into the tech spending so much money. I decided this time to Google it!
Thank God! You are brilliant!!! I’ve sat here for hours and stumbled across your page. I am one happy person right now! Worked like a charm
Thanks. My 2 year old obtained “usage” of our laptop while my wife was paying bills. My computer “guy” would not call me back. I knew there was a simple fix and you helped. Thanks again.
Bless you
I have an old Dell … just had this Problem …..
Thanks a million dude 🙂
Thank you thank you thank you!!
I’ve now bookmarked you as one of my favourites in fact you should come as a standard favourite on every desktop!
I’ve tried what you listed above, but to no avail. I called Dell, but they want $129 for a one time fix. Please help! Any and all help is welcomed!
Wow! Such an easy fix as compared to throwing it against a wall in frustration. Somehow, my 3 year-old hit a button that caused this.
Please don’t ever remove this page. People like me are still very thankful it’s out there.
Wow. Such a simple soloution which I would’ve never found on Dell’s website. Thanks
Glad it helped!
thanks! I hate Dell. But you’re great!
This worked!!! Thank you!!! 🙂
OMG, Ben! You are a genius! I’m crying tears of joy! I have a motion for summary judgment to write, the cat sat on the laptop, and I was stuck in blue screen of death. We are back in business. Thank goodness I was able to find your post on the back-up computer.
Wow. Being in the legal profession, I share your pain. I’ve only lost work twice due to a computer malfunction. But it was so painful.
Glad it helped!
–Ben
The most pleasant fix I had ever done. Found your writeup and instructed my wife over the phone to fix her system’s laptop in another state. It did wonder!
Prior to that, we tried F2, F5, F8, looking at partition, the hard disk, Dell technical support. Another person had tried the recovery disc, …
Thank you!
Glad it worked. There are a lot of people that shared our frustration.
–Ben
Magic! Fixed! Thank you!!!! I was afraid I was finally going to have to replace my Dell Inspiron 1520 “Sherman Tank” laptop that has endured more from my 22 year old son with Autism than could be described here. You are an answer to my prayers!!!
Glad it worked!
My sister give me that laptop because she was told that there was anaything to do with it !
Since she discover the tablet wolrd she doesnt use it anymore then if i can repair it, i can keep it for my daughter.
There was no repair to do, just hit the home button !!!
Thank you for my budget and my daugther.
Woohoo! Score one for you and your daughter!
Genius! Thank u so much
Unbelievable! The laptop was sitting for 2 years and a 2 minute fix solved the problem! Thank you!!!
I did it but now I just have a black screen with the power still on. I can turn on the caps and number lock light but nothing else seems to work.
Absolutely wonderful, hit it hard a few times and it works a treat. 10 out of 10
It really worked. Thanks a lot.
Thanks, such a simple solution, should not be so hard to find!
I tried multiple times to power down and then press the MediaDirect button. However, after powering down, MediaDirect immediately powers on the laptop; there is no opportunity to toggle. With no battery connected, when I plug in the power cord, the laptop immediately launches with MediaDirect. Your directions are so simple. Am I missing something? DELL XPS M1`210 ….. Help me
I had to try this several times but within 2 minutes it worked!
Thank you so much I pressed the home button by accident & it got stuck. I did the opposite based on your post & got restored. Thank you!!!!!!!!
Thanks be to God,,, You saved my spouse from a divorce. He hit the Media home button on my Dell laptop. Thank You so,so much.
I think this might be the first time I’ve been accused of saving a marriage. 🙂 Glad it worked.
–Ben
Very Good advice! Still works terrific! I have a second hand M1730 and have accidentally turned that mess on 2 x now. Somehow managed to get to bios last time and straighten it out. This X I did research and found your advice – turned off PC held button and it rebooted. Looked like it was going straight back to Dell Media but left it alone and it righted itself and moved into the Windows normal mode in a few minutes! (Just before I was going to turn it off again, so wait for it!) I think I may remove this from my pc. I did see some interested articles in Dell about removing it from C drive. Gonna talk to a couple of friends first though. I can’t thank you enough!!!!! Roxie
It is a pain. Rather than remove it (which I hear is difficult), you may want to consider just cutting the wires to the media direct button.
–Ben
I TAKE MY HAT OFF
My infinite loop just started this evening. I tried multiple times to power down and then press the MediaDirect button. However, after powering down, MediaDirect immediately powers on the laptop; there is no opportunity to toggle. With no battery connected, when I plug in the power cord, the laptop immediately launches with MediaDirect. Your directions are so simple. Am I missing something?
thanks a lot
The same thing keeps happening to my Vostro 1500. I boot the computer using the power button and it takes me to media direct. I power off the computer and re-boot with the “home” button and it takes me to media direct. Everything I try just takes me to media direct every time I power on the computer.
Oh my God, you just saved my life!! Simples as that!!! Thank u so much, from Brazil!!
Hey Ben~
I had run into this problem years ago and knew there was an easy fix. But today I couldn’t remember what the heck it was. Thank goodness I ran across your post. I was beginning to get frustrated.
Thanks for your post and ultimate help!
~Betsy
You.Are.My.Hero. Seriously, I almost used my laptop as a skeet target :-/ Thank you!
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks so very much!! I was going to call Dell until I ran across your Great article. You have saved me lots of time and aggravation calling Dell especially after looking on their site for several hours.
Thank you Ben, for sharing your discovering !
Words can’t suffice how thankful i am to u for this solution, u not just saved me money but a lot of running around too!
Wow,
Thank you so very much!!!
Thank you!! I was able to use my ipad to google this problem with my PC. You saved me a lot of aggravation. Thanks!
thank you so much
Thank you so VERY MUCH! I already thought I f*cked up my roomies laptop…
Oh my gosh I have spent hours trying to fix the blue screen of death on my Dell Vostro and then I stumbled on your turn off that little home button and the entire thing came back and is working. That is crazy!! Why is this not listed somewhere in the manual? You are an angel, thank you!
Ben, can’t tell you how much I appreciate you publishing this. I have been searching the Internet for hours trying to help my sister get her computer to boot up properly. Yikes, what a pain in the neck! So glad I found you…thanks again!
Thank youuu sooo much! I thought I was out of another computer again. I don’t know if you’d be able to help me with this but I have a sony vaio that freezes when I start it up.. any help?
Sorry. I would need more information about when it freezes and what it shows. You might try holding the F12/Delete or whatever it flashes when you turn it on. Then I would try the diagnostics.
Good luck!
You’re my freakin hero!!
Thank you so much!! I thought my computer was gone then I tried your method and it worked!! It’s not clear to me why this happened.
Holy mother of God. I have searched through so many friggin websites trying to find answers to this. I was even messing with Ubuntu (which still didn’t help because the partition was locked and wouldn’t let me access it).
All my sweat and tears and the answer was ‘hit the home button while the computer is off’.
You’re my hero. Seriously. Dell can suck it. I’m getting my files off and burning this computer with gasoline in your honour.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I spent hours working on my machine and then I found your site. Two seconds and the problem was solved.
Unbelievable, It worked!!
Thank you!
Mike
Thank you Ben… You are awesome! worked like a charm.
Saved me a lot of $$ and the hassle of dealing with it.
Thanks a million! 🙂
Omfg I was about to wipe the hard drive over this stupid bit lock thing thank you!
THANK YOU for the “fix” on the Dell Media Direct issue. I was practically hysterical trying to get my system to boot – thinking about stories I’d been working on that weren’t saved anywhere else, photos I’d taken, and the fact that I could not afford a new computer (but NEED one). This did the trick. It reminded me I need to do regular backups to an external harddrive…
Thanks! I was thinking a hard drive funeral was going to be in order. I appreciate you taking the time to write this up. 🙂
Thank you! You rock!
I pressed the home button mistaking it with the power button and it started opening media direct, but suddenly blue screen appeared and when I tried to turn on laptop again it just kept appearing! It won’t even start with the safe mode. I’m not good with computers AT ALL, please help me!! Thanks
I had the same problem just turn off your computer completly and and click the little house button then the start up launch menu will show up click start windows normally and its fixed! hope this helped
I have tried this, and it does not work for me. PLEASE HELP.
Hi Katie,
I just sent you an email offline. I will need more information for me to help. Sorry about the frustration. Reply to my email if you still need the help.
–Ben
Please Ben, I’m in the same situation. I accidentally hit the house media direct button instead of power. Can’t get out of dell media direct. Tried rebooting. Got a boot error. Tried booting to windows 7 and won’t boot to that. Now it won’t do anything.
Inspiron 1525 running Windows 7
It sounds like you may have several problems, one of which may be a damaged windows partition. You may want to try and use the repair feature of your windows 7 install disk. Other than that, I have heard of people saying that the part of the motherboard that contains the house button gets damaged. You can open the laptop and see if that is your case.
Good luck,
–Ben
Thanks a lot Ben, I was about to call the man out and get stung for $200, now I can eat next week!
Thank you soooooo much!!!!! I thought my computer and all the things on it were gone! This scare has reminded me to back it up. Thanks so much!
Gracias !!! mil gracias
Con tu explicacion hemos develado el misterio del fu… button.
Para que Dell abra inventado eso en una epoca que los dispositivos multimedia estan a precio cada vez mas regalado
…ganas de molestar nomas hermano!
thank’s again, a lot !!