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Dell Client Manager 3.0 - Display refreshes after installing agent

Updated: 27 Aug 2010 | 11 comments
ruudvv's picture
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After we install to Altiris Agent and the Dell Client Manager we have a problem on almost every pc we've tested. The problem is that the display refreshes (goes out and on) every minute. It looks like if we do an inventory of the BIOS the problem is solved. It seems like it is something in the softOSD.exe process (if we kill it, it also stops). In the eventviewer of the client we see for every refresh an event something like this: Eventid: 1000 BronL softOSD 011: The following display assets have been discovered on this computer - 1. DELL 1907FP, ID=DEL4014, S/N=xxxxxxx, Age=22568 hours The problem is that we don't want this to happen if we push out the client to 800 pc's. Does anyone have an idea what could resolve this issue? Thank you!

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stevenkan's picture
11
Nov
2008
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Same here

We've seen the same issue, although on a smaller set of our PCs. We've had to return 8 monitors so far out of 200 DCM installs. The monitors were all working fine before the upgrade. Dell don't seem too bothered about just replacing the monitors, but our users are getting grumpy.

No luck getting any proper support from Dell on the DCM agent itself.

I can't get any of the display tasks working in the management console. The display inventory fails on every box with "Unsupported Display" despite having the correct monitor .inf files and various models of Dell LCD UltraSharps.

The softOSD element of the new DCM feels broken to me. :-(

Johnny_M's picture
30
Oct
2009
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Did you get any where with

Did you get any where with the display inventory as i cant get mine to report it back to the DCM

With regards to the flashing screen, i believe setting the following registry key to 0 will resolve it

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EnTech\RPC\softOSD]

"DetectHP"=dword:00000000

Only a year late .... sorry !

Joe_Carter's picture
19
Jan
2010
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We've experienced a similar

We've experienced a similar issue after pushing the DCM agent to our Latitude D620 laptops.  It started with  occasional screen blackouts and in one case required the LCD display to be replaced.  This appears to be caused by the SoftOSD service.  I'd strongly suggest disabling/uninstalling this component on affected models to avoid hardware failure.

Dmitri_Buloitsik's picture
20
Jan
2010
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BTW, what version of Dell

BTW, what version of Dell Client Manager do you use?

Joe_Carter's picture
20
Jan
2010
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3.0. Just updated to 3.1 but

3.0. Just updated to 3.1 but very reluctant to push the agent out to the laptops again.

Misha Shevchenko's picture
22
Jan
2010
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Yes - this was an issue with

Yes - this was an issue with EnTech softOSD that was coming with DCM 3.0. It was fixed in DCM 3.0 SP1 and later

Misha Shevchenko
Development Manager

Ed Kämmerling's picture
18
Feb
2010
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Misha, This is not the case.

Misha,

This is not the case. We are currently experiencing the same issues and we are running the Dell Client Manager Agent 3.1.1128 (latest till now) with softOSD Client build 1425.
If you deïnstall the softOSD Client the issue is gone, so the softOSD Client is giving the problems. Unfortunately the softOSD software is not free for the public.

Misha Shevchenko's picture
23
Feb
2010
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Ed, do you know if this is

Ed,

do you know if this is for a docked laptop i.e. Dell Monitor connected to docking station?

Thank you,
Misha

Misha Shevchenko's picture
26
Feb
2010
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Ed, if this is  still and

Ed,

if this is  still an issue on the post 3.0 SP1 release we should work on that with Dell and Entech. Would it be possible for you to report a support incident about that? We have some new build from Entech to try and Entech may have some requests for additional information

Misha

Joe_Carter's picture
27
Jan
2010
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A pretty serious issue given

A pretty serious issue given that we've had to replace two LCD screens within the last two weeks.  Systems where this was installed are still experiencing problems; the screen resolution is jumping to low resolutions without warning.  Is this something that can be fixed or has this component caused lasting damage to the hardware?

Misha Shevchenko's picture
27
Jan
2010
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I have verified with Dell

I have verified with Dell that the issue Entech agent had was about display refreshing only (not jumping to different resolution etc) and that Entech agent install does not alter anything related to the hardware or product firmware and therefore will not cause any damages to the hardware. Not sure though what might have caused the actual hardware malfunction - perhaps it is unrelated to Entech. Just guessing here.