Argh!!! Sonic Activation Problem

Solution!

Firstly, I want to thank Christopher for his support and suggestions.

When I first got my 630m, I tried to fix the problem using the normal methods -- delete the update manager using Add Remove programs, go to the running process, etc. etc. etc. to no avail.

So, at that time since I hardly had any time invested I just reset my PC to the state it came in and decided to live with the bloatware.

Today though I decided to delete the bloatware which actually wasn't much because it came from the business division. I wish Dell would have an option when using the computer for the first time to check what bloatware trials a person wants, and what they don't want. Clearing off Quickbooks trial (or demo, whatever) saved half a gig of disk space, and in order to delete it I had to physically delete the directory from Programs.

But I digress. When I uninstalled the bloatware this second time, I made sure to not install anything having to do with Sonic Roxio. But then the problem occured again.

I wish I had written down the exact error so that others could find it if they searched this group -- I think the subject line is good enough.

Googling away, I saw people try many different things. The brave souls deleted stuff from the registry, anything having to do with "Sonic". Some people went through great lengths!!!

I knew that worst case scenario is that I would have to call Dell and keep hanging up on India support until I got someone I could understand (or maybe Small Business still has U.S. support?). Surely Dell would know and would have fixed this problem, right? (yeah, right -- like the old desktop case with the stupid USB ports and headphone jack at the bottom of the case pointed downward under a plastic flap). Sometimes Dell isn't that proactive.

Some very wise soul posted the best solution at the bottom of the thread at:

I'll copy-paste it here so that it might show up in searches if that web page address becomes obsolete:

Thanks again Christopher for offering to help!

Journey

Solution:

Here is a solution if you have not already uninstalled the sonic program updater

The problem with uninstalling it is that there are nessacary updates for your Sonic CD Burning software. So here is the workaround. The Sonic updating software is actually a program made my Install Shiled that can be used to update a wide variety of programs in its generic form. I purchased a Dimension desktop with this same problem and to fix it you need to go to

and download the Update Manager from Install Shield. Sonic Update Manager simply works through that program, and I believe it's that programs files that its look for, beucase downloading it fixed problem. I figured this out becuase I purchased an Inspiron Laptop a few months ago and it had the same software, but it didnt have the problem. So I simply looked on my laptop and noticed Sonic Update Manager worked though Install Shield's Update Manager. So I downloaded it onto my desktop and it worked fine.

P.S. if you already uninstalled sonic updater software, this fix wont work, you need to find a way to reinstall the sonic updater software, (use a system restore point if it wasnt too long ago) or search dell.com, maybe there is a download