BTW, that Dell Support hasn't been showing in my bar for a long time now. Not sure what happened to it.

But I followed the instructions from that link and unchecked the dsca box then rebooted and up popped this message at startup:

"You have used the System Configuration Utility to make changes to the way Windows starts.

The System Configuration Utility is currently in Diagnostic or Selective Startup mode, causing this message to be displayed and the utility to run every time Windows starts.

Choose the Normal Startup mode on the General tab to start Windows normally and undo the change you made using the System Configuration Utility.

Check box by message: Don't show this message or launch System Configuration Utility when Windows starts."

My question: should I have check marked that box? Instead I did what it said and am right back where I started, with that damned error message at shutdown.

Or, is it time for a call to Dell?