Advice Clearing a Dell laptop

[russell]

Hello guys
I have an old Dell laptop which is running vista. It is clogged up with loads of crap and it really chuggs. I want to totally clear everything off. I have discs to load back on if I need to. When i go into system restore it only goes back a litte way...I want to go back to factory settings and clear everything off so I can give it to my 8 year old twins. Please help..you know how stupid I am with all things technical xx

 

[Trem]

Do you have the recovery disc? If so chuck that in and run it, it will put the laptop back to how it was when you got it. You may have to put it in then restart the lappy and it should pick it up on boot up and ask if you want to run it. It may just run when you put it in though.

 

[russell]

Thanks Tremlar...... you are indeed the angel of the North xxx

 

[russell]

Oh no! It has all worked fine...but now I cant get on to the internet as the disc does not load the hardware it needs! Any options guys? x

 

[Kryten]

Get the netwrok/wireless drivers from the dell site - in the support bit you can enter the service tag on your laptop and it'll take you directly to the right drivers. DOwnload on your PC, copy to USB stick, install on laptop

 

[russell]

Thanks babycakes!

 

[Kryten]

no worries, if you get stuck give us a shout!

 

[Trem]

Just in case you struggle give us the model of the laptop so we can be prepared to assist you LadyChum.

 

[russell]

Dell Inspiron 1545 ref 08225 xxxxx.

 

[russell]

The service tag is FWRDXJ1 - but it doesn't recognise that -and yes please help as there are hundreds of drivers and I dont know which one I need!

 

[Trem]

Which operating system are you on Russbacon?

Hopefully it will be either this one - http://www.dell.com/support/drivers...leId=2939931984&languageCode=en&categoryId=NI

Or this one - http://www.dell.com/support/drivers...leId=2731106653&languageCode=en&categoryId=NI

 

[russell]

Downloaded the one that sounded the most promising and it said ' cannot find the device for this driver' eeeek!

 

[russell]

Tried both Trem -first one downloaded fine -tried the internet -nothing -'no drivers loaded'? Second one aborted the download. Do I do anything else once it has downloaded...? Man I hate all this IT shit!!

 

[russell]

Do you mean Vista as the operating system?

 

[russell]

now I have no Ethernet???? grrrrr -give up

 

[Access Denied]

You know the make and model of your laptop, also take a note of the serial number. Got to the Dell drivers website and search the model or serial number and it'll give you the drivers you need. Or it should. If there are more than one driver for any of then give me a shout and I'll help you out.

 

[Kryten]

OK, this will be the same process for Vista and 7, but is a bit in depth. It'll help us identify the miscreant driver almost immediately.

Start device manager (right click computer, properties, device manager)
Find the item with missing driver, it'll have a yellow mark next to it - assuming this will either be ethernet or wireless and should be under "Network Adapters".
Right click each missing one and go to Properties
go to the Details tab
change Property to "Hardware IDs"
Let us know the top value (will or should look like PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1000 (numbers will be different) and may have another thing after it like SUBSYS. VEN is Vendor and DEV is device ID, so we can tell exactly what drivers you need regardless of it being a Dell or not.

 

[Trem]

Don't give up Russ, we will sort it in the end. Dell drivers are riddled with AIDS and it really doesn't help people how the site is set up. Do what Kryt said and let us know.

 

[russell]

Thanks boys.
The top one is
PCI/VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&SUBSYS_02AA1028&REV_07
There are 3 more...

 

[russell]

That was under Display adapters.

Other yellow flag thingies are..

Network controller
ECI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4315&SUBSYS_000C1028&REV_01

SM Bus Controller
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2930&SUBSYS_02AA1028&REV_03

Video Controller
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A43&SUBSYS_02AA1028&REV_07

Does this help?

 

[MYstIC G]

Network controller I think is this
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/driverdetails?driverid=K4H75

 

[Kryten]

Aye, if that doesn't work:
http://wikidrivers.com/wiki/Broadcom_BCM43xx_win5x#Windows_Vista.2FServer_2008.2F7_32.2F64-bit

Video drivers :
http://wikidrivers.com/wiki/Intel_GMA_14.42.5.5284

 

[russell]

So I am downloading all these drivers onto my stick and them loading them onto the poorly laptop.... and nothing is happening? Ed said to do the reinstall disc again -it just asks me to uninstall the Power DVD and then reinstalls it again!

I am ready to thrown it out the window -or just take it to somewhere like PC world and pay -worst thing is I KNOW its probably me just being a twat​

 

[MYstIC G]

So I am downloading all these drivers onto my stick and them loading them onto the poorly laptop.... and nothing is happening? Ed said to do the reinstall disc again -it just asks me to uninstall the Power DVD and then reinstalls it again!

I am ready to thrown it out the window -or just take it to somewhere like PC world and pay -worst thing is I KNOW its probably me just being a twat​

If nothing is happening then you either need to force remove the device from device manager or our suggestions are wrong.

 

[Kryten]

russell do you have any network connection at all to that laptop? (either network or wireless).
If so, I'd be happy to remote in and get it sorted (without pretending to be Microsoft and doing anything naughty!)

 

[Edmond]

Yes she gets a connection via a ethernet cable directly to the hub, so its the wireless drivers that aren't there for some reason

 

[Kryten]

Offer stands then Throw Teamviewer on it, then PM me the ID number and password it gives you (just do a standard install). We'll get that sorted out. Feel free to pop into IRC if you want real time updates etc
www.teamviewer.com

 

[russell]

Offer stands then Throw Teamviewer on it, then PM me the ID number and password it gives you (just do a standard install). We'll get that sorted out. Feel free to pop into IRC if you want real time updates etc
www.teamviewer.com

You are great Kryton...but I got Ed over first in case it was me being a dick.....and guess what- it was. I had downloaded the drivers...but not opened them. Ed installed the Dell one and it worked. So many thanks for all your time and suggestions. Much appreciated xx

 

[Kryten]

Excellent

 

[Edmond]

She'd downloaded the file, but hadn't seen where it had saved it, also she didn't realise it had to be opened. I couldn't find it either so DL'd it again and put it the doc folder, opened the setup file and it worked first time.

All sorted, and thanks for the driver links in the first place