Help with tech terms and dead PC

Cooper18

Hi All,

Hoping for a bit of guidance here.

Just off phone with Dell Support, after my 5 month old PC died.

I know very little about computers but managed to get an error code 2000-0142 which means a hard drive failure. I tell all this to the nice lady on the phone.

She's going to book a guy to come sort it next week but she wants the Drivers disc and my Microsoft Office key. I have no idea what this means, and frankly was too embarrassed to ask her to clarify it a third time!

I don't recall getting any discs with this PC, though I'm likely mistaken. I have kept all the paperwork together so don't know why that info wouldn't be there if I had it. I've never installed Office on it either so does that mean I don't have a key?! Good grief, I feel like an alien species when it comes to computers!

I get the impression the engineer ain't coming unless I have this mystery disc and the equally mysterious Microsoft key so can anyone shed any light on this for me?! Is this info hidden on my PC somewhere?! Can I find it there and then not need the actual disc or key?!

And by the way - I don't even know what a driver is, or what it does so feel free to talk to me like you're trying to talk to a chimpanzee about computers - that's about the right level.

tom15387202

Drivers disc are what usually contains backups of the pre-installed drivers - drivers are the software that control the hardware.
This could include motherboard drivers for audio, graphics, mouse, keyboard etc.

The Microsoft Office key is the serial number used to register your product - its almost like a password that proves its legal and not pirated.

Did they say why you needed the office key - seems odd.

tom15387202

Thinking about it - It sounds like the engineer will replace the harddrive and then reinstall Windows and Office.

So yes, you will need the discs and keys.

Cooper18

Thanks Tom.

Is there any way I could've just lifted that PC out of the box and just switched it on without putting any disc anywhere near it?!

So....if I'm getting you (and I might not be!) - drivers are preinstalled. So why do they need the disc? Won't the new hard drive they're putting in work off what's there? (I apologise, that sounds like a stupid question, even to me!)

I never registered Office - I didn't install it. The only things I have on this PC are Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop Elements 9. It's not even connected to the Internet so when I installed these things and was asked to register for online support I didn't/couldn't.

I don't care about Office. But am I screwed without this disc?

Cooper18

tom15387202 wrote: »

Thinking about it - It sounds like the engineer will replace the harddrive and then reinstall Windows and Office.

So yes, you will need the discs and keys.

Arrrgh! You beat me to it!

This is not good news!

Anyone want to come and help search my house and attic for a random disc?! :rotfl:

tom15387202

I made the assumption that everything was preinstalled. Usually you would normally get a recovery disc - not sure about DELL's though.

It wouldn't stop the engineer replacing the hard drive if you don't have the Office key - its more of a if you wanted it, you cant have it without the key.

Infact, most pre built computers will have the Windows Key and Office key printed on a sticker - usually stuck somewhere to the PC tower case.

Cooper18

There's a "product key" sticker on the Tower case. I thought it was easier to go look for that than clamber into my attic looking for a box I may or may not have thrown up there. Whether its the right key is neither here nor there!

Worst case scenario for the Office thing - I can get it cheap from work - some NHS deal apparently. Thanks to my OH for pointing that out.

The drivers disc is buggin me now though.

tom15387202

Cooper18 wrote: »

There's a "product key" sticker on the Tower case. I thought it was easier to go look for that than clamber into my attic looking for a box I may or may not have thrown up there. Whether its the right key is neither here nor there!

Worst case scenario for the Office thing - I can get it cheap from work - some NHS deal apparently. Thanks to my OH for pointing that out.

The drivers disc is buggin me now though.

The product key is what you are looking for.
I would have though the engineer will bring a driver disc though.

harleq1962

the laptop i have has the product key underneath on a sticker, it has a partition with a full backup on it, when i got the laptop i was advised to make restore discs which has everything on it, i think this is the norm for laptops etc now. if the hard drive is totally gone you wont have a drivers disc etc, you may have to phone dell and explain as i cant see the technician carrying everything for every dell pc, dell drivers are available on the dell website. not too sure they will sit around and do a full system restore for you though,

tom15387202

harleq1962 wrote: »

the laptop i have has the product key underneath on a sticker, it has a partition with a full backup on it, when i got the laptop i was advised to make restore discs which has everything on it, i think this is the norm for laptops etc now. if the hard drive is totally gone you wont have a drivers disc etc, you may have to phone dell and explain as i cant see the technician carrying everything for every dell pc, dell drivers are available on the dell website. not too sure they will sit around and do a full system restore for you though,

Most drivers support more than one model of hardware so carrying all the drivers shouldn't be an issue. DELL hardware is more or less the same throughout.

Whether the engineer will sit through the restore - you'll have to ask him.

Johnmcl7

Cooper18 wrote: »

There's a "product key" sticker on the Tower case. I thought it was easier to go look for that than clamber into my attic looking for a box I may or may not have thrown up there. Whether its the right key is neither here nor there!

Worst case scenario for the Office thing - I can get it cheap from work - some NHS deal apparently. Thanks to my OH for pointing that out.

The drivers disc is buggin me now though.

The drivers disc shouldn't be an issue as you can go onto the Dell site, then into their support and downloads section then enter your service tag and download all the drivers. Once done you can either burn them to a CD or put them on a memory stick, this in some ways is better than the driver disc because it means if there's any updates to the drivers you'll have the latest version.

I agree with the comment above though as I can't see an engineer hanging around doing a Windows build either, I've not been through the process myself with Dell as any time a hard drive has failed I've just had the replacement hard drive sent and built the machine myself.

John