Laptop issue/conked out!

Gavin83

Can you expand on what you mean when you say the laptop 'stopped working'? Whats it doing/displaying on screen when you attempt to turn it on?

If it is a hard drive failure you'll be able to turn it on and you'll still get writing appear on screen. The screen might say something along the lines of 'Operating System cannot be found', does it do this?

WoodyWoodpecker

Gavin83 wrote: »

Can you expand on what you mean when you say the laptop 'stopped working'? Whats it doing/displaying on screen when you attempt to turn it on?

If it is a hard drive failure you'll be able to turn it on and you'll still get writing appear on screen. The screen might say something along the lines of 'Operating System cannot be found', does it do this?

The laptop will load the desktop but cannot find any internet connections and looking on device manager all the drivers are gone.

When I try system restore the message "system restore has failed to restore your computer to an earlier time" shows.

I can get the desktop etc and open certain not "net" related files but cannot do anything connected to internet access required

Cycrow

if you can get to the desktop, then there is nothing wrong with your hard drive, sounds like simply a case of missing drivers, which you could install manually.
you will need to download them from another computer and copy them to the laptop

you could also look into doing a factory reset, this will wipe the computer and put it back to home it was when you first got it. How to do this should be explained on the dell site

Gavin83

Ok, then it will be a software issue, there won't be anything wrong with your hard drive.

Can you boot it in safe mode? When you turn on the laptop try repeatedly pressing F8 and it should give you the option to boot in safe mode. If this doesn't work try F5. Once you've done this check your drivers again, are they now appearing?

Good news is there isn't a hardware problem, you don't need to replace anything inside. The bad news is that you can't take it back to the retailer, software problems will not be covered by the sale of good act as it will almost certainly be a user error. I'd hazard a guess that you've downloaded a naughty bit of software thats preventing your drivers from appearing correctly.

Oh, and never have anything to do with that computer shop again. They either don't know what they're talking about or more than likely they're trying to rip you off.

Fosterdog

What operating system does it have? I'm assuming vista or windows 7 if it boots straight to the desktop

Did the laptop come with any disks? Dell have been the only brand to consistently supply disks with computers, they send two disks, one with the operating system and one with drivers and utilities.

If you still have them you can just pop in the driver and utility disk and reinstall your network drivers and any others missing.

ComputerHelper

WoodyWoodpecker wrote: »

Out of interest is it common that something like this would fail within 18 months??

Hard drives can fail at any time, laptops are especially more vulnerable dues to being chucked around and therefore more making a hard drive more susceptible to failing on standard drives. SSD hard drives are different as they have no moving parts, so are a much safer option for mobile devices.

Try hitting F12 to run Dell's diagnostic checking software,as this should give you an error code and confirmation of what's wrong with it.