Can I Do A Factory Reset, What's The Best Way, Will It Help

kah22

I have a Packard Bell EasyNote TE with 8GB ram and a 500 g hard drive with Windows 10. To be honest it is the worst computer I’ve ever used. Fortunately I do most of my work on an iPad and only use the EasyNote for the likes of letters, Excel Workbooks and when I want type something and need to do re-edits. Like this

The computer is desperately slow to boot up, the volume from the laptop is awful and it just hasn’t the feel of quality about it. Some files seem to have been deleted or missing , and maybe that is part of the problem.

As it is really only a backup machine, there is nothing of importance on it, a machine I don’t mind the children messing with. So I though of doing a reinstall but discovered that I haven’t got the original Windows disc. It was my nephew who set the machine up in the first place (he’s the family geek J ) for me in the first place, and well it’s like last years snow – the disk is gone!

Anyway I’m looking advice. I know I can reset my laptop and there would appear to be three options: remove apps and settings but keep personal files; remove everything including personal files; and finally do a factory reset.

As it is a backup computer my feeling would be that a full factory reset would be the best idea that maybe that would sort the problem. However, as I mentioned above I don’t have my original copy of Windows and I don’t have, or know where to find the activation key. Can I go ahead and do a factory reset, will the computer recognize that I was running a legitimate copy of Windows. The options I’ve read seem to suggest the machine will recognize the original version of Windows that was installed on the computer. What to do?

As always many thanks for your help.

GeeBee38

Hi, NiftyDigits is the best person to ask about this, i'll send him a message and ask him to have a look at your post

NiftyDigits

What are you wanting to do? A clean install of Windows 10 or the original operating system?

If Windows 10, you can create media this way Detailed installation instructions here

If Windows 8.1.Update 3, I can supply the media.

If Windows 7, ditto.

Which was the original OS?

kah22

NiftyDigits wrote: »

What are you wanting to do? A clean install of Windows 10 or the original operating system?

If Windows 10, you can create media this way Detailed installation instructions here

If Windows 8.1.Update 3, I can supply the media.

If Windows 7, ditto.

Which was the original OS?

Thanks for your reply. I think I’d like to do a full reinstall in the belief that I will gain more from it. That said if there is not much in then I’d definitely go for the easiest option, after all I only use it infrequently.

I have a few concerns the computer says Windows 10 Home but turn it upside down and there is a Windows 8 sticker on the bottom. I emailed my nephew (he’s working out of the country) and asked him if he installed Windows 10 when setting it up; he wasn’t sure but didn’t think so.

As I said in my original post I haven’t got the original installation disc or product key but here is some of the detail I’ve gleamed form a little product called ProduKey. It also gives me the same information for the BIOS and Internet Explorer. I’ve dropped the last two sets of numbers out just in case

Windows 10 Home:
Product ID: 00326-10000-xxxxx-xxxxx
Product Key YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-xxxxx-xxxxx

Microsoft Office Standard 2010
Product ID 82503-561-xxxxxxx-xxxxx
Product Key: GB87K-GQT8C-RWH9F-xxxxx-xxxxx

To give an example of how slow the machine is I timed it from pressing the power button until the home screen appeared and it took 1min 46 seconds; 33 seconds of which was a blank screen and that’s with 8GB ram.

I would appreciate your views

Kevin

NiftyDigits

That's just the Windows 10 Home generic key..

If it is a genuine upgrade, then you can simply run a clean install of Windows 10 Home using the newly created media, formatting the C: drive in the process. You don't need a key, just choose to continue without a key. It should activate soon after being connected to the Internet.

Worse case scenario, we can downgrade to Windows 8 or 7 and upgrade from there...or just stick with one or the other.

GunJack

...and remember to keep a note of your Office product key for reinstallation !!

kah22

Thanks everyone

Kevin

System

Hi

Drivers are here, so perhaps update BIOS at least before making a change.
http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/identify?q=EasyNote+TE&tool=s-002#Z7_3054ICK0K8UDA0AQC11TA930O2

There were too many matches to be specific.

there should be an option to create RECOVERY MEDIA in W 10

A clue is here...

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/Creating-HP-recovery-media/m-p/5610421#M439169

A manual is also available to give details on how to recover. factory fresh install etcetc.

paddyrg

BTW by miles the best thing I ever did for a slow-booting laptop was to install an SSD (and then keep large files on external drives like the one you replaced). Laptops like to advertise huge hard drives with long battery lives and low prices. To do this, they often use slow HDD's. Startup is particularly unpleasant as so much data needs to be read from disc. If you're restarting work the machine, and can slip in even a small/cheap SSD (there's a tool on the Crucial website to tell you which ones will work) instead, and use it for the OS and your programmes (and data you use all the time is fine, too, just put the big stuff like movies onto an external drive), you'll go from minutes to seconds at startup. I used to resist rebooting as it was such a horrid experience, now it's over before I get to the kettle.