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Laptop (Dell) is about to die - Can anyone help ??

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louy
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Laptop (Dell) is about to die - Can anyone help ??

Post by louy » Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:40 am

My laptop is dying. Think it got infected by a virus (not H1N1) and now its slowly dying.

It keeps asking for the Window CD with frontpage with every instruction I execute. It can no longer open any files, as it can not find the path. Thankfully, I can just about get internet explorer to open.

Even when I run it with Last know best config, it still has the same problem.

Every time I tried to restore factory setting - the screen just turns blue. There appears to be some hardware recognition problem now as well.

What I really need is to reformat the whole thing. But I do not have the Windows Vista Home Premium CD which came with my machine. I think I lost it whilst relocating from UK.

I have phoned Dell Singapore and they said what I really need is my Original Dell Windows CD, or someone elses. I have neither.

To buy a retail copy of Windows is going to cost me several hundred as well.
I may just fork out the money and buy another Dell laptop then I get another CD and can try fix my old one. Dunno what I will do with two laptops tho.

So I wanted to ask, can anyone here help or have any suggestions ??

bigfilsing
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Post by bigfilsing » Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:16 pm

doesn't sound good !!!

Souds like theres a virus or some malware messing things up.

If you can try downloading malwarebytes anti malware ...it did wonders for me.

Free version >>> http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

If you are worried about the hardware itself try downloading a linux live cd. This will run ( if all is well with your hardware) a LINUX OS from your CD/DVD drive. Doesn;t use or need you hard disk.
It's a bit slower than usual ( if it were installed on your harddisk) because it's run the whole OS from your DVD drive but it is a simple way to see if your hardware is working.
Live CD download
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

If you need any more help then let us know.

Good luck

bigfilsing
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Post by bigfilsing » Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:28 pm

Not sure how computer savy you are so forgive me if i step on your toes.

If your lap top is really giving trouble and you can't download the live CD then you can of course do this from another PC. Because it's linux and not PC specific the live CD will run on any PC or laptop that allows it to boot ( settings in the BIOS) from the DVD drive.

I'd recommend burning one of these live CD to everyone. If your XP or vista machine's OS is completely screwed the live linux CD will allow you to boot your machine and retrive data from the hard drive. Even if it's infected with a virus ( of course you need to watch out when you transfer the data to a "good" PC)

Cheers

AngMoKio
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Post by AngMoKio » Wed, 24 Jun 2009 2:22 pm

You can download the Win 7 release candidate for free which will be good until next March I think. Then you should also be able to buy Win 7 in october for less then a copy of windows Xp now.

louy
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Post by louy » Wed, 24 Jun 2009 3:09 pm

Confession: when it comes to computers, I actually know very very little.

I have so far managed to retreive everything I need to an external hard drive. So I am ok if I lose everything on my machine.

I had Mcaffee anti-virus running, and some sort of spybot destroyer on my machine. But some how I still managed to get my laptop into this state.

Not exactly sure what the live CD is and what it does. I can access the internet, just have to put up with the annoying window which keeps popping up. So maybe this is the next thing I try. Where exactly can one download this ??

Thanks for your advice guys

bigfilsing
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Post by bigfilsing » Wed, 24 Jun 2009 6:18 pm

Ok so when you install an operating system it install on your hard drive so after instalation it boots ( starts up) from your hard drive.

A live CD is a whole operating system on the CD > SO you can start up your machine and it will operate completely independantly from your hard disk ( useful if your hard disk is damaged or contains a virus)
Because the live CD can "see" your hard disk you can transfer useful data from the damaged ( providing it's not physically damged of course) or infected disk to a USB drive for example.
Because the LIVE CD is burnt to a disk it can't be infected by a virus but you will need to scan the external drive you used to put the info on just in case the virus is embedded in your data.

I would recommend to everybody having a live CD on the shelf ready for the day when Windooze lets them down.


Try AVG 8.5 free anti virus ...it works a treat as well.

Good luck

louy
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Post by louy » Wed, 24 Jun 2009 9:41 pm

But I still need to find a Dell Windows CD from somewhere to reformat my laptop still right ?

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durain
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Post by durain » Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:22 pm

louy wrote:But I still need to find a Dell Windows CD from somewhere to reformat my laptop still right ?
you will need the cd key and the vista disk. the cd key is in the OS. once you got the key, you can re-install vista.

here's one i google earlier... http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstrick ... stakey.htm

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Post by bigfilsing » Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:28 pm

i wouldn;t give up on your current sytem too quickly.

Try AVG anti virus and the malware bytes software first
A/ because there a reaonble chance you'll get it working again
B/ a reinstall is always more troublesom than you imagine not to mention loosing all your data/ settings/ passwords/ network settings etc

And if you use a generic version of vista or XP install CD/DVD you'll need to go the the dell web site first and download all the drivers needed for your specifc model of lap top and have them on a seperate CD ready for windows to use during the install process. Not masively complicated but can be time consuming

Good luck

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durain
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Post by durain » Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:39 pm

add one more to your clean up. nothing fancy but tried and trusted.

spybot search and destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html

louy
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Post by louy » Sat, 27 Jun 2009 9:51 am

durain wrote:add one more to your clean up. nothing fancy but tried and trusted.

spybot search and destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html
I actually already had this on my machine. Because my laptop struggles to open anything, it wont open and run this application

NarDd
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Post by NarDd » Sun, 28 Jun 2009 4:28 am

er.. i am quite noob at this but u can download malwarebyte from
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
then you have to make sure it is one quick scan and scan it.
if it found certain things that are hard to delete they will open 1 or 2 command prompts. if there are anything found it will produce a logfile.. post the logfile up and we will see how it goes

bigfilsing
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Post by bigfilsing » Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:28 am

NarDd wrote:er.. i am quite noob at this but u can download malwarebyte from
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
then you have to make sure it is one quick scan and scan it.
if it found certain things that are hard to delete they will open 1 or 2 command prompts. if there are anything found it will produce a logfile.. post the logfile up and we will see how it goes
New or not you might try reading threads before rplying :D

Read the my first post in reply to the OP :oops:

louy
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Post by louy » Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:18 am

I already have those things, anti-virus and spybot detection etc on my machine. Non of them will run.
When I try to execute, it either does nothing and just sit there - or ask me to insert Windows CD with front page.

I was tempted to thow if off the balcony, but there were children playig outside down stairs.

I have done some looking around, and found someone who has a Windows Vista 64 CD. Do you think that will work ? My uses Windows Vista Home Premium.

Worth a try.

notyesnot
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Post by notyesnot » Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:36 am

when u install the new Vista, you still need the drivers for the components in u dell computer, you need to go online to download from the dell support website

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