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Inspiron 5160 issues
I'm sure this will be lost in the long list of questions that are posted here as I type this now, but I have a question for anyone who might be able to help. So I have an old, albeit useful Dell Inspiron 5160 I've been keeping around for the past few years, even in its quite seriously degrading condition. It has served me well since I bought it new in 2004, and I intend to get my money's worth out of it! Recently, however, the left click button has completely dropped out. The button still clicks, but no response is given in Windows. I haven't tried taking it apart yet because I fear that doing so would be the final nail in this poor thing's coffin. It's not running the original install of Windows XP anymore, I had to replace the hard disk fairly early on (a few days after the warranty was up. Lovely.) and didn't have the hardware to keep disk images at the time. Anything I can do about this? On a side note, I'd like to know why when I try and install Windows 8.1 it almost always locks up or gives me an error code and tells me I have to restart. I'm starting up from the ISO on Microsoft's website, not sure why it refuses to load into setup.
DELL-Rishi
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June 5th, 2016 12:00
Hi FAMICOMASTER,
Windows 8.1 is not compatible to work with your system model - see this link - http://dell.to/1XuEwLr
Windows 8 and above OS need UEFI BIOS to work and is not compatible to work with legacy based machines. Simply put, the old hardware is not compatible to work with newer technologies.
You could contact our team to get a quote for a paid service call - http://dell.to/1vnT6CQ - however, I am not sure, if we have parts available for this model.
I have checked a 3rd party Dell parts seller and they have the palmrest assembly in stock - if you choose to replace the parts yourself, you could order the parts through them - http://bit.ly/1VGd7EF
Write me a private conversation with the service tag and your contact details(Name and Email) for case records.
Let us know if you have any other queries.
FAMICOMASTER
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June 5th, 2016 14:00
ejn63
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June 5th, 2016 18:00
You may want to run a full hard drive diagnostic -- there's very little that stresses a hard drive more than the installation of the operating system, and it may be revealing a faulty drive. F12 at powerup -- run the surface test on the hard drive, not just the quick test.
The system may or may not run Windows 8 -- you'd likely be better off with Windows 7 on this system, and even at that, the weak GPU may hamstring the performance of the system.
DELL-Rishi
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June 5th, 2016 19:00
Hi FAMICOMASTER,
Apologies if I did not make it clear in my earlier post.
I have not mentioned that W8.1 will only run on UEFI. I was only referring to incompatibility - meaning that, the OS will not be stable on older systems. Although you might be able to install the OS on the machine, you would generally not find drivers for it on our support site or sometimes even on the vendor site.
The major benefit of using UEFI is mainly installing the OS with GPT partition as opposed to the FAT - read more about it here - http://bit.ly/1r984zS
Having said this, Dell has not tested this machine with Win 8.1 as per the link in my previous post.
The left and right mouse buttons and the touchpad itself is part of the palmrest assembly and the same would need to be replaced if you need the left mouse button working again - download the owner's manual and service manual and check for it - http://dell.to/28ee24i
Let us know if you have any other queries.
FAMICOMASTER
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August 14th, 2016 11:00
FAMICOMASTER
10 Posts
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August 14th, 2016 12:00