faithmusic,

The notebook system utility and the chipset drivers need installed first or the rest of the drivers will fail to install. How to Download and Install Drivers in the Correct Order

I would try...

Restoring Your Computer´s Software to the Factory Settings

The longer method is...

How To Restore or Reinstall Microsoft® Windows® on a Dell™ Computer

Rick

There is no Repair Option in the Windows Advanced Options Menu,

Where should I go from here?

Thanks Rick for getting back to me. This is a little confusing. Can you please tell me if I should reinstall windows or the utility cd? I'f it the utility cd, how would I do that? I've never worked with a dell before and it's a little confusing.

Thanks.

For some reason my laptop will not read the Driver and Utilitys CD. wHY IS THAT?

faithmusic,

USB ports are controlled by the Noetbook system utility and the chipset drivers.

Try system restore from the recovery partition.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?&docid=DSN_353562&isLegacy=true

Rick

I'm looking at my Device Manager window, and where it says "Other Devices" the list is in yellow:

1. Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus

2. Ethernet Controller

3. Network Controller

4. SM Bus Controller

5. Unknown device

6. Video Controller

7. Video Controller (VGA Compatible)

Is this part of my problem???

faithmusic,

You restarted the computer and tapped F8?

Restart the computer and press F2 and enter the BIOS. Look for boot sequence. Make sure it set for removable devices before the HDD Hard drive. Save changes and exit.

Does the computer find the drivers disk?

Can you open the disk, start, my computer, drivers disk and open it that way? If so, then install the notebook system utility and the chipset drivers, then go down the list.

Rick 

No, my laptop does not see the drivers disk in my cd/rom. for some reason it is not seeing the disk, but it says my cd rom is working.

faithmusic,

Yes, the drivers are not installed. Try reading THIS THREAD.

Rick

faithmusic,

It should do on the disk. The notebook system utility might be called system utility on the disk. Might be under utilities.

Install the chispet drivers next.,

Then go down the list and install them in order. Everything should start working. How to Download and Install Drivers in the Correct Order

Rick

That's funny, I wear glasses and didn't notice that the drivers cd was a DVD........NOT A CD...... OH WELL.

Now that I'm looking at the drivers dvd, it says that I should first install the notebook/destop system software prior to installing the drivers. Where do I find the notebook/desktop system software, or do I already have it? Sorry for bothering you.

faithmusic,

Go to Drivers & Downloads in left column, click on warranty status.

Enter your service tag number. Then look at original configuration. You'll need the drivers for the wireless adapter and Dell QuickSet.

Rick

I have one more driver to find for the wireless broadband internet connection, and I am getting very tired. In my device manager window the Network Controller icon is still yellow. Would anyone know the name of the driver so I can find it on the disk?

Thanks.