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Iridescent
2 Posts
0
885
August 24th, 2009 13:00
Reset
Apologies if this is in the wrong forum, but I didn't see any other places to put it, so...
A couple months ago, my laptop was running fine, as fast as a race car and as clean as the Virgin Mary. Then, on one unholy afternoon, a thunderstorm hit my area. I knew that it probably wasn't such a good idea to be running my laptop during a harsh thunderstorm, so I started to wrap up my time on the internet. Just as I was about to close out of firefox, all the power went out in my house. Albeit a bit annoyed, I was fine, as was the rest of my family, but unbeknownst to me, my laptop was not.
I waited for a few hours for the storm to leave the area and then immediately got back onto the internet, or at least tried. An error message popped up when I opened firefox. Puzzled, I closed out and tried again. Once more, nothing. I opened up the connection wizard and tried to reconnect to my network. Following my attempt, I was greeted with an error message along the lines of 'no encryption code, no dice.' After a few thousand attempts at recovering my internet, I've managed to jack up my computer so badly that I don't even know what the problem is anymore. I'd like to know if there's a way to completely reset the computer and everything that has been done to it, or put more simply, start from scratch.
tl;dr I'd like to know if you can start a laptop from scratch, and if so, how would one go about doing so.
Iridescent
2 Posts
236
0
Posted August 24th, 2009 14:00
Ah, my appreciation goes out to you. I had thought this was the solution, but since I have a special talent for screwing things up, I just thought I'd be sure.
Just to be absolutely sure, I'm posting pictures from images that are pretty much the same as my three discs.
http://i2.iofferphoto.com/img/item/634/734/01/6d3a_1.JPG
http://i1.iofferphoto.com/img/item/113/325/823/akYseR0hU7rqZLh.jpg
http://i2.iofferphoto.com/img/item/634/734/01/6d3a_1.JPG
Oh, not that it should matter, but my laptop is a vista, not an xp ;)
Iridescent,
Make any copies of files and folders that you cannot afford to lose. This should also be a normal practice. Here are your two options.
Restoring Your Computer´s Software to the Factory Settings
and
How To Restore or Reinstall Microsoft® Windows® on a Dell™ Computer
I'd go with the top one as it's much easier.
Rick
rbxl33t
18 Posts
236
0
Posted August 24th, 2009 13:00
A fresh instll of windows is a fairly simple routine(especially if you have the CDs shipped with your system). You must have the windows CD(should say "for reinstalling windows" or "windows XP"). You will also need your systems drivers, these shoudl have shipped on a disc with your system as well(should say "drivers and utilites" on it). If you do not have the Drivers Disc you can always download the required drivers for your system from www.support.dell.com. Once you have both of those discs you should be ready to rock n roll. You can view a Step by Step walkthru with pictures at http://www.windowsxpprofessional.windowsreinstall.com/installxpcdoldhdd/indexfullpage.htm. Hope this helps.