I've got a fair few problems going on with an Alienware laptop I'm using. It's pretty much been a constant money drain since I got it and I have little intention of repairing current hardware issues (fans, hard-drive, keyboard) due to my remote location and the age of the laptop series in question. As of writing, certain stupidity and mistakes by yours truly to uninstall Office 2007 have resulted in Windows Installer being lost and the computer's sound systems no longer operating along with other minor software stuff. The only software I need (Steam), I have the passwords for on a USB.

Should I do a factory reset to start over from a clean slate with these software issues resolved or would that be dangerous given the current hardware state of the computer?

 

What kind of hardware issues do you have exactly? They probably should't be a problem with the formatting of the disk.

I usually format the main disk and do a clean install every 6-8 months on my main computer, since the problems just pile up. I'm sure your problems could be fixed with some time put into it, but I'd personally just do a clean install and not bother with it all. Unless you have a lot of data and nowhere to put it on.

 

My issues? Well, the keyboard has multiple keys that don't work, and occasionally "h" starts doing it's own thing with a run on stream. One of the fans has stopped working, so the computer is liable to overheat quite quickly as the other one tries to make up for it. The battery has stopped charging, so it's dependent on the charging cord but that is dependent on the electricity not getting cut off from my room because of the wiring of the house. A large number of applications have stopped working, blue screens are not uncommon, the computer emits a large buzzing sound after being loaded up after one of these crashes, there are a not infrequent amount of freezes and there is neither sound nor the ability to download anything atmo.

Could you explain in a little bit more detail regarding formatting the disk or reinstalling windows? Bought this laptop second hand about five years ago.

 

It's as you put it factory reset. Basically removing everything from the disk and reinstalling a new Operating System on it. It will definitely run faster after that. Might even fix your blue screen problems, if it's a software issue (I had a lot of problems with Asus's bloatware causing blue screens). Considering Windows updates install most of the needed drivers nowadays you shouldn't have problems with that either. It should also fix all of your problems with downloading and sound if it's software related.

Hardware issues also shouldn't be a problem with this, provided your power doesn't cut out or you get a blue screen in the middle of the installation. But even after that you should be able to do it again if it fails because of that.

 

Mhm. Do I need to do anything specifically? I've read online that for Windows 7 I need to press F8 as soon as my computer loads up to get into that section of the computer, but I've tried that a couple of times already and it's not actually worked.

 

You'll need a bootable CD or USB with windows on it. F8 is only for accessing the boot menu. I suggest you research how to install Windows on your computer on Youtube or somewhere similar, it's actually pretty easy. If you're not comfortable doing it yourself though I suggest you find someone near you who does it; don't know the prices though, I've always done it myself and it depends where you're living.

 

The bootable CD thing is gonna be a problem because that's another thing that doesn't work. Might ask an IT guy at work tomorrow for help, one of them helped sort out my dad's laptop a few weeks back.

 

Yeah, my three USB ports work fine.