Hi,

 

see if the repair works, at least it can see the disk now. If not as said if you do not care about the data they usualy have a restore partition. If not give me a shout and I will see if I have a Dell win 7 dvd do not think they are model specific.

 

John

33 minutes ago, mrgf said:

...May be irrelevant but on the goggle-box yesterday, there was an advert running for a well known P.C. store, offering to part exchange old laptops for new ones. Might be a better upgrade in the long run!

 

Cheers Mrgf, I've seen that ad too.  I don't really need this Dell as I have an older D610 hardwired in via ethernet.  On a daily basis I'm using a MacBook Pro.

 

I just hate to see waste.  She also put a perfectly good pair of hardly used DM's in the bin, because she's vegan and the uppers were leather.  I oiked them out, gave them a polish and was taking them to the local Hospice shop, except Mrs V6TDI intercepted them and passed them on to a grateful person.

 

It's still 'Attempting repairs...' so my current optimism remains undaunted.

 

Gaz

Dell diagnostics /repairs can take chuffing hours.. go get beer and settle in id say!

25 minutes ago, mac11irl said:

Dell diagnostics /repairs can take chuffing hours.. go get beer and settle in id say!

 

Speckled Hen in progress, but unfortunately depleting faster than IT remedial action is moving forward 

 

Might leave the Dell to churn overnight.

 

Gaz

TBH the switch to an SSD is worth doing anyway, it can really transform a middle-aged laptop. Laptop drives were usually the bottleneck in their performance, SSDs remove that and you get full speed from the processor.

That's the stupidity of veganism.... Already have leather, cow is already bread, sold, slaughtered and skinned. Boots made and sold now, discard them as they are not "Vegan".. So now, the animal dies just to be dumped in a skip, rather then as a somewhat unwilling, organ donor. (Skin is, after all, the body's largest organ).

V6TDI, I am not suggesting your daughter is stupid, just the underlying principle of veganism. Probably nothing in the modern world that did not rely on animals, either alive or dead, somewhere along the line!

There is nothing inherently wrong in veganism, given time and enough people a reduction in the consumption of animal products would drive the market to invest in produce not requiring animal products.

Throwing the boots away is maybe a statement from the individual although wasteful.

 

There is an argument that that we as a society consume too many animal products and that it is in fact bad for us and we would all be richer and healthier if we moved away from animal products.

 

There is also the counter argument that steak is tasty, chickens make good curries, leather seats in cars smell nice and cheese is life.

 

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/lifestyle/vegan-birthday-cake-just-made-of-flour-and-sadness-20180222144737

 

But each to their own

Besides SSD at the moment are very cheap a 120gb - is £25, 240gb is £40 and I've seen 480gb for just over £50.

On 28/08/2018 at 13:54, DJSmiley said:

 

That way you get rid of the old crap your daughter has installed,

 

 

Perhaps the old crap is what he's after...........................

 

6 hours ago, Aspman said:

1) Throwing the boots away is maybe a statement from the individual although wasteful.

 

2) There is also the counter argument that steak is tasty, chickens make good curries, leather seats in cars smell nice and cheese is life.

 

I was a veggie for a few years and regularly eat veg and vegan food.  But I like meat too much to give it up.

 

1) Undoubtedly.  She still has the zeal of the converted, but I'm impressed it's a principle she committed to.  There's a certain irony that I believe the uppers on her vegan DM's are plastic 

 

2) Couldn't agree more.  I had my first goat curry a few weeks ago and it was fantastic.

 

 

5 hours ago, io1901 said:

Besides SSD at the moment are very cheap a 120gb - is £25, 240gb is £40 and I've seen 480gb for just over £50.

 

So cheap in fact it'd be almost rude not to....

 

3 hours ago, Auric Goldfinger said:

 

Perhaps the old crap is what he's after...........................

 

 

I suspect that, at 54, delving into the deluded ravings of my teenage daughter would probably be quite injurious to my mental wellbeing.  But I could of course just be saying that, and might be sitting here in a dirty flasher mac, slavering and lecherous at the delights that await me 

 

Back on to the laptop and I'm afraid the overnight churning didn't have the desired effect.  It's trying, gets to 'Starting Windows' but can't quite make it, ends up at a black screen, and waits a few minutes before trying again, ad nauseam.

 

Going to wait for my son to come up with his Windows disk at the weekend to give that a go.  If no joy, I'll get an SSD (and will probably do that anyway, now that I'm a veritable expert HD removerer ).

 

Gaz

Edited 29 August, 20187 yr by V6TDI

At those prices im tempted to pick up a couple just because, even though i dont need them right now...

Ebuyer have a 120gb liteon SSD for £22.98. They are cheaper that SD cards!

13 hours ago, mac11irl said:

At those prices im tempted to pick up a couple just because, even though i dont need them right now...

 

There is rarely any point to stocking up on hardware. In 6 months your £50 will buy more than it does today.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Aspman said:

 

There is rarely any point to stocking up on hardware. In 6 months your £50 will buy more than it does today.

 

 

 

I more meant, theyre so cheap, itd be almost rude not buy them.. its like id be getting paid to take them  

 

If God had meant you not to eat animals, they wouldn't be made of meat!

On 28/08/2018 at 21:01, jjc said:

..... If not give me a shout and I will see if I have a Dell win 7 dvd do not think they are model specific.

 

John

 

Shout! 

 

No.1 son can't find his W7 disk  so PM sent.

 

Gaz

If you've got the license key on the back of the machine just have a google for a win7 ISO to download. Nothing illegal in hosting or downloading uncracked versions. It's your license key you actually pay for.

 

Edit - MS lets you download images - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows7

Edited 17 September, 20187 yr by Aspman

3 hours ago, Aspman said:

If you've got the license key on the back of the machine.......

 

'fraid the machine is very clean, to the point of having no licence key in evidence.  I might be being unfair as it may have all been pre-loaded when purchased and may not have had a license key label in the first place.

 

Gaz

Whoa, whoa, hold the front page.  There's a label underneath the battery - is this what I'm looking for?.....

 

 

 

(numbers obscured coz it seemed sensible to)

 

Gaz

Edited 17 September, 20187 yr by V6TDI

Yes, that's a "Windows 7 Home Premium" license key.

 

If you use the "Dell" installation disk then you don't need a license key as it recognises the laptop as a Dell device and activates automatically.

 

If you use standard Windows 7 Home Premium installation disk then that key should activate it.

 

What it doesn't tell you is if it's a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 7, as these are often on different disks. I'd guess at 64-bit, given the age of the laptop,but Icould be wrong.

 

In theory that key should also activate Windows 10 Home. I have managed to use a Windows 7 key to do a clean installation of Windows 10 on a laptop, so it should be possible, although Microsoft don't really comment on that.

I've no idea whether it's 32 or 64 bit and an equal amount of idea as to how to tell 

 

With the link the man o'snake gave above and the product key, can I presumably now download what I need?

 

Except the only flash drive I have is a 16gb one.  Does a 64gb SD card in a reader do the same thing?

 

And would it be daft to download it via a Mac rather than a PC?

 

Ta

 

Gaz

Hmm, so the message I got from the MS website when trying to download it was:

 

'ERROR: The product key you've entered appears to be for software which was pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options.'

 

So I have to go and ask Dell??

 

Gaz

Might be worth downloading this https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=2

and following instructions make a bootable USB  AND TEST . No need to load Wndows as this is a DOS test program andwilllet you know if the HDD is ok .

 

55 minutes ago, V6TDI said:

Hmm, so the message I got from the MS website when trying to download it was:

 

'ERROR: The product key you've entered appears to be for software which was pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options.'

 

So I have to go and ask Dell??

 

Gaz

 

Looks likely. 

I do recall old dells with XP and Vista having a Dell installer CD with them for wi dows rebuilding. probably running the same BS with 7.

10 hours ago, V6TDI said:

Hmm, so the message I got from the MS website when trying to download it was:

 

'ERROR: The product key you've entered appears to be for software which was pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options.'

 

So I have to go and ask Dell??

 

Gaz

 

PM sent