My laptop is basically falling apart. I am no where near computer savy other then going online, buying shit and surfing forums.

 

A week or so ago, windows (Vista) took a shit, all of a sudden my version is not genuine, which it is. Or was? Whatever.. So I've been trucking along with reminders to buy a new code or whatever. Tonight, it won't connect to my wireless network. Clicking here and there I managed to uncover a device failure and no idea what to do from here..

 

Is there anyone that can completely wipe this thing out, and put on a simple windows, with no fancy BS.. All I want is my pictures and videos saved and my Firefox browser. Im not exactly swimming in money, so I can pay with wit and humor...

 

Let me know if anyone here can help.. Ill do what I can for compensation. (im not sucking your D!)

Do you have the restore disk for the computer? You may be able to fix it yourself with no D sucking at all! What kind of computer is it? How old is it? The failure you describe does not sound good but does not mean the end of the road either. What exactly (or approximately) was the hardware error you found?

Ken

If you were closer to Carneys Point, I could take care of your problems for you.

 

Vista is a horrible operating system, and fails horribly. And in some cases catastrophically like what you're experiencing. Windows XP (no longer supported) or Windows 7 are the best options right now for simple. Everything else (linux, Mac, and Windows 8) are either to complicated, or to unstable for what you want.

Does the machine still boot and do you have a flash drive handy?

 

 

Can you read the Windows Certificate of Authenticity on the bottom of the laptop? It's a 1x3" piece of paper that has a bunch of stuff written on it, but most importantly there is a string of 5 sets of 5 characters.

 

If so, start -> type "system" (without " ") in the search box, and click on "system" under "programs". At the bottom there should be text that says "Activate Windows" click on that and type in your product code. If it doesn't work over web activation, there is an 800 number you can call for activation.

 

If not, boot the machine, copy what data you want onto the flash drive. Use the restore discs it came with (if it didn't come with any discs try hitting f9, f10, f11, del, alt + del, alt + f10 at the manufacturer's splash screen when you first turn it on. If none of those work, when the Windows logo comes up start mashing f8, choose "repair your computer" and see if there is a recovery option other than "System Restore" listed.)

 

 

As for the hardware, it may be a driver issue, it may not be. Start -> type "device manager" hit enter. Look for the ! in a yellow triangle, right click -> properties. General tab, in the "device status" box. What error code is listed?

 

 

Vista properly updated is no more unstable than any other MS OS. Vista not properly updated is utter garbage.

Doesn't make sense to buy Windows to put it on an old laptop.

 

Step one is to back up all your pictures and videos.

Hey Adam, Funny post. It sounds like the laptop contracted a virus or malware which is corrupting your device drivers. First back up what you want from the laptop (pics, videos, etc) to a thumb drive. You can take the easy route which has a 20% chance of fixing the issue. Plug in the laptop to the modem directly using a network cable (cat5). Go to Antivirus.com, Click on House Call on the upper right side of the screen. allow House Call to scan your hard drive. It might find a virus, malware and remove it.

 

If not, do you have the original recovery DVD the laptop came with? If not, do you have the original Vista DVD? Reboot the laptop and see if it boots into the DVD. If not, you want to restart the laptop and pay close attention to the Function Keys that are listed during the boot process. Your looking for a key that will say "Boot Order", look for which key selects the Boot Order (F1, F2, F8 etc). Select Boot from DVD. Restart the laptop and it should boot from the DVD. You want to do a Clean Install. Follow the prompts.

 

If you don't have the recovery DVD that came with the laptop it might be a mess because you are going to need all of the drivers for the components on that laptop. Don't take it to the Geek Squad they will charge you a couple hundred dollars and with the price of laptops being so low, you might as well buy a new one. Good luck

1. Looks like Adam might not be able to log on and see these posts? and 2. He said he was not very computer savy. Adam, if you can log on, pm me and I will see if I can set you up.

He needs to boot into safe mode, in order to copy his files in a way that will ensure he's not copying virus code along with his files. He needs to shut down after backing up his files and boot into system restore and do a full restore including destructive reformat. He can restore the original factory configuration right from the system backup partition. He'll lose any of the programs he installed since he first bought the computer, but hopefully he has the program backup disks to re-install them, or has a way of retrieving them from the software manufacturers online customer center.

He needs to boot into safe mode, in order to copy his files in a way that will ensure he's not copying virus code along with his files. He needs to shut down after backing up his files and boot into system restore and do a full restore including destructive reformat. He can restore the original factory configuration right from the system backup partition. He'll lose any of the programs he installed since he first bought the computer, but hopefully he has the program backup disks to re-install them, or has a way of retrieving them from the software manufacturers online customer center.

 

Booting into safe mode won't protect him if the files are infected. It's not guaranteed to protect him even if they aren't infected. Before any files are loaded on the PC after the reformat, autorun should be disabled and the flash drive scanned with an up to date AV.

 

This of course assumes the machine is infected, which it is not necessarily.

[Re-read OP and retracted my original suggestion...]

I got 175 rounds of 00 buck we can fix it with. Bring it to best buy, buy a new laptop, they should be able to transfer the data

I get on with my phone, just been busy since I posted this.. Only thing on it im concerned with are my daughters pics from day one. Im going to back them onto an SD card, and then probably either buy a new laptop or find a corner repair place and have it done..

 

Thanks for the answers but it seems to be above my level at this point lol

Not to butt in on your repair for your laptop, but I recommend a Macbook next time when you go purchase a laptop. I received mine as a gift and wanted to turn it down 2 years ago since I was a Window's kind of guy, but kept it and now its the most reliable laptop I have owned and the battery life on it is still great.