Recent content by CrazyDingo

Can you reset the CMOS to default factory settings without going into bios (look in the manual)? Sometimes there's a jumper lead or a switch. You can also try removing batteries ...

Can you look in the manual to see if there is a procedure for resetting the BIOS or CMOS to "Factory Defaults". You could try (after power off and disconnect from charger) removing the battery (both main, and the coin), leaving for a while, then try restarting. If you need keyboard input to...

I think its pretty unlikely you'll be able to do this, though no harm in investigating. Have you checked whether the CPU is soldered into the motherboard, as it is on some laptops? Assuming the CPU can physically be replaced, you'd then need to consider whether you can update the bios to...

How did you reset it - with windows 10? Have you tried booting from a bootable usb? Sounds like bios is loading but failling to start a boot loader. Have you tried going into bios while it's booting (can be tricky, you'll need to look up the keys for your model, often f2 or del or f12). I don't...

Hmm, maybe Coliff or someone else can help on this - I strongly suspect if you had the HDDs connected when you installed to the SDD the windows installation media will have put material on them (a hidden recovery partition perhaps?). Whenever I install an OS I only have the target system drive...

When you did your fresh install, did you have the HDDs disconnected? Otherwise, they will effectively become system disks as well (which you don't want) and slow things down. Also, drivers as mentioned above from latest device manufacturers, microsoft/windows supplied only if others not...

If you don't want to spend on hardware you could, as suggested above, try a light-weight linux distribution. An older laptop of mine that ran like a dog with Windows 10 became quite usable with lubuntu.

Probably no chance at all, but in case I've misunderstood, perhaps you could clarify your question a little: 1. Do you mean the following models? https://www.cnet.com/products/dell-inspiron-3541-laptop-computer-frtl15vamd2801b/specs/...

Do you have a bootable usb you can try? If your HDD has failed but the computer is otherwise fine, you may be able to boot into uefi/bios (and might be able to see from there that the hdd has failed); getting into the uefi/bios screen can be a little tricky. Replacing a failed HDD on this model...

Well here's some salt I'm sure you don't want - that's why everyone says backup regularly, because you don't usually have warning lights pop up on your computer advising that you're about to loose access to everything on the SSD / HDDs.

Yeh, clean install is probably the only practical way for you to get a clean machine.

Have you tried contacting Asus? Keep it plugged in an turned on until you find directions or someone to help.

Depends what coding / programming your talking about, but in general yes. I'd rather write a C program on linux or a mac than in windows (just my preference), but I'd rather write java on a linux or in windows than on a mac (again, very subjective). Platform doesn't make a huge difference for...