Cba From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 4530 posts, RR: 3 Posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 997 times:
Is there any way to reset my Dell back to the original manufacturer's configuration (i.e. erase all kinds of crap that's currently on it) aside from re-formatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows? I tried System Restore but it only has recent restore points.
AIR757200 From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 1579 posts, RR: 8 Reply 1, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 972 times:
(i.e. erase all kinds of crap that's currently on it)
Have you tried to go into Add/Remove Programs? You can go down the list there and remove stuff you don't need.. just be careful with Microsoft items that are associated with Windows Update.
Cba From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 4530 posts, RR: 3 Reply 2, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 961 times:
I do that frequently, but I think the system needs a good, deep cleansing.
DesertJets From United States of America, joined Feb 2000, 7673 posts, RR: 18 Reply 3, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 966 times:
Why not call the fine friendly tech support folks at Dell?
Stop drop and roll will not save you in hell. --- seen on a church marque in rural Virginia
USAFHummer From United States of America, joined May 2000, 10685 posts, RR: 54 Reply 4, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 955 times:
Dell techsupport is abysmally bad in my experience...I have a Dell laptop and I had a problem and called twice, and got two different responses on how to solve it...and neither of them worked in the long run...
Greg
Chief A.net college football stadium self-pic guru
AIR757200 From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 1579 posts, RR: 8 Reply 5, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 949 times:
Yeah, Dell's telephone tech. support isn't exactly the greatest help.
I had a sound problem that only a few experienced, so I used the Dell forums to resolve the problem and a group of us from there actually got Dell to issue a patch file for our soundcard.
Syncmaster From United States of America, joined Jul 2002, 1983 posts, RR: 14 Reply 6, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 947 times:
Dell phone support isn't good when you get someone from outside the country, because they more or less just read a script (I'm not saying they are ad or anything, please don't take this the wrong way). I have selved several problems using the Dell Talk forums, just like AIR757200 said. Give it a try.
CPDC10-30 From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2000, 4759 posts, RR: 26 Reply 7, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 935 times:
Reformatting is always worth the pain. Just make sure you don't forget to back up your favourites and desktop items! Considering how cheap CD blanks are now there isn't really any reason not to just blow everything out.
Add/remove programs is usually a very "dirty" process and leaves tons of registry keys behind. I usually reformat my main system about every 3-6 months. The system is always so much faster when it is fresh.
I heard that Dell is getting a lot of irate customers because they outsourced their support to India and the staff aren't competent (reading off a script). So much so that they are actually moving some of their support back to the USA. Thank goodness they came to their senses.
UTA_flyingHIGH From Tunisia, joined Oct 2001, 6495 posts, RR: 52 Reply 8, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 923 times:
To remove some, if not most crap.
1) Perform a disk cleanup
2) Defragment HDD - will not remove anything, but things willl go faster.
3) Get Ad-aware !!!
Other than that, you're looking at a n hour and a half of a very good movie called Reformat and Reinstall
UTA
Fly to live, live to fly - Air France/KLM Flying Blue Platinum, BMI Diamond Club Gold, Emirates Skywards
Virgin744 From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 903 posts, RR: 5 Reply 10, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 927 times:
yeah, try the system restore CD - NOT the "system restore point". The cd came (comes) with the p.c when you buy it new, its usually a colored CD that says system restore disk on it. I ve used thius many, many times with complete success. In fact, i am looking for this CD again cos I need to reimage a Dell Op. 260.
Bobrayner From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2003, 2227 posts, RR: 7 Reply 11, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 914 times:
Why is everyone so keen to reformat?
Put a fresh build on the same disk if you're so determined to spring-clean. You get all the same benefits (some of them rather dubious in my mind), but:
1. No need to back up your old data (although it's good practice to do so);
2. Profiles can be copied across. Why waste time setting up the UI just how you like it, all over again? And you have got written copies of all those passwords that Windows currently remembers on your behalf, right?
3. Saves lots of time;
4. Removes the risk of losing anything that your backup round missed!
5. If you habitually keep a local copy of any patches, retaining your old partition will also save you some very long downloads - and it's nice to have a machine that's secure before you even connect to the internet for the first time, isn't it?
6. Lower stress levels; if anything goes wrong, you can boot back into the old OS. Don't know why your internet connection won't work on the build? You can use the old one to connect and look up the answer / get an updated driver / whatever.
There are probably more, but I'm not ranting coherently...
CPH-R From Denmark, joined May 2001, 5747 posts, RR: 4 Reply 12, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 900 times:
Hmm, since you're using Dell, I better ask you ('coz you probably didn't noticed it yourself):
Do you intend to use the PC to create Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Do you intend to sell the PC to a person in either Cuba, Libye or North Korea?
If you don't believe, have a look in Dell's EULA - it actually forbids you to use a Dell PC for any of the above
UAL Bagsmasher From United States of America, joined Sep 1999, 2131 posts, RR: 11 Reply 13, posted (9 years 4 months 1 week 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 896 times:
I had to do the same thing once before with my Dell. They ran me through something called "ZZ top." It restores your computer to delivery condition. The only problem is, it will Not work if you have ever defragmented your hard drive. If you haven't done that, I'd call them and ask to be walked through ZZ Top.
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