Replying to HAY GOOD COMPUTER PEOPLE

hardware wise, you would reset to default settings in the BIOS, but that won't do much to speed it up. software wise, the only thing to do is reinstall the OS, which would probably make it faster. A lot faster, but that can be a lot of work sometimes. The easiest way to make the computer faster is to just add more RAM, unless you want to fiddle with some settings. What operating system does it have?

this usually helps slightly and there is nothing here that can make stuff not work:
http://chorusofone.n...f/msconfig.html

So, another week; another computer-related question. The old family PC has recently been replaced as it is very slow. How would I go about resetting it to the factory settings and do you think this would improve its speed? It's a Dell Inspiron 530.

I forgot to say, thanks for the advice Floyd. I took it to a repairman and he said it needs a new hard drive. I'm just gonna buy a new laptop instead.

It looks like you have the same BIOS as my laptop, but a slightly newer version, more pictures could be more useful.

If you press [f9] then it will reset the bios to it's defaults. There also could be a reset to defaults thing on the advanced tab (change tabs with [<] and [>]) this will not effect any files on the computer. Do one or both of those, press [f10] to save settings and exit, your computer will restart, if that fixed it, you should boot up normally.

if that does not work, from the looks of that picture, hard drives are already set to boot by default and everything seems normal. I can't tell you more without sitting in front of the computer itself. You may want to find a computer repairman in your area, shipping to here is probably rather expensive.

I find all this quite confusing and scary. I managed to get this up but I don't know what to do now.

Your computer is attempting a PXE boot over the network, this is no big deal. Not haveing a CD drive, this is how you would install the operating system on it to begin with. one time I put together a crude PXE boot server to install windows 7 on my laptop because I had no blank DVDs or a DVD burner.

Is your computer connected to the internet wire when you turn it on? if it is try unpluging it and see what it will do.

then you might try going into the BIOS (how to do it is different on different computers, but on most you will press esc or del just after you turn the power on) and see if it has something about boot order and set it to hard drives first.

When I turn it on it says:

"Intel UNDI, PXE 2.1 (build 082)
Copyright © 1997-2000 Intel Corporation

For Realtek RTL8101E/8102E PCI-E Ethernet Controller v1.08 (080408)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM
Operating system not found"

It's a Dell Inspiron 910, so it doesn't have a disc drive. I tried taking the battery out and putting it back in like last time I had a problem but it didn't work this time

I have never heard of that particular error message, and as it is on a laptop, I am guessing it would be rather difficult to actually open it up and "check the cables". is there any way for you to take a picture of your screen (with a camera?) so I can read the stuff you don't understand? You could always get a bootable CD and put it in the drive and see if it will start from that, if it will, it could mean a bad hard drive.

Good computer people, I need your help please. When I turn my laptop on it comes up with some bullshit that I don't understand and then says something like "cannot find the operating system, check the cables". Is it fucked or can it be saved do you think?

Gibby, on 14 September 2011 - 02:32 AM, said:

i use this if i ever get malware, works everytime.
i use AVG as my anti-virus.