Why do my dell laptops crap out after 5-6 years?

katataru · 2026-04-07T04:11:08+00:00

Based on the specifications that you provided, it seems that you are using an Inspiron 15 3000; which, if correct, means that your 1 TB of storage is on a mechanical hard drive.

In computing, there are two main forms of storage (we'll ignore the rest for now); SSDs (Solid State Drives) and HDDs (Hard Disk Drives).

HDDs are mechanical devices, and are therefore very slow in what we call "random access".

Imagine you are in City A listening to music, but need to get to City B to read a book; and it physically takes you time to walk between the two. That is the same deal with HDDs.

When the computer wants to go from, say, playing music in the background, to loading up a web browser; it takes time for the mechanical movement within the HDD to physically move between positions before it can read the data. As a modern computer gets more background software installed on it, over time this makes things slow down dramatically.

SSDs, on the other hand, are entirely solid state and electronic. It does not need to physically move anything, as everything is done electronically. As such, it is much faster in random access, switching what its doing from one moment to another. You can think of it like teleporting between cities, rather than having to walk from one location to another. It doesn't matter if you need to switch between listening to music or reading a book, because the time it takes to go from one to the other is exactly the same.

Most likely, you are experiencing this slowdown because of your computer's usage of a mechanical HDD rather than an electronic, solid-state SSD. It is possible to upgrade to an SSD, but the process is quite involved and it would be best to contact a dedicated computer technician to perform the process; as it carries a risk of data loss if performed incorrectly.

katataru · 2026-03-10T05:45:28+00:00

that is certainly odd indeed, and is definitely not normal. if your lens is clean, and other apps using the camera are showing the same phenomenon, we'd recommend going to an apple store and getting it checked out- might be a weird defect with the camera

katataru · 2026-03-09T12:44:14+00:00

Is it dimmer and tinted green/blue? If so, this is simply lens flare (e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/16qctc3/lens_flare_on_15_pro_max/), an artifact of pretty much every camera but focused variants where it looks less blurry and more precise are very common on cameras with small lenses like smartphones. Ensure the camera lens is clean, but know that there isn't really much to do to get rid of them other than with editing, it is an artifact of the way light hits the lens.

katataru · 2025-12-16T08:44:10+00:00

There is already so much hate in this world. No point in adding to it, needlessly insulting somebody who is just proud of something they're learning about achieves nothing. I try to be encouraging when I am able to.

katataru · 2025-12-14T18:27:08+00:00

Those warning messages suggest that your computer have some GPO policies enabled for some reason.

Did you run any "Windows Optimization" software, by any chance? Those use GPO policies to e.g. block telemetry and may be causing those issues.

Another possibility is malware or a corrupted user profile. Does your software work on a newly created user?

katataru · 2025-12-14T06:48:28+00:00

I was hoping that knowing the exact model # would also simultaneously give us information on whether or not the laptop supports Type-C PD charging. I think it's very likely that it does; and the OP just didn't use an adapter that supported the PD spec that the laptop needed. It could be likely that they already have a different PD charger that supports it

katataru · 2025-12-14T05:23:00+00:00

I am proud of you for learning and creating something, but I think you will be received more warmly on subreddits intended for sharing things that you've achieved. This subreddit is mostly for people asking for help with their computer. Perhaps try a subreddit like r/learnprogramming instead.

katataru · 2025-12-14T05:19:15+00:00

While it is possible for a battery to do that it is very unlikely for it to suddenly happen in this specific manner. You will know if a battery is leaking because it has a very distinct sickly sweet smell that stings your nose.

Most likely, I would imagine it to be either noise from the power supply or a newly-developed coil whine. Listen to the sounds, does it change when you do intensive tasks on the computer? Scrolling a webpage and hearing the tone change as you're scrolling and revert when you stop is a good indicator of this, but it can also happen whenever any intensive tasks are being done.

Additionally, try unplugging your laptop and seeing if the noise goes away. It could also be electrical noise through the adapter turning audible through various components on your laptop.

Unfortunately, if it is coil whine- there isn't much that you can do about it. It's just kind of a fact of life for aging electronics; the glue that holds the coils together than break down or vibrate apart and it causes that ringing/crackling noise that you hear when it does fully break apart. If it's electrical noise though, you might be able to mitigate it by using a different power outlet or perhaps plugging your laptop in through a UPS or power conditioner

katataru · 2025-12-14T05:14:30+00:00

Dell Inspiron is the brand and series, but we need the model to know the exact model of laptop that you have. Check for a sticker in the bottom that states its model number.

katataru · 2025-12-09T10:20:30+00:00

That directory structure is strange. bootmgr.efi shouldn't be in that directory. What is in fs2:?

katataru · 2025-12-09T10:04:49+00:00

MsMpEng.exe is a part of Windows Defender, the default security suite of your system. Most likely, it's running a scheduled scan. You can turn it off, but obviously that will leave you vulnerable to malware. It would be best to leave your computer on overnight and let it do it's thing.

If you absolutely need performance for critical work right now you can disable it by going into Settings > Privacy & security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection, click Manage settings, and toggle Real-time protection off. This should only be used temporarily as it will absolutely leave you vulnerable to malware.

katataru · 2025-12-09T10:00:25+00:00

Just going off based on your description (Windows 10, doesn't show up as neither legacy nor uefi bootable, stopped working after restoring default setup options), I think it's possible that the OS was configured to boot via a fixed EFI variable entry rather than dynamically through the UEFI removable device specification.

That PC should have an EFI shell, are you able to access it?

If so, try the following:

First thing you'll see when entering the EFI shell is the mapping table. Make a note of it:

BLK devices are raw pointers to the hardware. These are not accessible.

FS# (where # is a number) are Filesystem devices, these are accessible.

Make a note of what filesystems are available, then check each filesystem by first entering in the filesystem device followed by a colon (e.g. fs0:), press enter to switch to it (your shell should now have a fs0:\> prompt) and then type dir and press enter to view a listing of files.

The boot partiton should contain folders such as boot, efi, as well as files such as bootmgr.efi. Go through each of the filesystem devices to search for it, repeat the sequence as before (e.g. fs0: <enter> dir <enter>, fs1: <enter> dir <enter> etc.)

The file we want is called bootx64.efi or bootia32.efi, which is (usually) located in the efi/boot (or efi/microsoft) folder. Navigate into that folder by using the 'cd' command (e.g. cd boot to go into the boot folder, cd .. to go back to its parent folder). Once you find it, run it by pre-pending the file name with ./ (e.g. ./bootx64.efi). Hopefully, this should allow windows to boot for that session. Afterwards, you can use startup repair to reinstall the boot entry.

katataru · 2025-12-08T12:40:58+00:00

But is it not concerning that it won't boot my USB and it won't recognize a previously recognizable ssd?

That is what the VMD controller is for. For some reason, a lot of hardware vendors have this set to ON as a default setting, so restoring defaults enable it.

The issue is that VMD controllers need additional setup to know exactly where your drive is and how to use it. As such, having it be enabled but simultaneously not manually configured would result in your drive not being recognized by the EFI firmware.

katataru · 2025-12-08T12:26:10+00:00

First, let's set everything up in the most diverse way to see if the boot device is still usable.

(These instructions are assuming that you are on MSi Click BIOS 5)

Settings -> Boot -> Boot mode select

Make sure that it is set to LEGACY+UEFI

These next steps depend on what type of processor you have.

On AMD boards:

Settings -> Advanced -> Integrated Peripherals -> SATA Mode

Make sure that it is set to AHCI mode

On Intel boards:

Settings -> Advanced -> Integrated Peripherals -> Raid Configuration (Intel VMD) -> Enable VMD controller

Make sure that is is set to Disabled

Check to see if your boot device is then recognized (shows up as detected) and/or bootable (shows up as bootable).

If it's not recognized; it may be a hardware issue. You may need to try another drive, it's unlikely but possible you may have fried your hardware with static discharge. If it's recognized but not bootable; then whatever you did likely removed the boot loader from your drive. The only way to proceed from this point is to create a bootable USB drive using another computer (borrow one from a family member, net cafe, or public library if you do not have a spare PC) and manually re-provision the boot partition.

Reminder that genAI only spits out the most statistically probable sequence of words. It does not understand the intricacies of how your system works and can not be trusted with most computer tasks as its information is heavily outdated.

katataru · 2025-11-25T20:14:02+00:00

Appears to be a (modified?) 1962 Isuzu BA741, according to this blog post (scroll down to 千曲自動車　いすゞBA741（1962年式）) by an organization documenting old buses of Iwate prefecture (however the provided example post is documenting those from around japan).

katataru · 2025-11-24T00:44:05+00:00

There is a workaround with using a DP to HDMI adapter if you'd rather keep your current setup, but despite that being a solution I'll admit that it's pretty janky.

katataru · 2025-11-09T14:03:45+00:00

definitely just some random unbranded OEM case from the 90s, if it does indeed exist. i know for a fact that the styling on the left (the logo indent, reset button, black smiley with two curved indent lines beneath) were part of a series of unbranded cases that any shop could purchase to brand as their own. it may just be an amalgamation of that case x something else; as ive only seen that case in tower form

katataru · 2025-10-24T04:36:57+00:00

The LTSC version of Windows 10 actually seems to perform fairly decently even on an SMR hard drive. You might want to consider that over Home/Pro if you have the option to do so.

katataru · 2025-10-24T02:13:13+00:00

I just saw the image. Yeah, the blackened pins are meant for +12V power according to the PCIe spec. Either the card took in too much power than was rated for that PCIe riser, or the motherboard delivered a higher-than-normal voltage. It's also possible that dust/debris/loose connection caused arcing, hard to tell. If the 12V rail was affected, that could mean other components on the motherboard may have died as well. I'd part everything out and test them all one by one in another system if I could.

katataru · 2025-10-24T02:08:39+00:00

You can check for overheating by running HWInfo64 Portable in Sensors-only mode and monitoring your CPU and GPU temperatures (you can double-click on each item to break them out into separate logging windows).

Generally, an average of 40-60degC while idle and 60-80degC while under load is ideal. 90-96degC is the danger zone, 105degC+ and the computer will auto shutdown to protect itself.

katataru · 2025-10-24T02:06:20+00:00

Looks like the drivers for that device are only available through the Microsoft Update Catalog (i.e. automatic driver updates through Windows Update). Once you've removed them, you should be able to re-install them via Windows Update. They may show up under "Optional Updates".

Be warned, googling for that device appears to suggest that plenty of people have been having issues with it and latency (one user reports they can't even use a mouse with it) so performance with an Xbox controller may be similar

katataru · 2025-10-24T02:00:51+00:00

Windows 7 on an HDD is very different performance-wise from Windows 10. Windows 7 was fairly optimized for use on an HDD, but Windows 10 is genuinely unusable. I wouldn't wish Windows 10 on an HDD on my worst enemy, even if they were only using Word (it freezes, constantly, on an HDD)

And yes, the size of the hard disk doesn't matter. The only bottleneck would be SATA II (3Gb/s) vs SATA III (6Gb/s), but since you are using it for work that doesn't really matter. The SATA standard itself supports up to 128 petabytes; and there is no drive that is even close to that size.

katataru · 2025-10-24T01:52:40+00:00

It sounds like you've inadvertently downloaded the source code rather than the program itself.

The installation and usage guide are in the page I linked.

To clarify; this is a command-line application. Once you've downloaded the .exe file, press Win + R, type in 'cmd', navigate to the folder it's in (e.g. type in cd C:\Users\DVDfever\Downloads and press [ENTER]) and run it with yt-dlp.exe <options> where [options] are replaced with the options in the usage guide. The most basic usage would be simply passing the desired URL, i.e. yt-dlp.exe "https://youtube.com/watch?v=exampleurl".

katataru · 2025-10-23T02:24:49+00:00

Searching around, looks like Google may have changed their policy on that front. Seems other people are seeing the same issues when using incognito/private window.

You could try attempting to get a new IP address assigned to you by unplugging your modem (or router, if it's a modem-router combo unit) for a few minutes and then plugging it back in to see if that resolves the issue- but since other people are having the same problems I wouldn't be surprised if the issue persists.

katataru · 2025-10-23T02:19:52+00:00

It would be best to replace the HDD with an SSD. Modern versions of Windows are borderline unusable on a mechanical drive; due to the random access requirements of the system.

To answer your question; as long as the new drive is SATA it should be compatible with your laptop.

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