Solved Trying to reinstall Win 8

Hello everyone, i have a very very strange problem on my Dell N5110

I did everything possible but the Laptop still works very slowly and i just want to reinstall my Win8 or even go back to Win7.
As you all know once you put in your DVD or USB, you restart, you select (if not already selected) to boot your windows, next step, "Press any key to boot from DVD(USB)...." . The problem is, when i'm at this particular step, NOTHING works, aboslutly no button on my keyboard works no matter how many times i press anything.. naturally the Windows just moves on and loads the desktop...

Are there any kind of drivers i might be missing?
I tried using an external keyboard, no luck
I entered the BIOS to check if there's something to do from there, no options regarding this problem...
My BIOS is already updated to the latest version A11

What's the matter here? I just want to reinstall my win and have it fresh and smooth...
Is there any other way i can reinstall the Windows? Perhaps i can bypass the whole Press any key step and jump straight to the Setup of the Windows?

Hi, does the cd drive function normally whilst in Win 8 i.e will it recognise a music cd? I have had the problem where win 8 did not recognise the drive and a few solutions can be found here and on this board as well:
Missing CD/DVD Drive for Windows 8 Professional - Microsoft Community

Sounds like this is the case as its ignoring your boot options from the bios.

If I was to reinstall everything, I prefer to start from scratch by deleting the partition and reformatting the hard drive and installing from the cd onto a clean harddrive.

Saying that, I am assuming that you selected to boot from the cd drive within the bios?

You might try updating the BIOS. Not sure if Dell has a BIOS updater, but if you are still able to log into windows and you manage to find an updater, it would be a good idea to update it. I personally hate installing BIOS outside of the windows environment. If you can't find one, no worries.

That particular laptop model was released for windows 7 before windows 8 came along, and it doesn't even have driver support for it. So windows 7 may be your best option for it, unfortunately.

Here is a tutorial on downgrading: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/13326-downgrade-windows-8-windows-7-a.html
Here is a tutorial on completely reinstalling (choose one that fits your situation): Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version - Windows 7 Help Forums
or
Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
^ you must determine what kind of media you have for installation

As i said , the BIOS is updated...
My cd drive is recognising everything i put in there, i load it, no problem. The bootable USB stick with win8 OR win7 on it IS recoginised by the laptop...
The problem is that in that one particular moment where i simply have to just press A KEY, no key works... it just doesnt...
I've read that this Laptop is not supposed to work with Win8... i don't know, the first time it worked, i installed it up from win7 and everything worked like a charm for about 2 months

Not an expert here by any means, but may I suggest you try refreshing win8. If it doesn't work you've only lost a few minutes.

start page
type: pc settings
click the gear icon for pc settings
on the left, bottom of list, Update and Recovery
next list: Recovery
top of main list: Refresh your pc without affecting your files Click < Get started>
follow prompts
,
disadvantages:
this will remove all third-party programs unless bought from the app store
it will reset everything to factory default
it may fail to eliminate some forms of malware
You might have some other reason to downgrade, other than just getting your computer to run at normal speed.
Advantages:
easier than reformatting, downgrading
should take only a few minutes with only the instructions you see here.
You will probably still have all your files, like photos and saved documents
It's not as destructive as wiping the disk. (granted, also not as sure of succeeding)
You can always proceed to those other solutions if this doesn't work.

but i have no Update and Recovery option... on the bottom is Windows update

I just now did it on a laptop and there was an intervening screen, with
windows update
file history
recovery
,
clicking < recovery > next screen had < update and recovery >
click that
then
<refresh your pc without affecting your files>

screens are in slightly different order and look different on my desktop
The desktop has had secure boot disabled.
hope maybe this helps. As I mentioned above, I am not any sort of expert. Just relaying what has worked for me.

Found it, had mine in General - Refresh , i'll give it a try, thanks

penguinmeister9 said:

Found it, had mine in General - Refresh , i'll give it a try, thanks

Click to expand...

you may/will need to put win8 dvd In the drive to do the refresh

penguinmeister9 said:

The problem is that in that one particular moment where i simply have to just press A KEY, no key works...

Click to expand...

Concerning your Press any Key problem
Make sure the Chipset is updated. There were 4 separate downloads when I checked. It is listed under windows 7 drivers, not 8's. If you have anything other than a basic keyboard, you may need to install the software for it.

Not sure if it will work, but if it allows you to update the BIOS over the same version BIOS as you have, there is a chance it will reset it to normal. As it is a laptop, not sure how you would be able to reset the BIOS any other way. This may (or may not) help with the keyboard problem if nothing else is working.

For now, I would stick with the refresh option. It would be even better if you had windows 7 installed, due to your unique problem. How did the refresh turn out?

update to 8.1

Hi Penguin,
I reckon the best thing to do is to upgrade via the store to 8.1.
As this is basicalkly a new OS, it saves all of your old data, and gives you a better less glithchier OS.
I am assuming you running a Dell OEM install.

Roy

This model of laptop Dell N5110 doesnt support 8.1... i think as of A11 bios update it runs win 8 but no 8.1

penguinmeister9 said:

This model of laptop Dell N5110 doesnt support 8.1... i think as of A11 bios update it runs win 8 but no 8.1

Click to expand...

Definitely only supports Windows 7, no other OS supported.

I'm currently running on Windows 8 Pro 64x so.. i guess not only

this dell site has wifi and audio and more for win8 ,but not chipset
,Drivers for Inspiron 15R N5110

caperjack said:

this dell site has wifi and audio and more for win8 ,but not chipset
,Drivers for Inspiron 15R N5110

Click to expand...

Hmm, on the page I saw, it only had generic items like BIOS for windows 8. +1 for finding more!

penguinmeister9 said:

I'm currently running on Windows 8 Pro 64x so.. i guess not only

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, it is only. Without any drivers for your computer running windows 8, the computer can become unstable. Although 'Caperjack' above found some more drivers for you (recommended install). Sometimes the windows 7 drivers work alright on Windows 8, but not always. But this isn't the focus of the problem right now (I think). Did the reset work out alright? Were you going to try another method? If so, what kind of media do you have? For example, is it OEM Windows 7, or retail Windows 8, or different? Here is a great definition of OEM if needed:

Most Helpful Reply Carey Frisch replied on October 22, 2009

• 

MVP Community Moderator

OEM versions of Windows 7 are identical to Full License Retail versions except for the following:

- OEM versions do not offer any free Microsoft direct support from Microsoft support personnel

- OEM licenses are tied to the very first computer you install and activate it on

- OEM versions allow all hardware upgrades except for an upgrade to a different model motherboard

- OEM versions cannot be used to directly upgrade from an older Windows operating system

Click to expand...

-Source

Havent done the refresh yet, hoped i would find a way to reinstall it but it looks like refresh is the only option...
I'm not sure which kind of Windows this is (never even heard of OEM before), but i guess it's Retail

^ Oh! Did it come with the computer, or did you buy it online/in a store? Is it windows 7 or 8?

If it came with the computer, sometimes they have recovery disks that should say something to that effect, or it should be what is considered OEM.

I would guess that you got a windows 7 OEM that came with the computer, but upgraded it to windows 8, perhaps right from the computer using the Microsoft upgrade software. This may help point you in the right direction for reinstalling your computer is why I ask

When i bought the Laptop it already had Windows 7 so i guess it was OEM.. Later on i got myself Windows 8 because everyone was saying it's much faster and more reliable than 7 ( good for gaming too witch i need) so i got myself that one... i had no problems installing it the first time, now reinstalling is problematic..

Hey, now that i think about it, at first,it did worked well, my keys worked and everything went ok installing a different windows... The windows that came with the laptop had many Dell non-sense witch i had no use for...i'm thinking now, what if one of those drivers/application or whatever, it's the thing i'm missing for it to work?

^Probably. Drivers tell the computer what to do with the information you give it. Without them, things can go awry. Windows comes with a lot of preinstalled drivers to get things going, but you should have the ones specific to the hardware you're using.

For example, you install a graphics card (hardware), and now you must install its driver for it to display properly. The driver tells the card what to do, and you can change resolution, etc. Though you might not have a card installed, it works the same for the internal components that work to give you the whole experience.

These drivers are specific to your operating system. While Windows 8 is a great operating system, if you don't have Windows 8 driver support for it, you can get crashes, or things can suddenly not work, or never work, etc. System instability. But sometimes you can get away with using windows 7 drivers for it. You might have to install them in 'compatibility mode', and there is a tutorial for it.

The Dell programs are separate from drivers. Most people label them as 'junkware' for removal, but some people find them helpful. Often times they can slow down your computer just because they use a lot of resources like RAM or CPU.

The Windows that came with the computer (7) is your best bet, but you can try using windows 8 if you'd like. You might not see a speed difference due to lack of driver support, but I could be wrong here. It is not that much faster than 7 to begin with. So you probably don't have a windows 8 DVD, only 7. If you want to keep 8 despite the lack of support, you may have to find a way to download the ISO through a fun little procedure and then install it, provided you have your Product key somewhere (email, written down, etc.) for the windows 8 (so you would ignore the windows 7 key, as it won't help you for installing windows 8). Did I confuse you yet? I'm not trying to lead you one way or the other, but I think you should have all the facts to make your own decision. The way I see it, you can install windows 7, or 8, or look for another method of fixing your problem, such as a reset or finding some drivers to install to see if that changes anything.

Even if you reinstall, no guarantee it will work, and you will still need to get drivers for it; caperjack linked to some of them for you in a previous post.