Dell Inspiron n5010

[bamaguy5150]

Dell Inspiron n5010
500 gig hdd
4 gigs RAM
Intel i3 processor
win-7 os



my friend gave me this laptop. he said last year it auto updated and restarted but never would boot up. I have tried everything to get it to boot. the splash screen appears then it goes black. what can be wrong with it? I'm thinking it was a bad update.

[SpywareDr]

Try this: Power it all the way down and wait a few seconds. Power it back up and start tapping the [F8] function key. After a bit you'll see a text-type menu. Use the [Up]|[Down] arrow keys to select "Safe Mode" and then press [Enter]. Once you get into Windows, click the Start button, start typing in "System Restore" and then select it. In System Restore, select the Restore Point that Windows made right before the last update and follow the onscreen instructions and let it reboot. (Cross your fingers while waiting. ).

Let us know what happens ...

[spunk.funk]

If it won't boot to Safe Mode, then the HDD may be failing and it needs to be replaced
If it does boot to Safe Mode, but System Restore doesn't work,do a Clean Install of Windows 10 As Windows 7 will no longer be supported in a few weeks;
On an Internet computer download the ISO image for Windows 10 and burn it to a USB Flash drive with the Media Creation tool. Then boot off of that USB Drive and choose your Language, then Custom Install, here Delete all partitions the drive in the computer is all Unallocated Space, then go Next.

[bamaguy5150]

will this laptop run win-8?

[Stancestans]

Originally Posted by bamaguy5150

will this laptop run win-8?

It meets the requirements for Windows 8, but is not officially supported, meaning drivers have not been published for Windows versions higher than 7. There's a good chance it will run Windows 8 and 10 just fine. If I were you, I would skip Windows 8 altogether and go straight to 10. It will most likely use Windows 7 drivers on Windows 10 just fine. If the HDD turns out to be healthy, all you need to do is perform a fresh clean installation of Windows as spunk.funk advises.