Dell Inspiron 5000 Service & SSD - LFC

[Reuploaded, few details that needed blurring sneaked by and the KZbin Editor is trash]
This laptop was in for a general service - slow performance, broken USB port, charger working intermittently. I wanted the video to be shorter, but this is a very typical job for me, so I kept everything in.
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[@Adamant_IT]

Reuploaded. There was a few details that got missed in editing - I did spot them at publishing and used the KZbin Editor to blur them, but an hour later it still hadn't actually kicked in, so I opted to just nuke the video. Just got home to tweak it and re-export, so now it's sorted! I'm not going to try to show servicing stuff again... It's a real shame because there's a lot of stuff I'd show which I think is useful to people learning general repair - but this just prooves how hard it is to make sure you cover every little possible moment when customer data is on show. It's just not practical :(

[@deminybs]

Lol I was wondering why I couldn't make a comment, had original video open the entire time and let me watch the whole thing but refreshed to see if comments would show up then it said video is private . glad you got it fixed up.

[@Pochaco2007]

In that case, I think I´m going to unsubscribe. I watch these videos because I learn from them

[@javiTests]

Yes, it's a bit of a pain so I understand your position. They are quite helpful so maybe you could have a small team or patreons or someone that checks them out before uploading? Any decision you take, it'll be fine. It's not worth to risk your clients personal data.

[@Adamant_IT]

That's actually a position I want to get into, Javi, but it's not something I'd want to rely on for privacy stuff. It's not that I'll never show any software related stuff again, but a full service on a customer laptop just isn't viable with my limited resources. I could get away with a slip up when I had a couple of thousand subs, but now the audience is bigger, the potential damage is just as large...

[@zx8401ztv]

I think i must be silly, i remembered you realising the battery was missing :-D You did make me laugh when you said you would not change the way peoples windows was set up, then you removed lots of things and arranged the desktop to your way :-D Don't take my comments too serious :-D

[@MrMasterJones]

I really hope you’re financially successful because damn do you work hard and damn do know what your doing. Good stuff

[@Pekeliini]

In theory you could've just used a m.2. version of the MX500 and install it on the m.2 slot. It wouldn't be any faster than the 2,5" model but you then you'd still have the 1TB HDD for larger storage. I know they don't really need all that extra storage but in my experiense, the SATA vs. 2,5" price difference is pretty close to 0 so it wouldn't have costed anything more. I understand that the point was to use what you have in stock but just something to comment on to feed the glorious algorithm.

[@DarkGT]

Don't rush the clock, privacy is the first priority.

[@THEZONEXP]

Been watching you for a while and I learned a lot . Keep up the great work :)

[@metroids224]

I've just found your channel yesterday, I've watched a good 4 hours already, awesome stuff

[@timsandman]

Thank you Adam. I enjoy your Master classes very much 🙂

[@GregMurch]

Great video, love what you do.

[@richardsmeeton8910]

System restore is still quite handy when windows update biffs your keyboard and trackpad drivers with non-working newer ones. Happened to me last month. I do clear out system restore points on customer computers but I’ll manually create a fresh one after all the updates are done.

[@pessimism056]

I vastly prefer these types of videos to your two guys talk tech series.

[@R0knR0lla_]

Thank you Graham, good tips on the shrink volume, I didn't know that. 👍

[@tech_jims]

Great video great channel keep up the amazing content Graham and caradog learned so much from your videos many thanks

[@laserhawk64]

I really enjoy these videos -- I daresay I've learned a fair bit from them, and I'd like to see more :) TBH I prefer these over literally anything else you could do. LTT is good for build videos, but you're who I come to when I want to know how to fix what I broke.

[@flaviokonti5522]

I found out so many new info from just watching this video, thank you

[@Retroornew]

love the " i didnt put the battery in moment" especially as you didn't edit it out, Ive lost count of the times i have done that.

[@tonyzambos3138]

Enjoyed the repair as I replaced the hard drive in my Inspiron 13 with an SSD a couple of weeks ago. Because I couldn't definitely determine if Windows had been corrupted or the drive was having issues, did a clean install. Was able to connect a USB adaptor to the old drive and copy back the files I wanted. And yes, everyone should have a Windows Media Install USB drive. Thank you for all your videos. They help me thru the Covid lock down.

[@ShootToKill1026]

Repost?! Love the vids man!

[@redfrog2100]

this kind of services video is the best

[@tharcisseilunga6658]

Know what?Your videos are paving a way for me!Thank you.

[@rosch448]

great words of wisdom ! 🔥👍

[@strooooble]

Looking forward to general servicing videos if you do decide to do those, I am a bit of a hobbyist system admin for my landlord next door and want to learn more about keeping his machines clean. Thank you for showing us this! :)

[@johndoe4880]

gave it a thunmbs Up i really enjoy the video. i really do hope you do another one like it.

[@chrisnewitt7444]

Thanks for the backup clone advice worked like a charm got an hp omen pc for 60 pound 128 ssd upgraded to 512 ssd thanks for help

[@JonathanWellskcender]

I work in system support, so have seen my fair share of broken systems. I had a computer come in once that wouldn't boot and tried System Restore as you do 'just in case'. In the >20 years that I've been doing this, I've never seen it work, except this time. I took the rest of the day off to celebrate. Hasn't ever worked again since.

[@katrinaireland8898]

Great love video like this

[@AnonymousIcarus]

Oh my God, I have the exact same habit as you regarding arranging the notification icons (plus settings) and start menu shortcuts, exactly in that order! 😅 I was a bit astonished seeing this because I never saw two people's style match exactly the same with one another (more than that, who do not know each other even, met never, and live thousands of miles apart). My habit originated in Windows XP days that got extended in Vista/7 and more so in Windows 8.

[@mcg6762]

Inconsistencies between MB, GB etc is usually the mess caused by the computer industry early deciding that the K prefix means 1024 and not 1000 and hence the M prefix is 1024*1024 etc. Today we should really use the Ki, Mi, Gi prefixes which are specifically based on powers of two. Hard drive manufacturers naturally use the G and T prefixes to be power of ten based because it makes the drive look bigger.

[@trainmaster0217]

Drive Snapshot...simply the best. It's the easiest and the fastest for imaging and backup of your data. I've tried them all. Great choice Graham.

[@henrymccants144]

Watching during the ENG v DEN halftime. #priorities

[@MrBook123456]

good video

[@JessicaFEREM]

something I always run is the CTT toolbox, I've found it handy because it basically disables a lot of windows bloat, though you should definitely pick and choose what it does, and I recommend. but the reason i use it is because it does a lot of the work for me, things I'd do manually to speed up computers. as well I recommend uninstalling things via revo uninstaller, you can get a portable version of it on portableapps. it basically removes remnants like files and reg keys after it finishes.

[@stephanc7192]

Good video

[@dash8brj]

I had a good laugh when you reassembled the notebook and realised the battery was missing. I've done that before too, in front of a customer no less. We just laughed and I said "oh I'd better put that back, its kinda important" :)

[@DDT2005]

I gave you a like, but I already watched the original. Maybe I will watch this again in the future.

[@katrinaireland8898]

Hi Adamant IT, I just love videos like this, keep them coming and I like most of all your videos!

[@devonoved7]

I watched and waited for you to lift the hinge covering the power port. These new Dell inspiron usually have a DC power port with a small plastic tab that breaks VERY easily which is supposed to be securely screwed into the top chassis

[@sportytone1]

I'm not a professional, but I tend to use Hirem's Boot CD. It's a one-stop stop for a lot of the tools I have used in the past.

[@sedzinfo]

you should be happy phone calls translate to customers. thanks for reminding me about the thumbs up at the end I almost forgot.

[@juhaaavalaakso455]

I like the windows tweaking parts.

[@TM_599]

Hello Mr.Yotube Algorithm, this is the content I want to see! On a more serious note, thanks for the video, picked up a few more tips on Windows optimization!

[@PunisherIzAloNe]

So the white light which turns on once the charger is connected is suppose to work like this on most dell laptops. So once you plug the charger in it will turn on for 1 second and turn off and turn back on. at times it will not turn back on and for that there are two reasons. 1 the battery is already fully charged or the charger is either bad or lower wattage 45W vs 65W. If 45W charger is used on a laptop which requires 65W. the light will not turn back on. It will turn on the laptop but it will not charge it and it also will indicate on the boot screen for the charger warning. hope this helps!

[@ahinson]

If the user has installed any Progressive Web Apps (they might be and don't even know it) the browser needs to be able to run in the background for the service worker to function correctly. By disabling this, it breaks background syncing for notifications like you mentioned, and other things. For example, If the user selected "Install Twitter" from the address bar in Edge or Chrome, they have a PWA. Also, if they rang the bell on your KZbin channel, there goes the new video notifications.

[@Robotnik123]

I bought Dell Inspiron 15 5000 which looks something like this a few months back. Was really easy to upgrade the RAM and put in a hard drive to supplement the 256GB SSD. Dell even included the screws. Has a core i5 11th gen CPU but no USB-C which seems strange.

[@CoMmAnDrX]

Dell Part Number should be on the USB daughter board!

[@necuz]

And if you don't want to read the tiny print, just scan the QR code and get the full PPID (see: www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000139589/how-to-find-the-ppid-piece-part-identification-on-dell-poweredge-parts )

[@jordanlivesey4715]

we've just ordered an ssd for my lenovo idea pad 320, the ram is also getting upgraded, both my brother and I as I don't feel ok doing all that on my own, good thing is the ram is not soldered, its just a single soldimm slot with 4gb of ram already in it, the max it can have is 8 according to the spec sheet

[@iamontech]

I understand the feeling, in my support job I have to report issues to a software vendor we use and it's easier to show them in a Video in real time than it is to try to explain step by step in screenshots but I've had cases where my boss has told me to take a video down from YT as it may show information that shouldn't be public even though I've delisted it and made the video private.

[@antoineolivier1287]

42:10 I use Sysinternals Autoruns. Nothing can hide from it!

[@justinspiredfallout]

Agreed!

[@ridahassani4314]

👍 Nice

[@seireiart]

Judging from that wallpaper, it seems you're a Touhou fan as well :DD

[@ZXspectrum..]

You sir are a cool comical nerd

[@saduniwathsala]

You're is right

[@zeusgb]

Wow that charger was never going to pass a visual inspection. Why on earth did the customer think that was OK to use?

[@HATCHETHAS]

We just use Samsung EVO's for upgrades now, Samsungs own data migrator tool (Just works with Samsung drives as far as I know) does the job including resizing and the drives themselves are quality.

[@digihorse6730]

Have you seen the 100 port box from Northbridge Fix. It might be worth a look.

[@PHDarren]

Manufacturers always make laptop charger (and mobile phone) cables too short. So at some point they will get stretched, pulled, or the jack yanked in the socket.

[@beardyface8492]

Then they also do TRULY stupid stuff, like going to USB C charging soldered to the motherboard instead of a barrel jack on flying leads so you have to pay for motherboard repairs/new motherboards/new computers, rather than a simple charging port. I get that USB C is good for this guy's revenue, but it's a disaster for the customer, since it pretty much *has to be* soldered directly to the motherboard & involve expensive repairs, rather than being plugged in & replaceable by a reasonably savvy consumer with suitable screwdrivers.

[@hugosimoes5119]

norton ghost can do file-file transfer, disk-disk, disk-compressed file, compressed file to disk if the source partition has fragmented files, files will be restored unfragmented.

[@JeffRyman69]

A video showing explicitly how you edit the registry to prevent startup of a program would be useful. Thanks.

[@GaryB007]

Use Autoruns instead. Easier and less chance of messing something up.

[@stevesmusic1862]

Why not Autoruns to configure the startup stuff? Better than faffing around in the registry

[@Adamant_IT]

Autoruns is good, yes 👌

[@GaryB007]

That's what I use. Makes tweaking very easy to do.

[@AndrewPayne]

Great video - thanks. Would you also check and update the BIOS when servicing a Dell (or indeed any other brand) laptop?

[@Adamant_IT]

I tend not to update BIOSes unless there's a reason to. I guess there's an argument to be made about CPU security vulns, but this isn't something that's at all likely to affect a consumer laptop.

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

my Lenovo legion 5 laptop only had a M.2 SSD but I installed a 1tb hard drive from my old hp pc

[@rickeyrecon409]

That screw driver pencil where did you but it

[@MorDreadful]

For cloning I use Easeus, this combined ewith data recovery which I hasve used, with the licence I got a couple years ago, I do not need anything else. I used this for a damaged HDD on a laptop whiuch also preserved the OEM Manufacturers image, which wouldn't load before. Just saying. I know Easeus is updated but it isn't a licence I need to subscribe to yet have all the utilities I need. In fact, it's a couple of Easeus applications I use which have proven their worth time and time again. As you said, people use different things. Acronis is great fort creating an image and backing up sure, especially with it's PXE boot from a WDS type server. I use WDS for general images where no Manufacturers image can be cloned, you know, the hidden part of the the hss/ssd that has the original image. WDS is great for this kind of thing, something to consider. These are my preferences. People should consider runing old PCs they have and turn them into servers with Images on like WDS which is on Windows Server 2019 Essentials and above. Essentials is the only one you need for the home or small business.

[@richardsmeeton8910]

If you can find an old copy of Easeus 4.6 free edition it’s fully functional and still works on everything you need including shrink and expand with SSD optimisation on cloning.

[@schlowe2003]

With the DC jack... double check to make sure they are using an actual OEM charger.... I've found numerous times where they complain about a charger and hand me a $5 chinese knockoff that has 6 different adapters to get to the correct size (but not wattage or voltage) for the tip. Those never work more than a day or two if they're lucky. I've also had instances where the cables are flopping away from the tip and wires are exposed and everything... and when they start flexing like that one, the chargers are highly capable of causing issues where the DC jack would be suspect. When the cables start to separate like that one, GENERALLY they don't last much longer. Also, the "CN" portion of what's on the sticker is usually the part number associated with the part you're trying to find a replacement for. Try looking for those first. The first 5 digits after "CN" are usually all that's needed. -DCSE

[@ScottAce-Macgyver]

hiya where did you get your electric screw driver from please? thanks Scott

[@bunnylove273]

Hi bud on Ailiexpress you can get a box full of different types of USB Ports

[@pierobonisoli9067]

Youmu Konpaku right? 💯 Where can I find that wallpaper?

[@botan_the_reaper]

Does anyone know where I can get that wallpaper Graham is using?

[@efthimios1917]

Is the AdamantIT voice something you do knowingly to sound friendly and not lose customers? xD

[@cheeky50862]

You get the latest build from the windows site too. I stumbled on it the other day. Lol

[@josearrasola7236]

Good day sir , I see you make the video over I didn’t find anything wrong wit the first one ! ?

[@TurboBass]

Spot on with everything as usual, although one thing I would say is that I saw you remove SupportAssist but leave a series of other Dell apps. I would say one of the more useful Dell apps is actually SupportAssist as it is a one stop spot for downloading updates from Dell. This can be annoying to do otherwise, even using the site. What's your opinion on just disabling all background apps in Settings?

[@Adamant_IT]

I ditched Support Assist purely because it would likely be running a service in the background. As you say, I may as well have removed the other Dell apps too, but laziness got me there. I would've been more aggressive on a Lenovo because the Lenovo apps are so prone to causing problems. I think going for a flat _disable all 3rd party apps_ might be a bit bold, my "first pass" approach I did here is usually enough. It's definitely tempting though, and also to just disable any 3rd party services.

[@TurboBass]

@@Adamant_IT That's true. I just re-did an Alienware laptop and honestly SupportAssist was a great program though, grabbed all the drivers (although drivers for common hardware weren't the newest such as the GeForce drivers) and did it all in one fell swoop. Windows Update missed a bunch of stuff, as well as the "Optional updates" part of it was missing some. But I do wish I could just have a pure Windows install without any proprietary software. That's the dream! In fact, it is such a dream cause my Lenovo E485 won't update to any new AMD driver cause Windows forcibly installs the one from Lenovo through Windows update. I have tried many things to no avail. The driver is ~1 year old and Lenovo has given up on keeping things up to date with the laptop as it is not a high end device and not brand new. :( Not criticizing you though, I highly enjoy your content!

[@vollhorst140]

Nice, MX500 instead of these aweful BX500 ssd. Thumbs up. Nice and Relaxing Video!

[@vollhorst140]

@@TheSpotify95 if you already have those, take the bigger one.

[@KrissBartlett]

Yes i use Acronis alot easier when you have a small ssd

[@DanBurgaud]

Do you have a video on cloning System on an M.2 SSD Drive to another (bigger) M.2 SSD Drive when the machine only has a single M.2 slot?

[@ste76539]

Sorry I missed this information - why did you replace a 1TB hard drive with a 500Gb SSD? And did you give the old hard drive back to the customer? I know if I sent in my laptop for a service and it came back with 50% less storage space I'd be apocalyptic.

[@TempleKa]

Considering the only way I know to get 1080p or more on Netflix in Windows is using the app or Edge, I prefer to use the Netflix app. Chrome only streams at 720p i think.

[@steve6375]

Did you test CMOS battery voltage and that it remembers time if you disconnect all power and large battery for 30 mins? also test card reader and USb port/ Not shown on video?

[@Adamant_IT]

Not something I check unless I have a reason to.

[@steve6375]

But you bought the usb board off eBay and fitted it. Do you just assume that it works then?

[@HazewinDog]

funnily enough, Windows keeps adding English (UK) to my installs, while I only want to have English (Netherlands), Dutch and Korean.

[@triplexdread]

Have you not tried using hardware cloning? Its great especially for doing playstation and xbox drives when swapping out Mech drives for SSDs

[@Adamant_IT]

How do hardware cloners handle variables like bad sectors, big to small drives, stuff like that? I'd find one useful if it could handle the common "edge cases" that I see... but if they only work in ideal circumstances it's faster to do it in software, where you can account for all edge-cases.

[@gower1973]

When you went to change the power settings to never, it didn’t actually change anything it was still on thirty mins unless it did change but never updated the UI because it was locked up with the install process

[@Adamant_IT]

I actually have a USB Mouse Jiggler that nudges the mouse every 30 seconds, so I don't need to change the power settings, which is why I didn't save those settings. I was going to put in a bit about it, but it got axed while I was desperately trying to get this video under an hour long 😅

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

that happens when the plastic piece falls off the usb port so make sure you take care of usb ports

[@zfrenchy1716]

Sis you do the service video, cannot found on the upload list ?

[@desoneill5489]

I would have recommended to your customer that he/she pay just a little bit more and upgrade to a 1tb SSD drive. I have found Crucial to be relatively cheap and reliable. I have been repairing mainly Dell laptops for nearly 20 years. I have found them to be generally the most reliable and best supported laptops. I have never purchased any replacement parts from Dell and source mostly from eBay (worldwide, however US postage is usually too expensive). I totally agree with you about non genuine chargers. I never use them or recommend them for any laptop. The biggest killer of laptops is heat. People often use them on soft surfaces like beds without realizing that they draw in air from the base and expel it at the rear in order to provide cooling. The heatsink and fan become clogged with lint and the laptop overheats. It usually doesn't harm the CPU by fries the GPU and requires a replacement motherboard. When it comes to desktop computers I recommend that they build one up themselves or go to a computer shop and have one built up. I don't recommend proprietary brands of desktops.

[@ackman3981]

He loves 500GB ones. He never goes with anything larger. Wonder if he told the customer that he was going to give them less storage than they started with. Just probably told them that SSD was the way to go and that was it.

[@MonsterConrad]

I've used system restore when my wifi card failed mid update on an old laptop running windows 8.1 pro.

[@fragalot]

21:36 So many recovery partitions looks like windows was clean installed two other times with out clearing out the old partitions. Is there any way of knowing which recovery partition is the active one, so you can delete the others?

[@Adamant_IT]

IMHO, none of them are needed, because you can always just boot a recovery environment from a Win 10 flash drive. But I don't touch anything _in front_ of the Windows partition, because if the Windows partition changes number (eg, becomes Partition 2 instead of Part 3) that'll break the boot manager, and then you've got to fix that.

[@fragalot]

@@Adamant_IT interesting since after you restored the image onto the new SSD, there were no recovery partitions. Did you just omit them or did the software not copy them?

[@beardyface8492]

@@Adamant_IT Problem with that approach is that Windows version updates can't expand the recovery partition *in front* of the C drive & quite commonly shrinks C:\ then creates a bigger one after it. This leaves your customer with no working recovery options when they google how to recover on their phone which likely can't create that USB recovery environment since it lacks the port to do so without jumping through hoops & making purchases... Seems to me you're doing stuff to increase your customer returns when you've broke stuff since you've removed their options to DIY.

[@Itchy-Pixel]

The reason system restore rarely works I found is if you have onedrive on that drive.I moved onedrive to another drive and now I can restore my C drive using it again.

[@Adamant_IT]

Interesting... next time I need to try Sys Restore and it's not working, I'm going to try moving the one-drive folder from the command line and then seeing if sys restore works. Needs to be possible from a recovery environment.

[@kevinwright7931]

Like you said, "The customer has had this laptop for 4 years." and in the meantime what ever tweaks and customization to the setting the customer has done over the years. He/She doesn't remember how they did it. So you want to make look exactly the when they dropped it off to you.

[@suneththarinda1111]

👍👍👍

[@PCbolt17]

What you have done to that old HDD?

[@Adamant_IT]

Usually gets secure-erased and put into the spares pile. Other good uses include putting in an enclosure and using as a backup drive though.

[@digitalmusicservices1]

What is the tool you used to open the laptop case. Looks like a metal bar. Just at the end of the video you grab it from the left side in the shot. TIA

[@Adamant_IT]

Metal Spudger. Use with caution though, they're faster and stronger than plastic tools, but also more vicious.

[@digitalmusicservices1]

I got a set of them in today. Thank you so much. Keep up the great videos.

[@lufferov]

I use the Netflix app because the browser version doesn't support 5.1 surround sound.

[@retrogamer33]

@Graham, my dad's PC has a corrupt Windows 10 update, do you know a way of deleting it and re-downloading it?

[@Adamant_IT]

Does it start? Best way to approach Win Update issues is to get into Safe Mode and delete C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution Delete the whole folder, or as much of it as you can if any files are locked, and Win Update will re-make everything it needs and re-download any pending updates. Doing an in-line build update like I did in this video also helps, even if you're already on the latest version. If you can't get into windows, it gets trickier. There are ways to deal with it, but at that point it's often a lot less stress to just backup and reinstall windows.

[@retrogamer33]

@@Adamant_IT Thanks Graham I'll give that a go

[@NoOnionsUK]

I'm confused - why didn't you put a M.2 SSD in and keep the additional 1TB HDD? Was it purely a cost issue?

[@Adamant_IT]

Even if I'd gone M.2 and left he HDD in there, I wouldn't want the customer to be storing anything on it anyway because it'll fail at some point and the customer probably won't be backed up. Better to just get rid of it altogether and go all-solid.

[@Iain1957]

Dell laptops don't use a generic charger so you have to get one from Dell which is harder than you think due to their stupid website and 1000s of models. I have two chargers (one for the office and one for home) and even then it is easy to go off and not have a changer and not to be able to buy a generic one.

[@LordClunk]

The first thing I would check if the power supply isn't working, is the fuse in the plug.

[@Adamant_IT]

I have AC cables plugged in under my counter, so I'm always testing the charger alone on a known-good AC cable. Blown fuses are super rare, but yeah, definitely something to check if the charger seems to be stone-dead.

[@beardyface8492]

@@Adamant_IT Fusses don't blow for no reason, if you have a PSU with a blown fuse, it's a good bet the PSU has an intermittent fault, unless it's supplied by a kettle lead you know the customer uses on something else, or the cable for the PSU is physically damaged.

[@saduniwathsala]

👍

[@DavideCampagnaGiuseppe]

I would have installed an m.2 SATA ssd, and left the 1TB HDD for storage

[@gerydblackmore5484]

why do people abuse the charger bricks cables. ?? especially when the dell oem are expensive. When img drives i like to use the samsung software if its a sammy ssd, acronis or macrium reflect if its any other. will use the free acronis if its a wd or sandisk drive. Personally i will use MR Free for my img bk ups, thinking about buying the acronis- is the paid version any good?? still use sync toy for my data bk up with a bach file that runs weekly. i a program works ill use it till its dead. x

[@ultrablack7271]

Yes clonezilla is the best ;)

[@Labeilofest]

You didn't brush the fan.