Laptop woes

[Nick]

My Dell Studio 15 which is STILL in warranty is having problems, however I would rather try and fix them myself then go through the Dell way of doing things (waiting ages etc and talking to idiots on the phone) anyway heres the issue:

From time to time my wifi will stop working. If I click on the wifi icon on the tray then nothing happens but if I click the battery icon it pops up. The USB ports also stop working and it won't shut down or sleep. It dosn't do it all the time, it didn't happen for a week but then today it has happened twice?! I have to turn it off by holding down the power button if I want to do anything

The Specs are:
Core i5 2.5Ghz
4GB DDR3
Radeon 5470
640GB HDD 5400RPM.

Suggestions would be much appreciated!

Cheers

 

[MindoverMaster]

Your wireless problem may be your Mini-PCI card is failing, an easy fix. Just got another on off eBay for my Vostro 1500, bout a year ago, to replace my old one that just kept cutting out.

To your USB problems, it could be a discharge, or something?

 

[Nick]

But all the problems happen at once :/ A friend suggested it could be a driver issue...

 

[MindoverMaster]

Did this happen because of an update? Can you do a System restore to an earlier date?

 

[Nick]

Nope, dont think so, it did it even after I formatted which makes me think hardware.. but then I've installed the same drivers etc and software so can't rule anything out. I might do a driver sweep tomorrow and get the drivers from the manufacuters website and not Dells

 

[WhiteFlare]

Your problem is simple, you have a Dell. NEVER go with Dells, its a well known fact. What everyone said above is a good start, but problems will keep occurring.

 

[MindoverMaster]

White. Chill. I have a Dell laptop from 2007. It still works great today. Had to replace the battery and wireless card. But other than that, great.

Dell is not the problem here. Hardware fails, it's a fact of life.