Thats simple to fix though hound. Fdisk the laptop and then reinstall the Operating system from scratch. No more useless Dell software.
True but you have to then buy the Software. DELL do not give you the installation discs when you buy one of their machines. They give you only a copy of the DELL installation discs licenced to them by M/Soft.
I had one remember and it was sh*te.
When I tried to do what you have suggested I was quoted £159 for the discs (at PC World)
Now I am sure I could (or YOU) could have found them cheaper but when the system is down, completely non-functioning and you don't have the dubious advantage of being able to steal computer time from an employer you have little choice. I elected to bin the DELL and start again with something better.