[SOLVED] Discontinued Dell Laptop Help, Please

[Mr. Kingsbury]

Hoping for some polite help, please.

We have 3 Dell Latitude E6510s. Mine which is working, a back up which is now broke after I replaced the speakers, and my Wife's which too is broke after replacing the speakers. They are all we can afford, so please do not suggest buying new ones (which is the only suggestion that Dell was willing to give).

I do know what I'm doing when repairing most computers, but this is a first for me. After the speaker replacement(s), I get the message "Windows setup could not configure windows to run on this computer's hardware" (had to reinstall Windows 7 on both, again all we can afford; we will never be able to buy upgrades). Using the same exact parts being replaced. My paranoia is telling me that any trouble when parts are changed in the guts of these discontinued laptops is intentional by Dell. They do not care about folks living in extreme poverty, gathered by their response to my request for help.

So, what am I missing, and is there any fix?

 

[taeioum]

Guess I'm lucky. Googled your laptop make and model with the error message and got this hit:

"Windows setup could not configure to run on this computer's hardware" error during Windows 7 or Windows 10 installation | Dell US

Worth a try, I guess.

 

[Mr. Kingsbury]

Tried that, and it does get you past the install. But nothing works after, updates won't install, network won't connect, etc.

 

[punkncat]

Windows 7 is no longer supported, so don't really know what the landscape is for those on auto updates.
You may just need to use an operational computer to download the network drivers.
What information does Device Manager offer? (look for little yellow triangles)

 

[Alabalcho]

Get some disk clonning app (Macrium, CloneZilla), and clone your (working) laptop' drive to one of the others. You might need to buy USB-to-SATA adapter cable, but this is not going to break the bank. Put the cloned drive in your (working) laptop, and make sure it works. Then move it to non-working laptop, what happens?