The motherboard had to be replaced on my Dell XPS 210 and it was one day before the warranty was up. Yelp, that was good for me. But since the tech. replaced the motherboard it seems to be slower. The tech. told me I might need to reload Windows Vista. I don't know how to do that and he told me to call Dell, he only delt in "Hardware". If I do reload windows will I lose anything on the computer and is it hard to do?

Greetings nlangst,

While it is not uncommon for the hardware techs to "Only work on Hardware" I believe that many
of them are paid by the job. Ergo, more quick fixes equal more money.

Or maybe it was a friday. who knows!

In any event, he's likely correct, in that you need to reload windows. You may also need
to FLASH THE BIOS. Ooooh scary thoughts!!!

Don't be too worried about this, as it's pretty straight forward.

First, your going to need a few things,

The laptop in question, a thumb drive, and an internet connection in case you get lost.
I would also recommend that you get your Dell recovery CD which may or may not
be available to you without calling Dell to have them ship it to you.

The laptop likely has a utility to do the restore by hitting something like F12 or F11 upon powering
up the computer. When you power up it will likely tell you somewhere on the screen what you should do.
I would recommend against it in this case, Just get the cd's.

Now, you may have to enter the Bios which is probably the F2, Delete, or F12 depending on your model.
Go to the boot options, and make sure that the CD Rom is the first device. (Dell can walk you through this
if you need this help)

Exit the BIOS and save your changes. Make sure the CD (Operating System CD) is in the cd/rom when the
laptop starts up, and follow the Prompt. Keep in mind that you're about to Wipe out all of your data on the computer
and start fresh.

Be aware also, that you may or may not have an additional CD with drivers (Programs that make your hardware work)
This would be inserted after Vista/XP is installed however. It normally starts on it's on and you simply choose what you
want it to do.

After Vista is installed, things should at least be up and running smoothly. You may have to set up things like your
video card and Network connections again, and this is why another pc may come in handy. (For Research and emergency help)

Also, you may need to FLASH the BIOS. The Bios can be thought of as a Kitchen Manager or a Master Mechanic that tells the
workers what to do. When you FLASH the bios, remember to keep your clothes on. Surely I jest. A small program is run inside
Windows usually to inform the BIOS of any changes in management if you will. Being that you have a new mother board, this
may be a good Idea, But it can cause the motherboard to die if you don't do it correctly. Again, Dell can walk you through it,
although it's not very difficult.

To get the Bios, you need to go to

http://support.dell.com

you can also get several drivers and software for your machine. Oh the technical goodies!!!

Hopefully, after all of this, your machine is up an running without issues.

Let us know if you have any questions.