So last week, Dell said they would send someone to my house to replace the motherboard. But then the next day they said they would recommend a clean install first anyway. I will wait until the end of the academic year for that. Is there anything I should keep in mind? I've never installed Windows myself, I think. I guess there will be a button for it somewhere.
Assuming its Windows 8. I think 8.1 is a little different not sure though. Backup anything you've added, files/programs to a flash drive you want to keep. So you can add them back later. 1. Go to your PC Setting 2. Then click on General 3. Click on Remove Everything and Reinstall Windows 4. Click on Get Started
I skipped 8 and 8.1. I think I will actually want to use this, as it specifically mentions that drivers will be removed also. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10startfresh (I couldn't find 'General' in Windows 10, so I did a Google search)
Yes I vaguely remember using some type of tool to wipe Windows 10 on my new PC. Its been a few years now. I installed Windows 8, only because it was what I was familiar with. (I don't like change) I had a flash drive with Windows 8 and installed that instead. I see no reason why the link you provided won't do the job for you. Make sure you have a product key and a copy of Windows 10 before you wipe. Sorry I wasn't much help.
You can reuse the product key (for Office too) on the same machine if needed. I believe I used a program like ProduKey to find these keys when I needed to do this a couple of times (always worked).
Of course it has Office, almost every prebuilt computer has Office, especially if it's a "business" computer. lol no sorry, you do need a product key for more things, I'm afraid.
Besides that and me wanting proper ownership of things I use anyway, customisation is actually very important for me. Although I am using the default desktop wallpaper for now, as it's just so beautiful...
I did do a clean install last Monday, and as expected it didn't fix any issues (but it did make me lose some stuff, as I had make a list including things to back-up but forgot to actually look at it before doing the clean install, aaah). Yesterday the person from Dell came and replaced my motherboard. The GPU works now! The audio issues remain unscathed, unfortunately.