It sounds like the usb ports are flakey. If there is one that is reliable I would buy a 4 port hub, plug it in and use that to connect drives etc.
There’s no way to format a WiFi dongle.
I’ll see how things go, at the moment though all of them work some/most of the time but this wifi dongle works in none of them, despite its own reliablity being tested successfully in the laptop. In fact it is the new one which is connecting me at the moment on this laptop.
Maybe they will come back to me with suggestions but if push comes to shove I have 2 courses of action for return, under the 30 day rule or Amazon’s own 1 year guarantee.
Edit: Dur. It apparently wanted the key from the Live box, so I have copied it out and hey presto, it works. Time to coil up the long ethernet cable, but later, just to be sure. 
I wonder why the laptop didn’t require such info. 
1 Like
Well, down to earth with a bump. Last night while we were having dinner I noticed out of the corner of my eye that something had happened to the screen. In short the thing is not working at all now except for a recurring message on the screen as follows:
Non System disk or disk error. Replace and strike any key when ready.
Nothing I do changes that, unplugging . replugging, switching off, and on again, with or without the 2 new Element external hard drives. Both of which thankfully work ok with the laptop.
After the problems with the various usb ports, the language struggle, the French spellchecker nuisance, the Spanish language panel when viewing downloads and finally this, I am well pissed off with it and am seriously considering saving my pennies and buying new and, horror of horrors, from England, with all the uncertainties with VAT, customs, handling charges that that may entail. Not to mention no automatic free return charges. Perhaps one from France sold and despatched by Amazon. 
So, any suggestions before I bundle it back into the box to Amazon, or perhaps Madrid. ? 
When you reboot make sure that you have no external disks or usb sticks attached to the laptop, Your BIOS might be set to boot from usb devices and is reading your external devices first .
Dead or corrupt system disk.
If it is under warranty just send it back.
Otherwise almost certainly rescueable, but might need a new drive - I’d start with a “live” Linux distribution on a USB stick and that will let you check if there is any life at all in the existing disk (and, if there is, recover any data).
1 Like
Possible but if it was working OK and that has changed then it does rather suggest that the disk is fried one way or another.
It could be a fried disk but I have inadvertently left an external drive on my laptop and rebooted to find the same problem, and removing the disk cured it.
There is usually a limited selection of computers with UK keyboards/software in Amazon FR and Amazon DE.
Also if you contact Dell FR directly rather than using the web site, they have supplied UK specification computers in the past
Easy to check, anyway 
Mr. Butcher has summarised the situation well. Some years back I had a used computer for work, the HDD dying within a few weeks. After replacement of the drive it then continued without trouble for the next 3 years.
Certainly send it back if you don’t trust it, but the vendor might also be able to send a replacement foc.
Thanks for all the comments, once again bizarrely I wasn’t notified of any of them. 
Not a problem I always check back now and again anyway, just takes me a bit longer to catch on, that’s all. 
I always assume that the term reboot refers to logging off and choosing shut down and restart. I can’t do that, if that is what it is, all I can do is cut the power off and then start again. It has no effect.
The first thing I did was to remove the 2 external drives, the new Elements, 1 and 2, if only out of panic to protect them and they are both ok. But switching back on without them makes no difference at all, simply a black page with the above message on it.
So it seems, back to Amazon, they will be getting used to me, the 3rd such failure in as many months. I won’t ask for a replacement but if they offer I won’t refuse as long as its like for like, but if that too goes belly up I will give it a rest for a while and contemplate the next move.
Well no replacement offered or asked for and the return labels printed off, but, as I half expected, it has to go to Madrid, not Amazon fr.
The shocker is that I have to pay the fee and also the strongly recommended insurance and reclaim it all from the seller. Only hope they don’t baulk at that.
So it is in the car ready for the post lady in the morning and we’ll see what happens. But any problems and I will never buy from other than at least Amazon despatch again.