[RESOLVED] Lost Icons and slow shut down and start up

I'm not sure if this is the place I'll need to be, but I figured I'd try this forum first. I'm not a good expert on computers. If you tell me what I need to find out and how, I'll give you that information. All I really know is that my laptop is a windows 7 Dell Inspiron N5110. Just recently I've been having a really hard time especially shutting down. There's been a few times I've had to do it manually. The startup process is slightly better. As well as this, on the bar along the bottom of the screen, I'm no longer having any icon for the battery showing me it's charge or warnings. I also have a very strange internet icon along the bottom bar as well. It looks like a computer screen with a power cord at the side and a red X over it. I only know that's the internet icon because it shows it connecting to the internet right where it appears. Please help.:confused:

For the battery icon issue, right-click on Computer, then click Properties. Click on Device Manager, then click the the + or arrow next to Batteries and disable/re-enable the AC Adapter and ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery.

https://www.dell.com/community/Windo...r/td-p/5081925

There should not be a red X over the network icon. If you still have internet access, a scan using Malwarebytes might be the next thing to try.

I still can't get the battery icon to show up. Also I ran both a virus scan and a malware scan already and neither came up with anything. I used Avast and Malware bytes. What should I do now?

PS. Yes I do have internet and am currently connected.

My screen went totally black when starting the computer back up. I'm going to send this over to intensive care just in case. Thank you for your help.

Well, they didn't see anything. I guess I'm back here at square one. What should I do next?

Things to try:

Check Device Manager for any issues (Unknown devices, errors, etc.)

See what video adapter you have and check the manufacturer's web site for a driver. Microsoft may have helpfully "updated" yours to one that has issues.

Are you using a wired or wireless network connection? If you are using wireless and do not have a wired connection, that would explain the wired network icon with an "x" on it.

A memory diagnostic test might also be a good idea.

I didn't see anything in the device manager that stood out to me. How do I find out what video adapter I have?

PS. I am fully wireless and always have been on this computer. I have a cable modem. I've never had the particular icon with the X before though. Until a few days ago it showed 5 bars letting me know how fast the internet connection was. Should I look into anything regarding this?

Possible fix for the missing WiFi icon in the System Tray / Notification Area:

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht072127

You can safely ignore the red X on the wired networking icon, or use the same procedure to hide it, since you are not using a wired connection.

To find out which video adapter you have, check the following links:

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/find...-model-windows

https://www.wikihow.com/Find-Out-Wha...-Card-You-Have

It showed the wifi icon as already on and it also showed the battery icon which was off and not able to be turned on. So no luck there. I used the first adapter link and I got to this page, but I have no idea how to read it or where to go next as far as looking for an update. https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-spec...ics-3000.c1251 Could you help me out and give me some specifics?

I just tried the Wiki link and all I could find from doing what they said is that it's from the intel graphics family. No specifics.

Try GPU-Z or Speccy. Intel released some uodated drivers that had issues.

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/gpu-z/

https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy

I'm going to be losing internet access for an indefinite amount of time, so I will mark this as resolved and will likely just try reformatting the computer. If I'm still having issues after that when I have internet again, I will start a new thread. Thank you for your help.

You could try downloading and re-installing the drivers from Dell's site.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/ae...-n5110/drivers