In the end, the Dell laptop did finally die. I spent the rest of the day configuring an old laptop that was my father in law's before he passed away 2 years ago. It's working but the wifi isn't strong enough to work out in my son's camper so I've ordered a wifi repeater for same day delivery.
Shopping now for a new one, why do they all seem to have small ssd's, no DVD drives and way over priced! May try and sell him on a NUC. We'll see.
@GoatsLive Why not reuse the SSD from the broken laptop in the new one?
And why not get an external DVD drive, they're cheap nowadays and the laptop can stay nice and slim? Less parts to break is longer longevity.
@GoatsLive Alrighty. I gather that's probably a 2,5" versus an M.2 style? Yeah, I have to get used to that as well. ;)
@trinsec He uses an external DVD. The drive from the old machine was a different style than the new machine so it didn't fit. I have it and will stick it in whatever I purchase.