Unsure of what Zach was contemplating after being silent for a while, the technician offered another possibility, "If the laptop hasn't been tampered with, another reason could be a sudden power outage. If the battery is depleted and the plug is pulled directly, it can cause an improper shutdown that could damage the system files. To fix the laptop, we have to reinstall the operating system. There's no other way."

What the technician said was something Zach should have thought of earlier. He pl