Inspiron windows 11 reset won't setup correctly

3.5 years ago I bought 2 identical Inspiron 3511 laptops (i7, 16 GB, 1 TB HDD) with Windows 11 Home. Mine works reasonably well, but my wife has complained about hers for almost the entire time she's had it with her main complaint being it's slow. To add insult to injury, periodically the wifi stops working for no apparent reason & I have to connect the laptop with ethernet. Recently I updated a program on her laptop (I also use that program & updated it w/o issue) that appears to have hosed the windows startup files so the laptop won't boot. The built-in Dell file repair fails to fix it. After backing up her files, I reset the OS using the built-in Dell OS Recovery Tool. When I finally got to the desktop, the laptop was so slow as to be unusable. Windows update was hung.

I downloaded a Win 11 Home ISO from MS & loaded it on a USB drive, booted the drive & let the install proceed. After rebooting after naming the laptop, Windows restarted back to beginning of the setup process. When I finally got to the desktop again, it was running so slow again as to be unusable.

I downloaded the Dell OS Recovery Tool & let this version download Windows from Dell. When finished installing, I was back to where I started the first 2 times, except this time I canceled Windows update during setup. Made no difference.

I'm in the middle of my 3rd(?) or 4th(?) re-install with no end in sight. Does anyone have any idea what may be going on?