Will

Hello. My mate got a Time laptop running XP for free from a neighbour because her 4 year old son did something to it as she went to answer the phone!!!!

Any way, the problem is that, when I switch it on the black screen comes on, the one where it detects the HDD etc etc. Now after it does that the screen goes black and there's a white line like this -, in the left top corner and it flashes for a sec and that's it!!! Nothing! No Windows loading or nothing???

Any ideal?? I personally think that Windows has gone AWOL on it? So i thought a clean install of Windows would do the trick?

Now then, I have a copy of windows on my Desktop Pc along with a legit key I purchased from windows months ago to activate a fresh copy on my PC when that went belly up, and I can use the key 1 more time.

My question is, how would I burn it on to a CD? Would I need to burn it as an ISO? And would any CD do? What I mean by that is, would I have to use an CD-R? or would a DVD-R CD work ok???


Cheers in advance guys

JackClark

You can download Windows now? Who knew. Anyhow, CD or DVD won't matter as long as the Laptop has a DVD drive.

Will

I copied it from my old XP CD that I've lost. Lucky eh?


Saying that though, I was told that you could download a copy from any were and it's legal as long as you've purchased an product key from Microsoft?

I'm sure someone will correct me on that though

Ant

It also could be the Hard drive, I would put ubuntu on it. Also it's free

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

Have you tried hitting the F8 key as it boots (post BIOS) to see if you get any options up?

JackClark

Perfectly acceptable, I thought you'd bought a download. Wouldn't surprise me, I only ever install Windows from USB just lately.

Will

Jack, is it a pain in the **** to do it that way? As I do have an USB stick.


Kieran, when I press F8 all I get is the boot from options.

I've gone as far as the screen that asks me to ''Press any key to boot from CD'' And when I hit a key the screen goes blank and stays blank?? Could it be that I haven't burned the CD properly?

Ant, I'm burning a image of Ubuntu on a CD as I type this to see if that does anything.

JackClark

You can make it complicated if you want to, I did.

Here's a pretty simple guide http://www.eeeguides.com/2007/11/ins...usb-thumb.html

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

You might want to check the BIOS and see if it can actually SEE a hard disk at all

Ant

if it wont post after the you press a key , it looks like the hard drive is fubard

hpoolsteve

iTrader: (4)

Hello Mate

Like Kieran says try hitting F8 or F5 when the black screen first boots up. If it give you the option you want to boot up in safe mode with network support. If you can get that far then you know windows is working. If you manage to boot up in safe mode just try a standard restart and see if it boots as normal..

The only way to boot it from disc is to have it converted to an ISO file.

Has for the disc you will probably need a DVD + rw with the size of the file.

Will

Thanks for that Jack.

Kieran, yes I can see the HD in the BIOS!!

I threw a CD with Umbuntu in it. I got the purpleish screen up with the Umbuntu logo and the dots below it. Was loading ok but the screen went black, then pupleish for 5 seconds and then back to black and it has been like that now for 6 minutes???

Does Umbuntu take a long time to load/install or has the bloody thing hanged?

Will

Thanks for that Jack.

Kieran, yes I can see the HD in the BIOS!!

I threw a CD with Umbuntu in it. I got the purpleish screen up with the Umbuntu logo and the dots below it. Was loading ok but the screen went black, then pupleish for 5 seconds and then back to black and it has been like that now for 6 minutes???

Does Umbuntu take a long time to load/install or has the bloody thing hanged?

Will

It's now purpleish again!!!

JackClark

Give it time, did you choose to install or run from disk? I think the default is to run from Disk. That's good as you should be able to explore the hard drive, if you don't care about it just install Ubuntu anyhow, you might like it.

Will

I didn't choose from no where as all i did was let it do it thing. I haven't come to a part where it has asked me to do anything yet. But it has changed to this:

JackClark

I'd still leave it, I have installed on at least one system where it took ages and showed all sort of patterns before it settled down.

Will

Nice one I'll take your advice and leave it, even if it's over night

Cheers Jack

Will

Just had an Error box popping up

It says ''The panel encountered a problem while loading ''OAFFID:GNOME_WindowListApplete::

Do you want to delete???

JackClark

Click yes or no, see what happens. My guess is the user interface - Gnome - doesn't like your laptop.

Will

lol. I'm at a screen now where i have a pic of a file with examples in the top and install Ubuntu underneath. Clicking install has not done nothing yet!!

Will

Well, I left it overnight and I'm at a purpleish screen!! The mouse cursor is there and I can move it!

Might give it back to him like that

JackClark

I'd be tempted to try XP, you should be able to just burn the contents you copied from your old CD to a new one, no fuss. Or if you want a laugh have a go at creating the USB stick, it took me five days to perfect mine, but I did include a lot of tweaks.

Will

Jack, I've had a look at the USB method

I copied the copy of XP on to a disk and lobbed it into the Laptop, and it went to the screen that says ''press a key to boot from CD'' and guess what!!! Nothing!!!!! Just a black screen!!

But what's bizzare is that I went into the BIOS to disable the primary and only HDD and guess what?? When I booted from CD/DVD it went straight to the blue Windows setup screen!!! But after I choose to format the thing it restarts and then fails to boot again!!!!!!