2nd hand computer, appears to have no O/S or software

38141

I received a free 2nd hand pc from a company - they were literally giving them away for free - but when I start it up I get a dark screen which says <press any key when ready>. However, nothing happens when I press any key. Does anybody know what is at fault here or how it could be rectified?

Tom Dunne

Does it say anything else? Post up exactly what it says on the screen, in all it's gory details.

humaxf1

This wouldn't be unusual if the PC comes from a company. The fact that there could be private info on the hard drive, they are wiped.

Sounds like you will have to install a version of windows...or you could try Linux. No licence required! Good enough for surfing the net and email using firefox. OpenOffice is free too, so also good enough for typing letters, spreadsheets, presentations etc.

aidan_walsh

Linux. No licence required!

/giggle

Khannie

Yeah, sounds like they've wiped the hard drive tbh.

If you're short on cash, it's worth giving linux a bash. It's fine for everyday tasks. I recommend ubuntu. You can download the installation cd here.

38141

would the ubuntu cd load automatically on insertion (might be a problem seeing as there is no software on machine)?

Cuddlesworth

it will load, considering you have nothing else to load first.

Blowfish

Um, are you sure it has a hard drive? Some companies are paranoid and will destroy them completely.

Tom Dunne

Blowfish wrote:

Um, are you sure it has a hard drive? Some companies are paranoid and will destroy them completely.

That's my point. It all really depends on what the error message is. It could be that the BIOS is buggered, or Windows may be installed, just not working. It could be many things.

We need the full details of the error before we can make any proper recommendations.

38141

I'll check it again this evening so to see what the message is

TerrorFirmer

How were they giving them away? Exactly? It may be faulty machine. With a friend, we once got about 50 computers from a data company, literally a trailer full load. Although they nearly all worked in some state, we could only build maybe 3 or 4 that actually worked perfectly - out of the lot. Companies don't usually give away hardware unless it's broken to some extent, although the odd time you do get lucky.

Khannie

HavoK wrote:

Companies don't usually give away hardware unless it's broken to some extent, although the odd time you do get lucky.

Actually, multinationals give away computers all the time. They have been written off from an accounting perspective and are generally just going to take up space. Rather than be seen to dump them, they wipe them and give them away (regularly to local schools and the like, otherwise to employees).

juliuspret

Any company that doesnt COMPLETELY destroy the hard drives of old computers are askin....BEGGING for trouble.

I worked on an old computer in a jo a while back that originally got the computer from an accountant and guess what.....it still had all of his clients info on it.

I mean.....not a clue!

TerrorFirmer

I got one, one of those mentioned in my above post, and it still had a background picture of a semi naked man, and alot of word documents containing addresses, phone numbers, letters marked private and confidental and much more...nothing too interesting though, unfortunately...

38141

The message that appears immediately upon startup is "Non-system disk or disk error Press any key or enter when ready"

steveland?

38141 wrote:

The message that appears immediately upon startup is "Non-system disk or disk error Press any key or enter when ready"

Possibly a silly question BUT... is there a floppy disk in the floppy drive when you boot it up?

Ghost Train

probably has an empty hard disk inside, you can either open the case and look, look at the bios see if a hard disk is listed or try install an operating system.

if you have a windows install disk you could try that or else maybe download a linux install disk from the internet.

christophicus

HavoK wrote:

How were they giving them away? Exactly? It may be faulty machine. With a friend, we once got about 50 computers from a data company, literally a trailer full load. Although they nearly all worked in some state, we could only build maybe 3 or 4 that actually worked perfectly - out of the lot. Companies don't usually give away hardware unless it's broken to some extent, although the odd time you do get lucky.

LOL where did you keep them all?

38141

No, there is no floppy disk inside.

I've had a look, and the hard drive appears to have been removed. What exactly does a hard drive look like so I can be sure?

aidan_walsh

http://www.ptdd.com/datarecovery/images/hard-drive2.jpg

38141

Ya, the hard drive has been removed from it :-(

TerrorFirmer

Don't worry, Hard Drives are cheap anyway, especially smaller capacity ones (which in itself is misleading, 'smaller' capacity ones are usually massive for the average casual user)

Capt'n Midnight

If the PC has a windows licence sticker you can install that OS again
( unless the company has enrolled it in a upgrade advantage program )

If it's a dell you can look up the parts list if you enter the tag on their site, you could ask the company if it came with OEM or not ( even better if it came with Office OEM )

Brand / Model ( maybe someone here can tell you if it's a paperweight or not )

38141

The machine is a compaq, don't know which model

Khannie

38141 wrote:

Ya, the hard drive has been removed from it :-(

Scabby. A bit of dban would have done the trick. Could have saved some environmental damage too.

38141

ya talk to me about it. This company is scamming their employees into taking old computers off their hands in the belief that they are working machines.

38141

So, does anyone know where I could get a cheap harddrive that would fit this pc?

Blowfish

The kind of hard drive you are looking for is fairly common on adverts the type you want will more than likely be IDE.

[edit]In fact there is a 20gb here, an 80gb here and a 160gb here. It just depends how much space you want

zilog_jones

If the PC is particularly old (i.e. Pentium III or older, though most PIIIs should be OK, esp. with latest BIOS), it may have trouble with hard disks larger than 32GB.

If the Compaq serial number sticker is still on the PC (usually grey, on the top of the case, two lines of text) you can find out the model from their website. Alternately, take a picture and I may be able to tell which one it is (I worked in a place with too many Compaqs for 7 months ).

38141

I had a look this morning and the serial number on it was 8051FR4ZUPRZ. I've been on the compaq website but it doesn't seem to have a search by serial number functionality

The model is ps-6201 6c3

38141

Zilog, would you know what kind of harddrive I would need for this compaq model?

Blowfish

38141 wrote:

8051FR4ZUPRZ.

As far as I can work out, thats the serial number for your particular machine. Its definitely not the model number

38141 wrote:

The model is ps-6201 6c3

Thats the model number of the Power Supply, not the model of the machine

Post up pictures of it, and we can probably work out what it is.

[edit] The model number will be one of these

KdjaCL

Company i work for stores pcs for a liquidator some good some bad, upon sending them to techrec they send a junior accountant over with a screwdriver and a lump hammer to "fix" the hard drives.

Some times stressed solicitors come over and go out into the yard with the pcs remove the hard drive and then smashey smashey time

kdjac

zilog_jones

38141 wrote:

Zilog, would you know what kind of harddrive I would need for this compaq model?

I still don't know what PC it is - as I said a picture would help, or even some specs (CPU, RAM, chipset, etc.)? It'll probably take any 3.5" ATA hard disk, though as I said before if it's older than a certain age you may have trouble with drives larger than 32GB.

rogue-entity

Judging from the power supply, its an ATX which means the PC is post-98. It is most likly an early presario. Most PCs had no problem with large capacity HDDs as the BIOS was compatible, but some did. Google the model number and large hard drives and see what comes up, the model number will be on the front or side of the machine, something like Compaq Presario 5210 or Compaq Presario 5WV-256. It will definatly take a 20GB HDD which is plenty big for the average user IMHO.

That aside, you can start the machine with Ubuntu from a live CD and use the PC without a hard drive for the time being. If their is a Windows Serial sticker, you can install that version of Windows onto it AFAIK with no hassle, provided you can get the OEM version on a CD. The company may have a load of these and will give them to you as they are otherwise worthless.

zilog_jones

rogue-entity wrote:

It is most likly an early presario.

Presarios are Compaq's desktops aimed at home use. I'd guess it's probably some sort of Deskpro, and if it was one I'd be able to tell from the model number (not serial no.) or a picture.

38141

I took some photos this morning, attached below. I'm not sure if they'll be helpful but anyhow...

zilog_jones

It's the grey sticker below the Windows Product Key sitcker I was looking for

Surely you noticed the "Deskpro" and the Pentium III sticker on the front? :rolleyes: I could have almost guaranteed it was a Deskpro EX from that information alone.

The first line tells you what it is:
EXM = Deskpro EX Minitower
P733 = Pentium III 733MHz
128 = 128MB RAM - hopefully it's been upgraded since then! 128MB will be painful on Win2k or XP.
The other numbers/letter are just drive configurations and other junk.

Here's the support page:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Home.jsp?&lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=12454&prodSeriesId=96271&lang=en&cc=us

You won't have trouble with the 32GB as long as you have the latest BIOS update (floppy needed to do this). I had the desktop version of that PC and it worked fine with a 40GB disk. There may be a limit to 128GB - I'm sure it'll say somewhere on the website if there is.

As you can see there's a license for Windows 2000 which you are entitled to use. Windows XP will also work, though I'd recommend at least 512MB for either of these. It takes PC133 SDRAM modules.

38141

I don't have the O/S cd, so can I get a ubuntu cd and a second hand hard drive somewhere and then it will work?

From the photos, does it have all of it hardware faculties other than the harddrive?

Blowfish

38141 wrote:

I don't have the O/S cd, so can I get a ubuntu cd and a second hand hard drive somewhere and then it will work?

From the photos, does it have all of it hardware faculties other than the harddrive?

Yes, and yes. The company will only have removed the hard drive, as thats the part with their data on it.

zilog_jones

Can't really see - the pictures are quite blurry
Is there RAM in it? It should say on the BIOS menu (F10). And is that a network card?
You don't need the specific Windows 2000 CD that came with it - any should work if you can get hold of one.

I'd still recommend 512MB RAM for Ubuntu as well.

Alun

Are you absolutely 100% sure it doesn't have a hard disk? Looking at the rather blurry photo of the inside case, I can see (from bottom to top) what looks like a CD-ROM drive, (probably) a floppy, and something else which I'd hazard a guess is a hard drive. Looking at the front of the case, the floppy drive is immediately above the CD-ROM drive, and there appears to be a ribbon cable going in there, so what's that power connector (and ribbon cable? it's a bit obscure) going to above the floppy?

Maybe you could take a more in-focus picture of that part of the inside of the case?

38141

The machine actually does have a hard disk, it's above the floppy and cd-rom drives on the left hand side.

When I start up I am still getting a blank screen with error message 'non-system disk or disk error'. Does that mean that all I need to do is find a windows 2000 cd and insert it in the cd-rom?

Khannie

yes

You may need to set the cdrom drive to be bootable also.

niallb

If you've only 128M of RAM and get someone to download Puppy Linux you'll be using the PC 5 minutes later.
It's basic, but it'll give you a browser, a word processor etc, and
will be fast on that old PC.
It'll look a lot like windows 98.

The download is 87MB, so small compared to the others.
If your hard drive isn't working at all, it'll even allow you save
your own files back to the CD if the CD is the right kind!

Seriously worth a try. Ubuntu is great, but it'll be too slow for comfort here.
NiallB

38141

I've copied it to a cd, and inserted in into the pc, but all I'm getting is the same old message again - 'Non-system disk or disk error replace and strike any key when ready'

Alun

I'm not really familiar with the Compaq BIOS, but when it boots up you'll have to watch the screen like a hawk and look for a message like "Hit F2 to enter Setup" or something like that. It could be another key like DEL, F10 or anything really. When you get into the BIOS setup there'll be a section where you can define the startup boot sequence. Often it's set up so that the HD takes precedence over the CD drive, you'll need to swap them around so that it tries to boot from the CD first.

Optionally, and again I don't know if the Compaq BIOS has this, but some systems have another key you can hit during startup that will offer a one time Boot Menu, where you can choose the CD drive as well.

Also, depending on the CD you're booting from you may also have to hit a key within, say, 5 seconds to boot from the CD instead of teh HD. If so a message like "Hit any key to boot from CD ..." will appear.

Fabritzo

You can't just copy that iso to a cd, you'll need to burn it as an image, the option is under the recorder drop down menu in nero if you're using it to burn the cd.

38141

I got into the BIOS by pressing F10 and then set the boot sequence to 1. cd-rom 2 a drive 3. c drive. This was already the default boot sequence.

There is no difference on rebooting the machine again afterwards

zilog_jones

Can you boot from that CD on another PC? Are you sure everything is connected properly in that PC, i.e. no cables upside down etc.?

NeoRox

What OS version are you trying to install anyway? Is it bootable.