Im stumped!

the whole year inn

I'm trying to fix a laptop for a friend of mine.Its a dell latitude d400.First off he has never activated xp,so on start up it asks me to activate it on the Internet.I found a bypass so I can get to the desktop,I get a few seconds into it and it either goes back to the activation screen or a big screen comes up saving to buy software to get rid of the mailware on the computer(it the virus).I cant do anything from here and have to restart.

the virus in it is called thinkpoint.I run it in safemode and tried to use my external hard drive to get the software to remove the virus but it doesn't recognise it.Tried to reinstall drivers for it in devise manger but it doesn't do anything.It doesn't have a CD drive so I cant do a fresh install of xp.

Does anyone have any ideas on what to do next.I am thanking of installing Linux on it and do that from external or usb key if that can be done!

Alanstrainor

God we used to have those laptops in work, and they were a nightmare. Ended up giving them away a few months back. I tried Ubuntu 9.04 on it and had terrible trouble with it. There was a lot of drivers missing, it was practically unusable.

The only thing i can suggest is to reinstall XP and activate it. It should have a license on the bottom of the laptop.

the whole year inn

yea i know that but it an old laptop and it not there any more.can you install xp from a external hard drive or flash drive?

Alanstrainor

gob_smacked wrote: »

yea i know that but it an old laptop and it not there any more.can you install xp from a external hard drive or flash drive?

That laptop should have come with an external dvd drive. I can't remember if those laptops can even boot from a usb stick! You'd find out pretty quick by booting and pressing F12 a lot.

You can install xp from a usb, google how to do it, but that laptop may not boot from a usb stick because it's so old.

the whole year inn

sound threres no option to boot from usb cardbus,internal hdd this is balls!!

bhickey

gob_smacked wrote: »

the virus in it is called thinkpoint.

Firstly, is there any particular reason why you can't or don't want to activate XP?

For Thinkpoint, have a look at the instructions here. It shows how to stop the process, start an explorer window and proceed with removing it.

the whole year inn

Well I tired to activate it,it said use the internet but it wont connect and the only othe way is telephone.

bhickey

gob_smacked wrote: »

Well I tired to activate it,it said use the internet but it wont connect and the only othe way is telephone.

Fair enough. Do you know why it won't connect? After all, that virus is not going to be happy if it can't get Internet access

The telephone activation way isn't too scary though. Anyway, maybe if you can get rid of the virus first then you can sort out the activation later.

Duggy747

Unless it's Service Pack 3 on the Windows login press Ctrl + U

Voice Narrator will show up

If I can recall there's an option to view online help, it'll open Internet Explorer and from there you can type in the address bar (My Computer, Desktop, Control Panel, etc) to get your files and sort out that virus.

Up until SP3 that was a handy temporary work-around to bypassing the activation problem.

the whole year inn

I was doing that alright duggy,but it only works for like 30 seconds then reverts back to the actovation screen.This is a nightmare

bhickey

gob_smacked wrote: »

I was doing that alright duggy,but it only works for like 30 seconds then reverts back to the actovation screen.This is a nightmare

So why don't you activate it by phone then?

dilallio

Some malwares will disable wireless internet access to everything except for what it wants.
Sometimes you can get around it by connecting directly to your modem/router using a standard network cable.

Optimus Prime

take out the hard disk and put it into another laptop, rebuild it with xp up to the point it reboots at the end, then switch off the laptop take the hard disk out and put it back in your one, ive done this before for older laptops with no cd drives etc..

the whole year inn

Well I dont have the activation number(its not my laptop),That thing about hard drives sounds good but this is a sh!t laptop and I dont think I want to go into that much effort as Im doing this for free and not sure if he wants me opening it up.

I connected it directly to my router aswell.

thanks for all the help guys

bhickey

gob_smacked wrote: »

Well I dont have the activation number(its not my laptop)

Is there not a Windows XP sticker on the underside of the laptop?

the whole year inn

I checked its all scratched off for some reason.This is not my laptop its a mates.

Duggy747

Hiren's Boot CD

Get that, burn it onto a disc and then boot from it. From there you'll be able to run Windows XP Live (a very stripped down version of the OS) and you'll be able to fix your problem.

It does sound like this isn't a legit copy of XP, bold boy :pac:

norbert64

Duggy747 wrote: »

Hiren's Boot CD

Get that, burn it onto a disc and then boot from it. From there you'll be able to run Windows XP Live (a very stripped down version of the OS) and you'll be able to fix your problem.

This machine the OP is working on, sadly doesn't have a CD/DVD drive and can't boot from USB either.

@ the OP, I'd favour keithgeos plan for re-installing the OS from scratch on another machine.
Provided that is, you can obviously find another machine and your mate doesn't have any data on this dell laptop that they want you to try and recover?

Looking over the service manual, found here, (2.6 MB) removing the HDD is relatively easy.
http://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/edwin/laptops/dell/LATITUDE/D400/D400.PDF

the whole year inn

guessing even if i had an external cd drive it wouldnt work?

guess im going ot have to get him to activate it,as soon as he does I should be able to fix it,

norbert64

gob_smacked wrote: »

guessing even if i had an external cd drive it wouldnt work?

guess im going ot have to get him to activate it,as soon as he does I should be able to fix it,

You said earlier that she can't boot from USB, so we probably wouldn't have much luck with an external cd/dvd drive.
Not sure activation will make any difference either, if you still have that annoying thinkpoint virus getting in the way? :cool:
Mind you, did you try networking safe mode, which might let you download the appz and files you need to get rid of thinkpoint.

Alanstrainor

gob_smacked wrote: »

guessing even if i had an external cd drive it wouldnt work?

guess im going ot have to get him to activate it,as soon as he does I should be able to fix it,

If you had the dell usb DVD drive i think it will boot, as it will recognise it as a cd/dvd drive in the bios, rather than just another usb device.

the whole year inn

norbert64 wrote: »

You said earlier that she can't boot from USB, so we probably wouldn't have much luck with an external cd/dvd drive.
Not sure activation will make any difference either, if you still have that annoying thinkpoint virus getting in the way? :cool:
Mind you, did you try networking safe mode, which might let you download the appz and files you need to get rid of thinkpoint.

I tried it in same mode with networking but once I click on a account it tells me to activate it and to restart.Ill get past it yet.Was looking underneath the laptop but it seems there is a docking station for it.So that one way around it.

the whole year inn

OK i fixed it,I activated over the phone was pretty easy and didnt cost me anything.Working fully now thanks for all the help I got there in the end hurray!

norbert64

Glad to hear it. :cool: