Lenovo Thinkpad, OS problems among others

kearneybobs

Hi there. Seem to be having a major problem with a Lenovo thinkpad T410 (it's my gf's sister's laptop). FYI, this laptop was bought from a person who imports these laptops in bulk, for cheap. Might explain a lot.
It all started soon after I updated XP for her to service pack 3. For some reason it seemed to have an adverse effect on the OS and stability went out the window. Last week she decided to pull the battery when it froze on her. The next time she booted up she was getting errors about not having permissions (error 80070005 Access denied) when certain programs were loaded. Also, her audio driver seemed to be corrupted too as it no longer worked, although the system beeps/logon sounds would work fine. MS Security Essential wouldnt load at this stage as well as the firewall was failing to load too. The internet cannot be accessed too with the LAN and wireless being blocked. I think at this stage the OS needs to be reinstalled

So I decided that that was that, I was going to reinstall it. It's running XP Professional. The problem is, the Windows CD key that is under the battery on the Laptop is for Windows 7, something I suspected long ago, that had been removed and replace with XP before it was sold to my gf's sister. No XP CD came with the laptop too and there is no image or backup of the OS on the hardrive either. So, how do I do this reinstall?

I currently have XP CDs from previous Dell computers that I had/have. I have an XP Home and an XP Professional CD, of which I'm still using the professional still on another laptop of mine.

Will I be able to boot from CD (with my XP Prof CD) and ask it to repair the OS? Will I need the XP CD Key that the Thinkpad is currently? If so, where do I find out the info?

Also, what would stop me from using the CD key from the Windows 7 label that is on the underside of the Thinkpad. Will I be able to use that to install Windows 7 on it? Will doing so invalidate someone else's Win7 installation (since I think it was sold/given to someone else)?

Any ideas or tips would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

yoyo

kearneybobs wrote: »

Hi there. Seem to be having a major problem with a Lenovo thinkpad T410 (it's my gf's sister's laptop). FYI, this laptop was bought from a person who imports these laptops in bulk, for cheap. Might explain a lot.
It all started soon after I updated XP for her to service pack 3. For some reason it seemed to have an adverse effect on the OS and stability went out the window. Last week she decided to pull the battery when it froze on her. The next time she booted up she was getting errors about not having permissions (error 80070005 Access denied) when certain programs were loaded. Also, her audio driver seemed to be corrupted too as it no longer worked, although the system beeps/logon sounds would work fine. MS Security Essential wouldnt load at this stage as well as the firewall was failing to load too. The internet cannot be accessed too with the LAN and wireless being blocked. I think at this stage the OS needs to be reinstalled

So I decided that that was that, I was going to reinstall it. It's running XP Professional. The problem is, the Windows CD key that is under the battery on the Laptop is for Windows 7, something I suspected long ago, that had been removed and replace with XP before it was sold to my gf's sister. No XP CD came with the laptop too and there is no image or backup of the OS on the hardrive either. So, how do I do this reinstall?

I currently have XP CDs from previous Dell computers that I had/have. I have an XP Home and an XP Professional CD, of which I'm still using the professional still on another laptop of mine.

Will I be able to boot from CD (with my XP Prof CD) and ask it to repair the OS? Will I need the XP CD Key that the Thinkpad is currently? If so, where do I find out the info?

Also, what would stop me from using the CD key from the Windows 7 label that is on the underside of the Thinkpad. Will I be able to use that to install Windows 7 on it? Will doing so invalidate someone else's Win7 installation (since I think it was sold/given to someone else)?

Any ideas or tips would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Why would someone downgrade from 7 to XP . It is probably a pirated copy that is on the machine of Windows XP anyways, some people have suggested before downloading a copy of Windows 7 that matches the version that came on the machine will work and activate with the CD Key on the laptop, so I would try this first! Windows 7 is miles ahead of XP, bizare someone would do that... You just burn the .iso file to a blank DVD, with a tool like ImgBurn.
Another point to backup the data on the machine, use something like a Ubuntu CD and boot off it as a Live Disc. This will load Ubuntu via the CD, mount the Windows partition so grab all the files out of Docs & Settings>Username etc and copy over onto a USB key(s)/External HD etc.

Nick

kearneybobs

Thanks for the reply there. A couple of new things have come to light since last night. I decided to reinstall windows with my Dell XP prof disc. Windows booted up after the reinstall. Had to try and activate it by phone since the drivers for the ethernet prot weren't installed. My first attempt to activate it failed. I thought that it might be reading the Win7 cd key from the machine. So I changed the cd key to that from the one I retrieved using a tool I found on the net (jellybeankeyfinder) before I started reinstalling windows. That one too failed activation and it was suggested that I might be a victim of software copyright both times.

You suggest possibly installing Windows 7 using the cd key that came with the machine. Will that cause someone else's installation to deactivate?
I presume you can get the .iso fom microsoft's website?

kearneybobs

Oops. Didn't notice your links there. Thanks. the sticker says that it's Win7 Pro. Doesn't say whether it's 32 or 64 bit. I presume only one of them wiill work? or will the cd key work on both 32 and 64 bit?

kearneybobs

Ok. So I download the iso from the link you gave. Decided on the 64 bit one. Installed it. Asked for my cd key during the setup. When it booted up it said that the cd key was invalid. Downloaded the ethernet driver and installed that then hooked it up to the internet and tried activating it that way. SUCCESS!!!
The copy of Windows 7 Prof has been validated and is legit. Installing all the updates.

I have a question though. Will this mean that whoever was using my cd key for Win7 will have their copy of Win7 deactivated? And if so, will this be likely to happen to me? Will my copy of Win7 ever be deactivated/deauthorised should this other person look to activate 'their' installation of Win7 with my cd key??

yoyo

kearneybobs wrote: »

Ok. So I download the iso from the link you gave. Decided on the 64 bit one. Installed it. Asked for my cd key during the setup. When it booted up it said that the cd key was invalid. Downloaded the ethernet driver and installed that then hooked it up to the internet and tried activating it that way. SUCCESS!!!
The copy of Windows 7 Prof has been validated and is legit. Installing all the updates.

I have a question though. Will this mean that whoever was using my cd key for Win7 will have their copy of Win7 deactivated? And if so, will this be likely to happen to me? Will my copy of Win7 ever be deactivated/deauthorised should this other person look to activate 'their' installation of Win7 with my cd key??

It should work, it was probably the 32 bit version of Windows 7, see how it goes anyways, Afaik with XP you need to use the exact disc that was used previously, Windows 7 is more lenient than XP. Did you use the CD Key printed below the laptop or your own personal one?

Nick

kearneybobs

yoyo wrote: »

It should work, it was probably the 32 bit version of Windows 7, see how it goes anyways, Afaik with XP you need to use the exact disc that was used previously, Windows 7 is more lenient than XP. Did you use the CD Key printed below the laptop or your own personal one?

Nick

I used the cd key that was printed on the bottom of the laptop. Seems to be working fine now. Installing updates and the activation process has been completed.

yoyo

kearneybobs wrote: »

I used the cd key that was printed on the bottom of the laptop. Seems to be working fine now. Installing updates and the activation process has been completed.

Your good to go so!

Nick

kearneybobs

Is it likely that my copy will be invalidated by someone else using my cd key. I assume that's what's going to happen since they put XP on it before I got it. I assume that was to give themselves a copy of Windows 7 to sell to someone else.

yoyo

kearneybobs wrote: »

Is it likely that my copy will be invalidated by someone else using my cd key. I assume that's what's going to happen since they put XP on it before I got it. I assume that was to give themselves a copy of Windows 7 to sell to someone else.

Hmm, good point, was the laptop new or second hand when baught? I assumed it was the laptop buyer requested XP to be loaded on for whatever reason, you should be ok though, any problems ring Microsoft, remember you own that license, not someone who just decided to use it!

Nick