Boom goes the Laptop!, well, almost....

Agent Smith

Right....


I have my laptop 2 years, P4 2.0, 128 mb ram, 20 gb hard-disk....


About a year ago it started to freeze while playing dvd's or using the cd/dvd drive...

i reinstalled windows, and that seemed to fix it....


Now i installed linux ubuntu on it, hoping to setup a duel boot system, then now when loads up, its says " can not load operating system....

i tried to reinstall windows, but it keeps turning of sporadicly,

it could be running for a couple of hours, then off, then quicker and quicker it goes off...

I tried to reinstall windows again, but first formatting the hard disc, but it shuts off around the 90 percent....


anyone got any sugestions?

Ron DMC

Well, it's your own fault really for installing linux.

Tony H

find out the manufacturer of the drive , most of them have drive utilities that you can run from a floppy or cd , this will tell you if you drive is dying or what the prob is . if you can hook it up to another computer this will be even easier to do

Nukem

Remove drive and get an external HDD case and format it that way?

thebman

Ronny Mitchell wrote:

Well, it's your own fault really for installing linux.

No need to be an a**, Ubuntu Linux is a Desktop Linux distro that's easy to use and install. Installing Linux is a good thing if your into freedom/standards/not having malware/Ms garbage rammed down your throat.

In saying that I think you have a bad install from the ubuntu CD, you should probably download it again and try to install it.

However if you just want to get rid of it stick in the XP disc and boot from it and startup the recovery console. Now restore the master boot record MBR, the recovery console will give help and options to do this I can't remember how to exactly. You will get warnings while doing this to the effect of this could make your os unbootable but since your OS isn't bootable that isn't really an issue.

If your really worried about data you can get an external hd and backup your data to that by using Ubuntu's live cd to boot up and then copy the info to the external hd and reformat your machine, once you have everything setup and your data restored to your internal hd you can install linux to your external hd and save yourself some heartache with duel booting. From my experience it's ok but can be a little less stable than just using another hd.

SouperComputer

as above, even a Win98 disk, boot to dos mode and type fdisk /mbr

_Turismo4

agent smith wrote:

Windows....

How exactly did you reinstall windows, i.e. did you boot the reinstalling disk from the bios,
Or reinstall windows after booting the pc?

Agent Smith

i booted with the xp recovery disc in from the Bios...


it wont let me even format the drive, it Just turns off half way threw,
and if i reinstall it, half way threw it reboots....



Please Boards.ie, fix my laptop!

_Turismo4

Option 1/
Ok shutdown your pc and then restart it, as it boots up, tap F8 or F11, this will bring you to the WINDOWS ADVANCED OPYIONS MENU.
Now select Last Know Good Configuration.

See what that does.

Now as for reinstalling Windows, I’m sure you did it right, but just in case my Option 1 suggestion doesn’t work. Shutdown your pc and then restart it again, as it boots up, tap F12
this will bring you to the boot sequence, at the top of the list you should see INTERNAL HDD, and under that CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive’s , now move the CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive to the top of the list (BUT DON’T PRESS ENTER YET) Now place the Reinstalling disk in the drive, and now you can press Enter.

This Will Reinstall Windows correctly. Now during the Reinstall you will be asked to select the free space, FAT or NTFS, make sure you select NTFS. And install a fresh copy erasing all perverse files. (Hope you backed them up prier)

I’m sure you did this all ready. But I thought I mention it anyway.

If all that’s unsuccessful then you might need to replace you C Drive as it’s probably damaged; the best way to check for damage, is to remove it from your PC and shake it, if it’s making a noise (like clicking) then it will need to be replaced.

Hope you have luck with you Notebook.

_Turismo4

Any joy with it yet?

MrVestek

Sporadic rebooting? This just sounds like a simple case of overheating to me, if it's just turning off and rebooting all of the time. Check the temperature of the CPU in the laptop first and if it's not above normal for that type of chip, then there's probably something wrong with a driver somewhere in Windows. XP is especially annoying at this as when you install it, it's automatically set to reboot when a blue screen occurs, which is very counter productive as normally you don't even notice that there was a blue screen and it'll just reboot, thus causing you not to be able to resolve the error.

To turn this feature off go to My Computer and right click on it. Click properties then advanced. Now select system failure/system recovery, or whatever the feck it's called (can't remember at the minute). You'll see an option to automatically restart on serious system error. Untick this. Now when it happens again, if indeed this is your problem, you'll get a bluescreen giving you some indication as to what the problem is.