Need help from Computer Geekish type person

[Vicks]

OK, I bought a Compaq Armada laptop on ebay that was sold as "without operating system" which is cool since I have a fairly legal (not really) copy of Windows anyway.

It came today and when you switch it on it seems to have some sort of wierd program thing on it which keeps asking me for a username and password which i dont know....anyway my question is how the hell am i supposed to actually load the OS onto it??? I tried putting the CD in the drive...but nothing happened so I spent about 3 hours trying to get into the bios, managed it, but then forgot how i did it mainly because i was randomly hitting about every button at the same time while it started up. I changed the boot order in the bios so that "multibay"(huh?) was first cos there was no CD drive option (what the?!) and it still doesn't work. I'm giving up the will to live here. Can some high tech knight in shining silicon armour help me out??

Thanks for reading that ramble. If you understood it give yourself a pat on the back. And maybe a cookie.

Vicks

[novium]

[s]Vicks wrote on 21:10, 8th Mar 2005:
OK, I bought a Compaq Armada laptop on ebay that was sold as "without operating system" which is cool since I have a fairly legal (not really) copy of Windows anyway.

It came today and when you switch it on it seems to have some sort of wierd program thing on it which keeps asking me for a username and password which i dont know....anyway my question is how the hell am i supposed to actually load the OS onto it??? I tried putting the CD in the drive...but nothing happened so I spent about 3 hours trying to get into the bios, managed it, but then forgot how i did it mainly because i was randomly hitting about every button at the same time while it started up. I changed the boot order in the bios so that "multibay"(huh?) was first cos there was no CD drive option (what the?!) and it still doesn't work. I'm giving up the will to live here. Can some high tech knight in shining silicon armour help me out??

Thanks for reading that ramble. If you understood it give yourself a pat on the back. And maybe a cookie.

Vicks

Complain to whoever sold you the laptop.

Hmm. You know, it could have been stolen or something.

[Vicks]

[s]novium wrote on 21:31, 8th Mar 2005:
Complain to whoever sold you the laptop.

Hmm. You know, it could have been stolen or something.


you think? They seem to be running a pretty large scale operation on ebay...this sucks...does anyone know how to even get a DOS prompt?! So i could wipe the whole thing?

[themanwiththehair]

Perhaps not a great deal of use, but if you manage to borrow someone else computer, you can download the windows boot disks from the microsoft website(comes in the form of a program which can be put on floppies and perhaps CD). If you can get back into bios, there is an option to change the first boot device (device that the computer will look to first for OS etc). Depending upon which media you used, you can tell it to use that device first, restart machine, make sure floppies or cds are in it before restarting. Computer should automatically read the media and then its a simple matter of following the instructions:P
Hope that helps:P

PS. Unles you want to partition your hard drive, youll probably need to go with the format option:P

[fluKe]

It also depends on what OS you are trying to install on the thing.

Only windows XP will boot straight from the CD without needing to load any drivers or anything first. Also this can depend on the laptop, if it's old it might not support booting from CD in which case you will need to get a boot disk and use that to get to load up a DOS prompt (if there is no OS on the PC and it won't boot off the CD this is the only way to get it to boot).

Once you have booted to the DOS prompt making sure you load the appropriate CD ROM drivers (which you may need to get off the manufacturers web site if it is not a standard system) you can access the CD drive and run the setup for the OS.

[munchingfoo]

I have DOS boot disks which will allow you to format the comp. If you need me to come round and do it give me an e-mail. Though I won't take to kindly to be called a geek


Andy

[hr][s]I have made my site work again, so feel free to have a look.

My website:
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~ag56/[/s]

[Allan]

[s]dunqn wrote on 03:16, 9th Mar 2005:
It can't be that difficult to solve - if you're desperate i'll take a look, i don't expect it'll be anything out of the ordinary - should be easy enough to get XP running on it.


Would removing the battery on the motherboard do the job?

[Vicks]

[s]munchingfoo wrote on 02:09, 9th Mar 2005:
I have DOS boot disks which will allow you to format the comp. If you need me to come round and do it give me an e-mail. Though I won't take to kindly to be called a geek :P


Andy




It was more a term of endearment than anything else really :-)

Laptop is about 3 years old so I'm guessing it should be ok to boot from CD...I made an MS-DOS disk and managed to get back into the bios to set the floppy to bootable and then ran that.
The OS is Windows XP so yes, it should just run and damn well install itself. Anyway, I tried running the CD but according to this computer there is no CD-ROM drive (there is..) so this is where i hit the brick wall. The extent of my IT knowledge ends abruptly there. I asked it to list the directories in C and it said "invalid drive specification" so I tried every other letter in the alphabet and the only ones that worked were A and B which according to DOS are the same thing, the floppy drive since it listed what was on the floppy :S

I'm so utterly lost, any help would be MUCH appreciated. Are any of you people doing Comp Sci or IT? I do, so could meet some very kind non-geek type person in the John Honey?

Pllleeeaaassssseeeee??? I promise theres chocolate involved, or alcohol, whichever you prefer!

Vicks :-)

[LonelyPilgrim]

Is anyone else surprised that Nickel hasn't posted? He'd be the guy I'd talk to, but then it's likely that this is a fairly simple problem.

Is the cd drive removable? It may not have drivers to interact with the bay, then, and so it can not detect the cd drive. Just a guess, but I'm not really an IT person, I just tinker and occassionally use the 'hit things till it works' approach.

[hr]I sing of arms, and the man...

[Vicks]

[s]LonelyPilgrim wrote on 13:12, 9th Mar 2005:


Is the cd drive removable? It may not have drivers to interact with the bay, then, and so it can not detect the cd drive.



The CD Drive is removable...if you have a tiny tiny tiny screwdriver made espeically for ants. I've never seen screws this small, and even those weeny screwdrivers you get in christmas crackers are giant in comparison. In other words, no, its not removable. But if its meant to be I still have no idea which driver thingy to use...I've came to realise that although the plasticy bit says "Compaq Armada" its actually a sort of Frankenstien's monster type laptop. It's a mutant. Basically someone has built it from spares. But it was sold as "ready to load with your own software"




Just a guess, but I'm not really an IT person, I just tinker and occassionally use the 'hit things till it works' approach.



Ahhh, that well known universal 'hitting things till it works' approach. It's currently my favourite and I use it very frequently with my own computer when the screen starts to flicker and fuzz as if to mock me. Very effective.

Anyone got any more ideas? Or offers of help?

Vicks

[chills]

I'd guess if the Cd-rom isn't selectable in the bios as bootable then its probably broken.

On the off-chance that its just an old cd-rom which can't boot, then the solution is relatively simple.

Find yourself 6 disks, (buy a 10 pack from woolworths or somewhere). Download the 6 disk Windows XP boot set from here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994

That method works fine if your cd-rom drive isn't bootable. Good luck!

[Vicks]

Thanks so much for your help!
But I really don't think the age of the CD-ROM drive is the problem since its a DVD drive too! Surely it must be bootable? But no, its not in the bios
I don't think its fixable...

[Vicks]

P.S. Anyone want a challenge?

[househunter]

I'll have a look at it, get in touch with Hollie.

[Vicks]

[s]househunter wrote on 19:16, 9th Mar 2005:
I'll have a look at it, get in touch with Hollie.


Is that you Damien?

[Nickel]

Quoting LonelyPilgrim from 13:12, 9th Mar 2005
Is anyone else surprised that Nickel hasn't posted? He'd be the guy I'd talk to, but then it's likely that this is a fairly simple problem.

actually I tend not to read the advice please board. And there seems to be enough offers for help here that anything I could offer would seem somewhat redundant now.

--
nickel

[Nickel]

on thing I guess I will add though, when you are in bios make sure there is not a boot password set.

--
nickel

[Vicks]

YAY! The God that is Damien managed to get the laptop working! woohoo!! Thank you for all your help, time and posts! You guys rule!

Vicks