Laptop Shagged?

Matt

My laptop has been playing up again, and I've just tried to re-istall the OS. When I stick the bootable Recovery CD in, it recognises it, and then gets to the "Set up is inspecting your hardware" and then just goes to a blank screen. Nothing.

Tried it with XP, Vista, and several Linux distro's, and all are the same. I've also tried it on a seperate external USB DVD drive, and it does exactly the same. notsure.gif

It will boot the installed OS fine, which is what is confusing me. Can anyone suggest anything, or do I need a new laptop?

dodger

what is the installed OS on the laptop now?

DBcoup

is it the one thats been in for repair? if so check the bios settings as they could have re-flashed it with a different one

Matt

dodger said:
what is the installed OS on the laptop now?

none, it was just about to install linux after formatting the harddrive, and the install crashed.

Stinky said:

is it the one thats been in for repair? if so check the bios settings as they could have re-flashed it with a different one

OK mate, I'll have a look later on

DBcoup

Matt said:

dodger said:
what is the installed OS on the laptop now?

none, it was just about to install linux after formatting the harddrive, and the install crashed.

Stinky said:

is it the one thats been in for repair? if so check the bios settings as they could have re-flashed it with a different one

OK mate, I'll have a look later on

hmm bit confused now, if i understand now you aint got an operating system on it, and it wont install one on to it?
2 common reasons are if you install 3rd party drivers during install. i.e. sata drivers on a floppy.
Or (more commonly) RAM memory faults. If you can remove the memory and clean the contacts with pencil rubber.

Matt

I tested the memory with MemTest which comes with Ubuntu, and it passed no problems, so the memory isn't an issue. The only thing I can think of is the mother board, as it won't read from either internal or external dvd drives to start installing the OS. I'm going to try again with a newly burned disc this evening.

dodger

i bet the MBR is corrupt, had this before IIRC, has the laptop got a floppy drive? if so you could run fdisk with the /mbr command to delete and reset it.

Matt

But shouldn't the MBR be overwritten anyway when I install each new OS?

DBcoup

if the MBR is corrupt or missing an operating system cannot install because it cannot see the hard drive.

dodger

Matt said:
But shouldn't the MBR be overwritten anyway when I install each new OS?

If you had a Linix based install on the hard drive before, the windows installer can't handle it.

DBcoup

dodger said:

Matt said:
But shouldn't the MBR be overwritten anyway when I install each new OS?

If you had a Linix based install on the hard drive before, the windows installer can't handle it.

only if you change file systems for example NTFS or FAT

Matt

Stinky said:
if the MBR is corrupt or missing an operating system cannot install because it cannot see the hard drive.

So how is this fixable if I can't get an OS to install?
I've never had this problem before. I've ran linux and windows on the same drive, and do as well on my PC I'm on now. Linux used ext3 file extension, which is totally different to FAT32 and NTFS which windows uses.

dodger

see my post above ^^^^^ the one about the floppy drive and fdisk /mbr ;-)

Matt

It doesn't have a floppy disk drive. I've managed to get CentOS5 to install on there, that was the only one of about 7 OS's I tried.

Sjdickso

Sounds like m\b or HDD matt, i can get you a new HDD if you want to test that.

Matt

I'm going to leave it alone I think while it's working OK. Once I get back from the wedding, I might get a new one.