O T: Been Given A Laptop, But ?

[the_constructor]

I have been given a laptop PC and it has Windows Vista Premium x86 installed on it

The problem is this:

Bios recognises that the CD/DVD-ROM drive is present.

Windows Vista recognises that the internal CD/DVD-ROM drive is installed and that the drivers are up to date, neither the internal drive or external drives will operate.

Going to Start/Control Panel/System/Device Manager/DVD/CD-ROM drives/Properties, it states: Windows can not start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged (Code 19).

I tried uninstalling the drivers and then rebooting but that did not do anything.

I am lead to believe that on laptops there is a hidden drive with a copy of the operating system on that you can use to restore the laptop to factory conditions, but how do I find it.

I could put XP on it but I am having trouble finding the laptop drivers for XP. The laptop disk I have only gives drivers for Vista.

Any advice would be truly gratefully received

Kindest regards,

Jim

[Adrian]

"the_constructor" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Some do, some don't.

What laptop?

[tony sayer]

In article , the_constructor scribeth thus

Yes...

Dump Vista and install Ubuntu..

Job done:))

[the_constructor]

Sorry I forgot to mention that.

It's an Advent QT5500

[The Natural Philosopher]

My advice too.

[Brew]

"the_constructor" wrote in message news:tc-dnXc2k9 [e-mail]...

Posted here (possibly for second time) as a i think I messed up first reply To restore your computer back to factory settings, follow the steps below:

1.. Turn on the computer and keep tapping F8 until the advanced options menu is displayed 2.. Use the up/down arrow keys on the keyboard to highlight Repair Your Computer and press enter to select it 3.. Select the language you wish to install (normally English is the only option) 4.. Once you have chosen your language you will be presented with the available recovery options a.. Microsoft Repair Environment - after choosing the UK keyboard layout you will be asked to choose the Operating System you wish to repair. If Windows Vista is not listed then you cannot repair the OS without doing the full recovery. After choosing Vista the Microsoft Vista startup repair tool will run and attempt to repair any startup problems you are experiencing b.. Reinstall Windows - gives you the options available to reinstall Vista c.. Advanced Options - this launches the diagnostic centre allowing you to run chkdsk, launch notepad or bring up a command prompt d.. Exit & restart computer - Exits withut running the recovery process 5.. To continue with the recovery program you need to choose Reinstall Windows 6.. On the next screen you have the ability to launch Vista System Restore and roll back to a date when Vista was last working ok or to run the Full Destructive Recovery. To continue with the recovery program you need to choose Start Full Destructive Recovery 7.. After choosing the Full Destructive Recovery option you are presented with the warning screen that all data will be lost. It is important to make sure all data has been backed up to disk if possible and to realise this process deletes all data and reverts the machine back to it's default state. To continue with the recovery program you need to tick the box indicating you are aware of data loss 8.. The recovery process will then run through, the computer will restart a couple of times during this. You will also need to go through the Vista "Out of Box Experience", to configure Vista. This is fairly straightforward so just follow the onscreen instructions From 'tinternet

Brew

[Mark]

half way down page

[spamlet]

This is a long shot and may sound daft, but it is a quirk of our XPPro system with an added Pioneer DVDR drive.

For some reason the only thing that can see anything on our DVDs or CDs is Windows Media Player. Everything else, including Explorer says the discs are blank. But once they have been selected with WMP everything else can then see them - even after WMP has been closed.

No idea why. It might work for you.

S

[Weatherlawyer]

Get a copy of almost any Linux magazine and look for small distros. You can load a curt down version of Ubuntu from the discs they sell direct.

You can also buy support from most Linux suppliers, that's how they make their bread and margarine.

Linux Format had about 8 mini distro's on the last one they produced. Or you can download an ISO image to a USB and make a selection of OSs to try.

All of them are better than XP and nothing is worse than Vista. A full XP disc is nearly 80 quid. If I was going that way I'd get Linux with 80 quid's worth of support.

[John Whitworth]

Yeah - always brilliant for people who understand Windows, want to use Windows, and have not mentioned a desire to change Operating System.

[John Whitworth]

That will repair his Windows installation?

Not for someone who wants to use Windows.

Windows ME was worse than Windows.

[tony sayer]

In article , John Whitworth scribeth thus

Its beyond worthy repair!..

Who .. in their right mind would want to use Vista?...

Windows what;?..

>

[larkim]

I'm sorry, but Linux evangelists do their cause no good by just jumping on every "my windows PC is having problems" thread with suggesting that they jump to Linux instead.

I've run red hat servers, had a Linpus OS, had various flavours of ..buntu's installed. I've been using PCs since 1990 and gone through MSDOS 3.22 right up to Windows 7 now. I'm no novice.

Suggesting every man and boy can jump straight across to a Linux distro is unrealistic. Perhaps they have specific applications which don't run under Linux (even with Wine)? Perhaps they are into playing games on their PC. Perhaps all of the rest of their family uses Windows based PCs and it just feels nicer if all their PCs look and feel the same. Perhaps they own (have bought?) =A3=A3=A3 of Windows-based software that they don't want to throw away. Perhaps they have a printer which doesn't offer a Linux driver.

I know that MS's family of products is not the perfect product set. Perhaps for a more stable system Linux might have some advantages. But you make yourselves sound really daft if the only suggestion you ever make is "stick Linux on it".

Rant over!

Matt

[John Whitworth]

No - he's just not been told of, or found, the correct repair yet. Besides, for just over a tenner, here is an XP restore disk. Which proves that the drivers do exist for XP.

>> All of them are better than XP and nothing is worse than Vista.

Not me. But using XP is in my opinion, superior to Linux for a Windows user. No-one has bothered to check with the guy that all of his existing software is compatible with Ubuntu, have they? And before anyone mentions Windows emulation under Linux - what's the point?

D'oh! Worse than Windows Vista! :-)

[John Whitworth]

Does this help?

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[John Whitworth]

And yes, I know "WINE Is Not an Emulator", but the principle remains the same.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, that should read:

"Stick Linux and Virtual Box on it, and remove all hardware issues by giving windows a simple tested virtual hardware environment in which to run"

[The Natural Philosopher]

The point is that you then only use windows where its needed.

And its easy to back up and restore when it wedges itself.

And the real hardware interface is done by Linux. Windows juts gets to see industry standard hardware.

[John Whitworth]

And what percentage of Windows software runs flawlessly using WINE? Will WINE cope with graphically intensive games? Will WINE cope with architectural software, which uses 3D acceleration? Will WINE cope with Photoshop's hardware acceleration capabilities?

Linux is brilliant - as a server OS.

For over ten years, I've been hearing of Linux's takeover of the desktop market. Even the netbook 'call to power' flopped somewhat. I've lost count of the amount of Linux distros I've tried because "I was out of touch, and it's made huge strides". :-)

JW

[The Natural Philosopher]

No huge strides, just incremental advances on a sound basic platform.

I reached tipping point about a year ago, when it became obvious that some sort of visualised Windows environment would actually cope with my two legacy windows apps, and Linux with everything else.

Not looked back really.