A buddy is aggravating the piss out of me about this pos laptop that was given to him. It's a Dell Inspiron 8200. The thing is ungodly slow just trying to start the o.s. which is XP home. It will turn on and start to load until it gets to a screen where it requests the startup disc. The whereabouts of the disc are unknown. I do have a copy of XP to put on it.
I am wanting to erase everything on the laptop and just start over. I searched online and learned that if I press F8 repeatedly I can select safemode with command prompt. It will allow me to go to the screen to make several choices but when I select safemode w/ c.p. it says it is unable to enter safemode and tells me to continue startup normally.
Is there anyway to rid this thing of these errors? What suggestions do y'all have other than trash it since I've already told him to do so?

Additional info: When i try to start it normally it starts to run through the windows xp installation but says to insert the "XP Home Edition SP1 disc". I do have a disc he brought that says XP installation disc but it's for a Compaq. When I insert that disc it says the file "asms" is needed

[Edited on December 10, 2009 at 11:29 AM. Reason : -]

12/10/2009 11:23:20 AM

put in XP CD

book to XP cd

get to screen that asks where to install windows

selection option to format partition first

install XP

done

[Edited on December 10, 2009 at 11:25 AM. Reason : asdf]

12/10/2009 11:25:18 AM

if you're trying to erase everything and start over, safe mode isn't what you want. if you put an OS installation disc in the DVD drive, when you boot the laptop you'll probably get a "Press any key to boot from disc.." message. If you don't, you'll need to enable CD/DVD boot in the BIOS (which can be accessed by pressing F2 or Delete at the beginning of boot). During the OS installation process, you'll have the option to format the drive and reinstall Windows from scratch

12/10/2009 11:25:59 AM

Well, I was going to remove it from these recommendations:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071213224810AAC5J0X

Also, the thing is so fucked up the mouse will hang up bad. I can move the mouse and the pointer will move about an inch on the screen and stop. It will finally move again after a few minutes to where ever the mouse finally stopped.

[Edited on December 10, 2009 at 11:34 AM. Reason : -]

12/10/2009 11:31:10 AM

What in the fuck is

Quote :

"C:\DEL WINDOWS"

12/10/2009 11:40:39 AM

^^ the answers TWW are giving are what you want.

12/10/2009 11:45:24 AM

that's why i came and asked. the problem is the only copy of xp i have here is the one from compaq. will that thing work?

[Edited on December 10, 2009 at 11:47 AM. Reason : -]

12/10/2009 11:46:08 AM

it should

[Edited on December 10, 2009 at 11:51 AM. Reason : worst case you'll need a key that you can find online..or a sticker on the computer]

12/10/2009 11:51:22 AM

I made an ISO of an OEM WinXP SP3 disk from dell recently. I've used it on numerous repair installs from different manufactures and all the OEM keys stayed activated (or reactivated) without issue. So you would want to hope that the Compaq OEM disk is the same generic image.

I know HP has their own nonsense with virtual keys tied to the BIOS and such.

12/10/2009 11:55:30 AM

Quote :

"All of the pundits here will say you can remove XP by inserting the OS Disk and formatting. However if you REALLY want to get rid of XP or any Windows OS, start the PC and repeatedly press the F8 key to start in Safe Mode. Then navigate with the arrows on the keyboard to Command Prompt (or MS DOS Prompt) and press Enter. You will end up with C:\<WINDOWS> type in cd so that you get C:\<WINDOWS>cd and press Enter. This gives you C:\ now type DEL WINDOWS with a space between del & windows so it looks like C:\DEL WINDOWS and press Enter. You will be asked if you really want to wipe the HDD clean (y/n) type y and press Enter. Then you will get something like Are you sure? (y/n) type y and press Enter. Then it should format drive C: Or if you already have a partition in place then you would clean that first. By typing 'del windows' it should save all your ancillary programs. Remember to re-install anything you need the drivers. E.g. Sound Card-Graphics Card-CD/R ROM drivers etc. Hope that helps."

Best Answer?! REALLY!?

HAHA, that response deserves a thread of its own!

12/10/2009 1:03:09 PM

Quote :

"C:\ DEL WINDOWS"

12/10/2009 1:22:40 PM

^^lol, whaaat the FUCK

12/10/2009 1:41:59 PM

You could try a GParted LiveCD and format/partition the hard drive however you want. It doesnt take long at all to download. Works great for me.

12/10/2009 5:28:12 PM

thanks for all the info. ill see what i can figure out about this pos.

12/10/2009 9:25:49 PM

alright. just got a chance to see what can be done with this pile of shit. nothing changes when i power it on. it does everything the same as previously posted. i've tried running an xp disc and a 98 disc both of which i know work. it does not give me the option of overwriting the current operating system. what now? use it as a door stop?

12/17/2009 7:32:44 PM

what options DOES it give? what options did you select? did you actually get into windows setup? did you tell it to do a fresh install or repair? there is, without a doubt, a screen that asks where you want to install the OS..on that screen or one near it you can tell it to format whatever partition and to install to that partition

[Edited on December 17, 2009 at 8:04 PM. Reason : asdf]

12/17/2009 8:03:41 PM

We need to know what he said because we need to be sure it's:

1.) Successfully booting from the CD
2.) You are selecting New Installation and not repair/upgrade

[Edited on December 17, 2009 at 8:08 PM. Reason : grammar]

12/17/2009 8:08:02 PM

it doesn't give me any options. when i turn the power on it tries to reinstall windows xp from the hard drive. it never prompts me about a fresh install or gives me any options to do anything. it will run for appox. 10 min. before it asks me to insert the disc containing "windows xp sp1". i've tried inserting the xp disc at that time and click "ok". when I insert the disc it says the file "asms" is needed and gives a location and the option to click ok. i click ok and it just highlights the same thing and repeats. i've inserted the disc as soon as i turn on the computer and the results are the same.

12/18/2009 6:36:18 PM

palm face

12/18/2009 6:37:59 PM

Right after the BIOS loads but before the OS loads, do you get a message like "Press F12 for boot menu" or anything? If so, do it and select CD/DVD ROM drive as the boot device

Or like qntmfred said, go into your BIOS setup (usually either F2 or DEL), and change the startup device order...just make sure you put CD/DVD drive above HDD

12/18/2009 7:00:10 PM

pressing f2 only allows me to change the clock. pressing f8 sends me to safe mode and gives me options but won't do any of the options except continue with setup in normal mode. delete, esc, or any other key has no effect.

12/18/2009 8:07:50 PM

I think at this point you turn this project over to someone that isn't retarded.

12/19/2009 7:46:58 AM

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bios-boot-cdrom

12/19/2009 1:36:06 PM

^^

12/19/2009 1:49:43 PM

F12

12/19/2009 1:56:34 PM

it's actually starting to run better now for some reason. the mouse works again as well as the keys meaning there's no delay. while on the bios page it will actually let me go to the other pages where before it wouldn't. it still won't let me change anything. example: i can't even change the time. it will let me scroll over to highlight the hour, minutes, date, etc. but i can't change anything. i can get to the page in bios where to select the startup order but it says "configure setup is disabled". is this what's causing it to now allow me to change anything?

Quote :

"I think at this point you turn this project over to someone that isn't retarded."

well, good. since you are not retarded thanks for volunteering to come pick this thing up to fix it. if i knew what the fuck i was doing i wouldn't be here asking questions.

12/19/2009 3:46:58 PM

that laptop might have some hardware failures in which case its just gonna die eventually anyway

12/19/2009 4:47:27 PM

any ideas on how to get the admin password? i'm guessing if i could disable that i could change the settings in the bios mode.

12/19/2009 5:25:04 PM

i know on desktops there's a jumper you can mess with to reset the pw

no idea on laptop. what model was it again? dont really feel like re-reading the thread

12/19/2009 5:32:50 PM

dell inspiron 8200

12/19/2009 6:08:34 PM

so i've actually made it to the point of understanding this shit a little better and now have figured out what needs to be done. i know the hdd needs to be formatted and there are only two ways of doing this. first, i need to find a way to get past the admin password to make changes to the bios. i currently have the bios battery unplugged hoping it will reset. if reset i can change the bios to load from the cd-rom instead of the hdd.
if the password reset does not work i need to switch to plan b. i have a dell inspiron 6000 available to use. i'm going to check the compatibility of the hdd between the two laptops. i assume if the 8200 hdd is compatible with the 6000 i can swap the bad hdd into the 6000 which should allow me to format.
does this sound like a reasonable idea?

12/19/2009 8:05:49 PM

the whole bios pw thing really isn't necessarily a problem. usually you can hit F12 to get into the boot menu anyways and force it to boot from the CD..that's all you really would need to change in the BIOS anyways.

[Edited on December 19, 2009 at 8:18 PM. Reason : or F11]

12/19/2009 8:17:59 PM

yeah, that wouldn't work either. i was able to swap the hard drive into a different laptop. i was able to change the bios and load directly from disc. i also tried by pressing f12 and switching it that way but it kept going to the bsod and i couldn't get any further. i guess it's safe to assume the hdd crashed, is beyond repair, and needs to be replaced?

[Edited on December 19, 2009 at 9:34 PM. Reason : thanks for all the help]

12/19/2009 9:33:44 PM

So with the HDD in a different laptop, you could not install Windows is what you are saying?

If so, my guess is the HDD has crapped out. You may be able to still get some data off it if you have not tried to format it yet by connecting it to a different computer with a USB or other adapter.

12/19/2009 10:28:32 PM

correct. there's nothing needed off the hdd anyway. i was just trying to get the thing to work. a new one can be had for ~$30.

12/19/2009 10:50:09 PM

My Dell hard drive is clicking, wont load windows.
Maybe now that your are a computer expert you can fix mine

12/21/2009 11:47:14 PM

oh dag, it's P Nis

12/21/2009 11:58:04 PM

HOLLA

12/26/2009 8:47:44 PM