strange behavior on dell 510 laptop when installing windows. 1

[wvdba]

hi.
i have a del 510 laptop that i bought from a pawn shop. no programs will run. when i try to run cmd, it opens up a dialog box saying "select a program to open "cmd". in other words, it has lost file interpretation. it is the same way with any other application like .exe, etc. the cd-rom drive is not working, so i attached an external cd-rom drive.
i tried to re-install windows, when the install menu opened up, i clicked "install". it did nothing. i finally took out the hard drive, installed windows xp on it in another machine and put it back in. when i turn it on, it just sits there with a black screen and a flashing cursor. any idea how i can re-load windows into this laptop? or what's causing this strange behavior?
thanks.

 

[vacunita]

Why did you take out the hard drive and install windows on a different machine? You basically told windows to use the hardware on the other machine, and then you made it try to run on completely different hardware. Not likely to work.

Try booting from the XP CD on the machine in question instead of initiating the install from inside Windows.

You'll likely have to go into BIOS and set the boot order to CD first. Then restart the machine and let it boot up from the CD. Let it Install Windows again from there.

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[wvdba]

thanks vacunita,
the boot order is cd first, then hard drive. the cd drive is not working. that's why i used an external cd drive. the machine, doesn't recognize the external cd drive without an os. that's why i tried installing xp while inside windows. and that's why i loaded the hard drive in another machine. i have done this before and it works. when you put the "loaded" hard drive in a new machine, it just keeps recognizing new hardware and tries to install the drivers for it. it works. but, in this case, there's just a blinking cursor and a black screen. could the hard drive be damaged?

 

[xit]

If you were able to install windows with another machine on the hard drive, then the drive is ok

xit

 

[vacunita]

The hard drive may be damaged, but then it would perform the same in both machines. You could of course download the diagnostic tools form the Hard drive manufacturer and try to run them on the drive while connected to another machine.

I would also check everything is connected properly. Can the BIOS detect the hard drive?



----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[goombawaho]

Right - hard drive diag first, then start looking at software reasons.

 

[wvdba]

hard drive shows up on the bios ok. i installed xp on the hard drive using another machine with no problem. i'm not sure if it is the hard drive. any other suggestions?
thanks.

 

[Tatertot45]

Just my opinion (if you think it is not the HDD)... Start with the next closest hardware to the HDD, cables. work your way through the computer in a logical manner. if you know a part is bad, remove/replace it. Try tracking down known goods and implementing them.

I hope you didn't pay too much for this beast. Sounds like you bought a project, not a laptop...

 

[linney]

Does this Dell machine have a recovery partition that you can restore from? Have you checked with Dell?

Dell 510m - restore to factory settings

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cfm?action=showthread&threadid=309884&forumid=1

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=d...&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=AkrXS7i9II3u7AP4q6WFAw

When you installed XP on the other machine where did the booting files end up and what partition do they point to?

These talk about Laptop Adapters which connect the drive to a Desktop.

Mount an unbootable NTFS drive? !!HELP!! Tough one.
thread779-738178: Mount an unbootable NTFS drive? !!HELP!! Tough one.

ReImage laptop hard drive
thread779-1261355: ReImage laptop hard drive


HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP (Q289022)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q289/0/22.asp

HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP(Q305595)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q305/5/95.asp

See the paragraph "Windows Requirements for Boot Devices" in this article.

Archive: Recommendations for Booting Windows from USB Storage Devices

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/usb-boot.mspx

 

[BadBigBen]

Installing in one machine and then transferring the drive to another works sometimes, and at other times it would normally Blue Screen...

now when you boot up and the cursor sits at the top of the screen flashing, tells me the following...

BIOS check went OK. BIOS initiated load sequence, first to the CD ROM, then normally to the HDD...

now my bet would be that the CD ROM in question is defective, thus locking up the controller, thus no loading of the OS...

Remove the CD ROM physically from the LapTop, then remove it from the BOOT ORDER in the BIOS, and then attempt to BOOT... if it BOOTs then you got a bum CD ROM.. if it doesn't then there could be a controller issue...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[wvdba]

BadBigBen,
you hit the nail right on the head. the problem was the bad cdrom drive. i took it out. things started looking good. here's what i did. i started the laptop using win-98 start-up disk using an external floppy drive. i used fdisk and format to delete the partition(s) on the drive and create a new partition. then i installed another cdrom drive and it booted to install xp using the new cdrom drive and win-xp cd. all worked ok. the problem was the bad cdrom drive.
thanks.

 

[BadBigBen]

You are welcome...

now you did not need to use the W98 boot disk at all, XP has a much better Partitioning tool built right into the installer...

but deed done, all working, and good to go...

and thanks for reporting back...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"