My Laptop is ...dead! ...long live the PC

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papercoffee
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My Laptop is ...dead! ...long live the PC

Post by papercoffee »

Ok ...maybe someone here knows a solution or what I have to search.

My WinXP went down the drain.
The battery is old and after I forgot to recharge it did my laptop shut down during windows start up.
Since then It won't boot any more.
Save boot, last known config, normal start ...nothing works.
Right now I'm running an old live CD with Linux Mint 16.
I managed to get a win XP sp3 install on a stick but my laptop won't recognize it and the only install version on CD is a sp1.
I did run out of options. What now?

Edit-----------------------------------------

My Laptop finally kicked the bucket. (-__-)
I'm out of the picture for now.

I can't access neither the HDD nor the CD drive.
This time it's a hardware problem which I can't simply repair or replace, because I can't afford it.
Even a used machine is out of my reach.

So ...I search now a way for a fundraise to buy at least a used Laptop.

I won't be much around here from now on. :(
Last edited by papercoffee on Mon May 16, 2016 3:46 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Chris
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by Chris »

Well, by the sound of it your harddrive took some damage from a sudden powerloss.
I've got atleast 10 discs laying around where similar things happend.
If the files on there are in any need of you I'd suggest trying to read the files on it either through a live cd or connect the drive to another computer.
Feel free to use the XP SP1 CD and try to see if a reinstall is possible (unless the disc is completly corrupted or damaged). You can easily update from sp1 to sp3 later on.
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Barbie
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by Barbie »

Before anything other, I'd check if the HDD itself (not the file system) is error free - if not, anything else would be useless.
papercoffee wrote:Right now I'm running an old live CD with Linux Mint 16.
Open a console, type

Code: Select all

fdisk -l
and identify your HDD (should be /dev/sda or /dev/hda). Then run the non destructive check

Code: Select all

badblocks -ns /dev/yourHDD
This can take a while (probably hours).
"Multiple exclamation marks," he went on, shaking his head, "are a sure sign of a diseased mind." --Terry Pratchett
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papercoffee
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by papercoffee »

@ Barbie
Thanks will do this.
The HDD "seemed" ok because I could make a backup to a second partition on the same drive. I hope nothing happened to the hardware. :|
I have an external drive ...with enough space for the backup.
wish me luck and a strong coffee.

Edit--------------------
The test is running now. What if I find an error?
I still can't boot the USB stick.
Chris wrote:You can easily update from sp1 to sp3 later on.
How? Microsoft doesn't offer the download any more. Well, at least I couldn't find it.
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Barbie
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by Barbie »

papercoffee wrote:The test is running now. What if I find an error?
Backup your data (if still possible) and put in a new HDD.
papercoffee wrote:How? Microsoft doesn't offer the download [SP3] any more.
Do a web search for WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-DEU (yours was German, wasn't it?)
<EDIT>
md5sum(WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-DEU.exe)=265246926aa44bd767b0c11f80c084f1
</EDIT>
"Multiple exclamation marks," he went on, shaking his head, "are a sure sign of a diseased mind." --Terry Pratchett
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Metalfist
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by Metalfist »

If you want to boot from an USB drive you first need to go to your bios settings and select that you want to boot from an usb device. By default its set to the HDD / Disk drive.

... and besides that... Windows XP :shock: ?! Why not 7?
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by papercoffee »

Barbie wrote:
papercoffee wrote:The test is running now. What if I find an error?
Backup your data (if still possible)
Did this already it's on a different partition. And the HDD is fully accessible from Linux...
If I boot my Lenovo T60, Windows starts in the loading screen and suddenly stops after one second and shows the blue-screen.
It's like it can't load a needed driver or something else. In Save Mode can I see that it stops somewhere in drivers but this can mean everything or nothing.
Barbie wrote:
papercoffee wrote:How? Microsoft doesn't offer the download [SP3] any more.
Do a web search for WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-DEU (yours was German, wasn't it?)
<EDIT>
md5sum(WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-DEU.exe)=265246926aa44bd767b0c11f80c084f1
</EDIT>
Nope, mine was/is an English version. :wink:
Metalfist wrote:If you want to boot from an USB drive you first need to go to your bios settings and select that you want to boot from an usb device. By default its set to the HDD / Disk drive.

... and besides that... Windows XP :shock: ?! Why not 7?
Already did this as well :D ...and XP because I have a Lenovo T60 with just 1 GB RAM. ;)
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Metalfist
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by Metalfist »

Is the USB formatted in the right format?
Have you checked if the USB works on another pc?
If the USB is somehow not properly prepared, you can try Rufus to easily create a bootable usb.

What does the bluescreen say (code)?
Perhaps windows got corrupt?

I have no idea, but found this:
https://support.lenovo.com/nl/nl/documents/migr-69819
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by -=SoP=-axewound »

If the USB drive is bootable, you may need to set the laptop to boot from the portable drive via the boot menu. To access boot menu usually you need to hold a key on power up (F12?) but IIRC there is a button on some Lenovo laptops that do this also (Next to the power button). If all else fails check the bios settings for bootable drives by holding F8 on boot. There should be a setting in the to allow boot from USB.
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by memsys »

Some systems (mostly the older ones) don't fully support booting from usb so it could be that.
If you can see windows booting but it BSODs and the disk is fine then you are dealing with a simple data corruption.

Nothing that has not been said before but yeah, it sounds like you just need to reinstall windows.
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by papercoffee »

memsys wrote:Some systems (mostly the older ones) don't fully support booting from usb so it could be that.
If you can see windows booting but it BSODs and the disk is fine then you are dealing with a simple data corruption.

Nothing that has not been said before but yeah, it sounds like you just need to reinstall windows.
This could be the case... a friend of mine can burn the sp3 version on CD for me. I'll see if this works.
Thanks so far to all of you.
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by papercoffee »

I AM BACK BIATCHES !!!
My Laptop is running with a new XP and I'm on the way to reinstall everything I need.

The problem was that Mint couldn't make a real bootable stick ...and the install from the stick was complicated as well.
The HDD was not corrupted just some files from Windows were kaput. *phew*
Anyway ...I'm back on track.

Good night.
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Re: My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by Wises »

was gonna say try using a BootDisk [a:] and either

Code: Select all

chkdsk /f
~or~

System File Checker

glad you sorted it.. albeit the hard way :what:

cheers.
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Re: [solved] My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by Metalfist »

Glad to hear everything is okay again :)
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Re: [solved] My Laptop is broken ...need help!

Post by Dr.Flay »

Sorry I was not around to help but I have been in a similar position, and am now back to using my old 32bit PC with a fresh XP (with Windows 7 theme pack).
It ran like crap for some reason, but I found that MS Defender was the culprit. So I will rely on Herdprotect for AV scans.
Old Opera 12 got a cryptography update last month so I can continue using a fast browser on it for even longer :highfive:

OK. Papercoffee, now you have a functioning XP, I am going to get you to add a "recovery console".
Type it in the Windows help to read the overview and commands.
With the Windows disc in the drive, paste this in the run box or a command prompt;

Code: Select all

E:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons
(I am assuming that your optical drive is E:)
It will fail to find a newer version online then install from CD.

In future remember to try booting from your Windows CD and run the repair option you should get.

Make sure your "My Documents" folder is not in drive C:
Right-click on it to change the location to D:My Documents or an external drive.

You will not be able to use the Windows update until you have installed an update for the update system !
I am not sure exactly which update it was, because I still have the updates for offline installing with Autopatcher.
Re-enabling the updates is very worthwhile because once XP has been patched as an embedded version you will continue getting updates until 2019.
I will try and find it, or you should try Autopatcher.

https://vivaldi.net/userblogs/entry/usi ... e-deadline
https://www.winhelp.us/reinstall-windows-update.html
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