Dear God Help Me Someone I Am Going Crazy

[rall]

Alrite this is the situation:

i recently found an old 233mhz compaq armada laptop
and it was completly blank, no OS, nothing!!
I NEED TO INSTALL WINDOWS BUT I CANNOT

i put in windows 2000 cd, doesnt boot, i get boot disks they do not work
i tried the same thing with windows ME, WINDOWS 98, nothing works!!

I think that its cd drive is screwed up and is not reading the cds properly
is there any way i can install windows??? hELP ME

 

[wiktorek01]

use floppy boot discs??

 

[Cx]

i have the same laptop.

I can't figure out which is the bios key. But if you figure it out, you can set the boot sequence to

cd
floppy
hard drive

then it will work correctly.

 

[rall]

thx for the info, i tried it, for some reason CDROM does not appear in boot option, i think the cdrom isnt working
is there any way that i can get an external CDROM to work???
or any other way to install windows other than CDROM

 

[technoman2]

if the drive doesn't appear in the BIOS its doesn't work or its not connected correctly on of the two. Not sure if an external drive will work USB?

 

[Kage]

Hmm... Does the cd light even switch on when you turn the computer on to say its activated?

If it doesn't it could be the fact the IDE cable is on the wrong way round.
Just try switching this around so that it is twisted the right way and place it back again. Some IDE cables have a marker or something so you know which way its meant to go into the drive.

It could be the bit going to the drive, or the bit going into the motherboard, so check both, because if its the wrong way, i'd expect the IDE cable to look twisted.

I hope this helps, and hopefully it'll then boot.

I also think that Windows 2000 booted automatically and didn't need a bootdisc

 

[rall]

allright, but windows 2000 doesnt boot automatically, i know its suppose to but it gives me a message "Press any key to boot from CD" something like that, and when i press a key, absolutly nothing happens, it stays on that screen for hours

 

[rall]

hmm, the light turns on everyonce in a while, but it has difficulties reading the cds, my friend tells me that it may have diificulties reading burnt cds, is that possible?

 

[Kage]

Yeah, so that does mean it boots from CD since its giving you the message.

Trust me when I say it does, and that your CD drive is not activated. The reason it stays there is because the cable is in the wrong way round, and DOS is getting confused... I bet it takes a while to find all the drives too.
So switch the IDE cable around so they aren't twisted and try again Trust me, this is the issue with it.

Your CD rom drive will have problems turning on if the cables are the wrong way round because I've had this problem before. If the light is coming on, it is still recieving power though.

It could have issues running a copied disc, though i'm sure this isn't the case this time. If you have checked the cables and twisted them around the other way, then it could be this. Though most CD Rom drives are capable of reading burnt discs.
If all else fails, ask to borrow another CD if its copied...

Hope this helps

 

[rall]

problem is that this is a laptop, makes things difficult