Reformatting 2 laptops

[quinton jackson]

My friend and mom both have problems with their laptops that they want me to fix. Basically, both computers turn on but there's no picture on the screen. I'm thinking I'll just have to reformat them but I've never done it before. I am good at following instructions and I have been able to pick up things with computers over the years but I just never bothered to learn something like this.

My friend's laptop is a Dell XPSM1530. She got a virus on it or something and her boyfriend tried reformatting it on the same day he was leaving the country so he told me to try to fix it. He mentioned something about installing the drivers. When the laptop turns on, there's a boot screen with a loading bar and I can push F2 to start Setup and F12 to load the boot menu. If I don't do either, the screen will just stay blank. When my friend gave me the laptop she mentioned the hard drive possibly being damaged.

My mom's laptop is a Fujitsu Lifebook. It's been really slow for as long as I can remember. I used Spybot to remove adware and stuff about a month ago and things were fine but she just told me that when she turns it on the screen just stays blank.

Any ideas or explanations?

 

[Timinator94]

Yeah i have a couple; First on your moms insert a boot disk or os install disk and see if the screen turns on if not then the laptops done, probably the lcd itself or the display adapter,ether way it isnt cost effective trying to repair it.
If it does turn on then follow the directions on the os disk to reinstall windows(or whatever) then it should resolve the problem. For your friends; same thing try reinstalling the os and then go to google and search for the appropriate drivers. If you cant find them you can pm me for driver download sites.

P.S Welcome to ComputerForums.org

 

[Computear]

Yeah i have a couple; First on your moms insert a boot disk or os install disk and see if the screen turns on if not then the laptops done, probably the lcd itself or the display adapter,ether way it isnt cost effective trying to repair it.
If it does turn on then follow the directions on the os disk to reinstall windows(or whatever) then it should resolve the problem. For your friends; same thing try reinstalling the os and then go to google and search for the appropriate drivers. If you cant find them you can pm me for driver download sites.

P.S Welcome to ComputerForums.org

What Tim said.

When you boot from the OS disc, choose the Repair option.

 

[quinton jackson]

I was able to boot with the disc. There was a load bar and then it said Windows is loading or something and then the screen went black but there's a mouse pointer that I can move with the touch pad. It doesn't load anything else, it was like this for an hour before I gave up. It's Windows 7 Ultimate that I downloaded and burned...should I try another OS? I don't have any boot discs.

 

[Timinator94]

You should try a different os. If you dont want to shell oyt cash for xp try ubuntu which is a legal free os and you can find it at http://ubuntu.com/downloads. Just find a compatable version for your system and download. Or you can request a disk but it will take 4 to 6 weeks to arrive.

p.s chances are that if you are trying to install 7 already you are doing so illegally so it may be a fake torrent

 

[Computear]

I was able to boot with the disc. There was a load bar and then it said Windows is loading or something and then the screen went black but there's a mouse pointer that I can move with the touch pad. It doesn't load anything else, it was like this for an hour before I gave up. It's Windows 7 Ultimate that I downloaded and burned...should I try another OS? I don't have any boot discs.

Windows 7 Ultimate is not available yet.

Where you trying one of the beta versions?

If it was a cracked version, that is illegal, and we cannot help you on these forums.

 

[quinton jackson]

Okay, so I managed to get the CD for Windows Vista Home Premium. This was the original operating system that came with the laptop. It does the same thing. It boots and loads the files then it goes to a black screen with a mouse pointer that I can move. The screen stays like that for as long as the computer stays on and does nothing else. What should I do?

 

[Computear]

Okay, so I managed to get the CD for Windows Vista Home Premium. This was the original operating system that came with the laptop. It does the same thing. It boots and loads the files then it goes to a black screen with a mouse pointer that I can move. The screen stays like that for as long as the computer stays on and does nothing else. What should I do?

Same problem on both laptops?

 

[quinton jackson]

No, it just does it for my friend's laptop. She said her friend's dad looked at it and said the hard drive is completely corrupted. I have no idea if this is a software issue or if the hard drive is unfixable. This is just an idea but I was thinking of booting in DOS mode and formatting the hard drive. Should I try it?

My mom's laptop is most likely finished. There's no picture or boot screen at all. Can she still transfer the files from her hard drive or are they lost forever?

 

[Computear]

No, it just does it for my friend's laptop. She said her friend's dad looked at it and said the hard drive is completely corrupted. I have no idea if this is a software issue or if the hard drive is unfixable. This is just an idea but I was thinking of booting in DOS mode and formatting the hard drive. Should I try it?

Try it, if it doesn't work, it needs a new hard drive, which is what I was thinking.

My mom's laptop is most likely finished. There's no picture or boot screen at all. Can she still transfer the files from her hard drive or are they lost forever?

Depends on what the problem is, if the screen is dead, the hard drive could be undamaged, if the hard drive is dead, a professional data recovery place might be able to recover some/all of it.