Dell Latitude x300 reformat problem

This was working when given to me - I did a standard wipe of the hard drive
and then reinstalled Windows xp - it completes the dos based installation
but hangs when booting - any one have any tips for getting this to work ?

The drive did contain a Dell utility partition, now gone. Windows was
reinstalled from an i386 folder on the (repartitioned) hard drive - no cd.

Thanks

"Alan Plaid" <> wrote in message
news:Xns9C8A69DAD5D89Plaid@193.202.122.115...
> This was working when given to me - I did a standard wipe of the hard
> drive
> and then reinstalled Windows xp - it completes the dos based installation
> but hangs when booting - any one have any tips for getting this to work ?
>
> The drive did contain a Dell utility partition, now gone. Windows was
> reinstalled from an i386 folder on the (repartitioned) hard drive - no cd.

Test the hardware - boot something like BART PE

Try a different hard drive and use a kosher MS windows install disk and the
product key that is known to work with it. You should be able to complete
the installation, but probably not activate it. No matter, that will prove
the hardware.

I have seen a laptop that was dropped, and the keyboard /mouse did not work
reliably, nor did any pluk-in USB keboard/mouse. But BartPE worked
perfectly, and the Windows install (both vanilla install and restore from
the manufacturer's CD) ran OK until well after the first reboot - then hung.
I suspect some hardware error in the interrupt handling, and my guess is
that BartPE doesn't use interrupts.

If yours is the same try installing a Linux distribution and see if that
fails at a locigally similar point.

--
Graham J

Duncan Kennedy <> wrote in
news::

> In message <4ab388fc$0$2539$>, Graham J
> <> writes
>
>>
>>If yours is the same try installing a Linux distribution and see if
that
>>fails at a locigally similar point.
>>
> Good suggestion - you don't even need to install it - just run from a
> live distribution. I've used Puppy Linux for that purpose as a starter
> - small download and then burn as an ISO to the CD. (Also used it to
> rescue data files from a badly infected computer - but you do need to
> check your rescued data medium with a virus checker before putting it
> back on any other box.
>

Thanks for the replies. Just for info -

Nothing wrong with thehardware as I have ghosted the original system back
on and it works fine, it's just locked to a domain that no longer exists
- making a long story short it has various problems which really require
a reinstall - I have the original i386 folder of the C drive which is a
copy of Windows XP SP2 - serial on the back of th machine matches - I
have tried installing with a variety of disks including the supplied file
set - there is no Cd drive so I have been running from a second
partition of the hard drive - like I have done thousands of times. Just
wondered if this model has some special trick to it as nothing will
install - I am sure linux would but it's not what is needed.

Any other ideas ?

thanks

"Alan Plaid" <> wrote in message
news:Xns9C8ACC97ACDA7Plaid@193.202.122.122...
> Duncan Kennedy <> wrote in
> news::
>
>> In message <4ab388fc$0$2539$>, Graham J
>> <> writes
>>
>>>
>>>If yours is the same try installing a Linux distribution and see if
> that
>>>fails at a locigally similar point.
>>>
>> Good suggestion - you don't even need to install it - just run from a
>> live distribution. I've used Puppy Linux for that purpose as a starter
>> - small download and then burn as an ISO to the CD. (Also used it to
>> rescue data files from a badly infected computer - but you do need to
>> check your rescued data medium with a virus checker before putting it
>> back on any other box.
>>
>
> Thanks for the replies. Just for info -
>
> Nothing wrong with thehardware as I have ghosted the original system back
> on and it works fine, it's just locked to a domain that no longer exists
> - making a long story short it has various problems which really require
> a reinstall - I have the original i386 folder of the C drive which is a
> copy of Windows XP SP2 - serial on the back of th machine matches - I
> have tried installing with a variety of disks including the supplied file
> set - there is no Cd drive so I have been running from a second
> partition of the hard drive - like I have done thousands of times. Just
> wondered if this model has some special trick to it as nothing will
> install - I am sure linux would but it's not what is needed.
>
> Any other ideas ?

Does anybody know the administrator password for the domain that no longer
exists? This would at least allow you to locigally disconect it from the
domain ... I think there ought to be a registry edit that would allow this,
but I've never looked for one.

Can you not fit a CD player temporarily to boot a vanilla CD. Or ghost a
running system from a similar machine?

--
Graham J