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Ianwallage
27-12-2006, 02:27 PM
Hi. Got a Compaq evo n115 laptop and the drive has been formatted. I have not got a system recovery disc and I am unable to get into the bios to tell it to boot from cd. Does anyone know how I can re-install everything? or is it just dead now?
cheers

y2krog2000
27-12-2006, 02:30 PM
Why can you not get into the bios? you should be able to unless the laptop is completly dead.

dx100-uk
27-12-2006, 02:34 PM
what do you get on the screen?
hitting f2 or f10 on boot repeatedly normally cracks most compaqs

dx100uk:rose:

gonkeboy
27-12-2006, 05:01 PM
Boot from a floppy windows 98 boot disc that will let you then use the cd drive

y2krog2000
27-12-2006, 05:07 PM
I dont think it has a floppy drive.

Ianwallage
27-12-2006, 08:32 PM
I have eventually got into the bios by pressing F10 and changed the boot system to cd rom but it still will not load the windows re-installation disc. If I bbot up without the windows disc in then it just says "system disc error. replace disc and press any key" but when I boot up with the disc in it just flashes a cursor at the top left of the screen. The COMPAQ logo appears first on both boot ups

y2krog2000
27-12-2006, 08:46 PM
Change bios to boot from cd, stick in the windows xp cd then restart you will get a message on boot to press any button to boot from cd and you have to press something on the keyboard within a couple of seconds then it will start the install process.

weeblackhelicopter
27-12-2006, 08:56 PM
Try Bootdisk.Com (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 1 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. for some great utilities.

If your Hard drive is knackered you can normally piggy back it onto a PC IDE cable using a special cable (check E-bay for them), you can then normally access the file system of your drive and copy over any vital files.

Hope this helps

Ianwallage
27-12-2006, 09:12 PM
Ive changed the bios to boot from cd but I get no messages at all just the costant flashing cursor top left

weeblackhelicopter
27-12-2006, 09:29 PM
In your BIOS is your Hard drive recognised?
If it is then you might have a knackered recovery CD or a knackered CD Rom drive.
Some BIOS versions need you to enable the CD rom as a boot device as well as making it the first bootable device.

Strangely my mate just phoned me with the same fault!!!!!!!!!!!!
:troutslap:

bamesal
27-12-2006, 09:54 PM
i think ma8 u need to change the installation xp cd put another bootable windows cd and restart the computer i think this will solve ur problem

dx100-uk
27-12-2006, 10:10 PM
compaq laptops with boot problems often do this

remove all power, take out the battery & leave it for a while.

if it still does the same on a repower
load bios defaults option & try again

i'm a bit busy
i'll be back later to get to the bottom of this if you are around

dx100uk;;)

Ianwallage
28-12-2006, 10:59 AM
I have tried all of the above and still no joy. think its ready for the skip cos the battery isn,t charging either. 4 lights on the battery flashing but the laptop will not power up by battery alone

iron-man
28-12-2006, 11:32 AM
at the risk of sounding stupid could it haven something to do with it being a slave!?! maybe as well as booting up on the CD-rom it needs to be set to master!?!
maybe if you also try restoring the BIOS settings and then trying it!?! worked for me once!

Ianwallage
28-12-2006, 03:23 PM
I made a bootdisk for windows 98 and it booted from A and left me with A prompt but if I try to load win 98 it still flashes a cursor at me so it looks as though the cd rom is US I could probably load it from A drive but I don,t have win 98 on floppy

weeblackhelicopter
28-12-2006, 07:46 PM
Do you see the Hard Drive or the CD Rom in the BIOS, that is the first place to start diagnosing your problem.

Let me know and I will suggest some other stuff.

:-?

dx100-uk
28-12-2006, 10:01 PM
when you booted from the 98 floopy
did it say something about findingg a cd rom?

if not as bh says change the bios to defaults/is it listed?

what does the bios say about devices found?

dx100uk:bomb:

Ianwallage
29-12-2006, 04:27 PM
in the bios it gave me four options. boot from floppy disc... boot from cd rom... boot from harddrive or boot from network... and its possible to move them around to boot in order. When I loaded the bootdisk it told me that it had found ATAPI cd rom.. don,t know if this is the one in the laptop but it is a dvd rom not cd.

y2krog2000
29-12-2006, 04:36 PM
Have you got windows xp cd? if not get a lend of one and try booting from that instead of the windows 98 one, the cd in your bios will be your dvd drive.

dx100-uk
29-12-2006, 05:21 PM
ok great you are getting somewhere now.

now you can either go two ways here:

change the boot order in the bios to make the dvd drive first boot device
and try your disc in the drive upon repower

or

if you watch when you boot from the win98 floppy it will give you a drive letter assoc with the atapi dvd you found.

stick your disc in the dvd drive, change to that drive
i'e e: [hit return]

then type autorun [return]
or
setup [return]

that should get you strated on the install.

now it prob wont go very well as there will be all manner of makers device drivers you will need .

the best way here to sort them would be to use another PC & a USB stick
and transfer them that way.
else you might be able to download the drivers CD contents [if you dont have it already] from the manu's website.

just be really careful about putting it up in the net until you have ZAFREE firewall on it.
then just keep bouncing back to windows update until it is all done.


dx100uk:google: