zero2dash
12-20-2005, 10:13 AM
One of my bosses has a daughter in college who had a non-working laptop roughly 3 months ago. My boss asked me if I would take a look at it if he brought it in to which I replied "sure". 3 months later, he's finally able to get it from his daughter and bring it in. He tells me "She bought a new laptop 3 months ago so she doesn't want this one (the defective one) back; we have no use for it so do whatever you want with it...just try to see if you can get her files off there and save them to a cd if you can. Since it's been 3 months she probably doesn't need any of the files now but if possible, save them."
I noticed that the case was somewhat modern...so I knew it was at least a P3 (which was good enough for me for being *free*). I knew it was an HP because...well...the HP insignia on the lid. :)
I get it home and open it up...and am greeted by a $1,000 receipt from 1 1/2 yrs ago...and then notice it's an Athlon XP 2200+ cpu. I'm like wow, not too bad. Try to power it on...battery is DOA. :heh: So I go off AC and it loads up. After the HP logo (bios) screen, it starts to load and then says "NTLDR Failed" and it resets (and repeats...and repeats...and repeats).
Go to my desktop P4 and Google "NTLDR Failed" and find the easy fix...booting off a 2k/XP disc and fixing it with the Recovery console. Do so...voila...laptop boots. It had the HP software on it still, so it was XP Home + EasyCD so I used the CD burner, burned her documents/songs (took 3 discs) and am bringing the cds to work tomorrow to give to my boss.
In the meantime, I reformatted and installed XP Pro and I also bought a wireless G card and upgraded the ram with a 512 meg Corsair stick (so now its up to 768) and this thing's frickin' sweet! I might buy a new battery at some point but it's primarily a "couch" PC, so running off AC is no big deal. I'm just glad to not have to worry about ethernet cable anymore. :thumb:
I noticed that the case was somewhat modern...so I knew it was at least a P3 (which was good enough for me for being *free*). I knew it was an HP because...well...the HP insignia on the lid. :)
I get it home and open it up...and am greeted by a $1,000 receipt from 1 1/2 yrs ago...and then notice it's an Athlon XP 2200+ cpu. I'm like wow, not too bad. Try to power it on...battery is DOA. :heh: So I go off AC and it loads up. After the HP logo (bios) screen, it starts to load and then says "NTLDR Failed" and it resets (and repeats...and repeats...and repeats).
Go to my desktop P4 and Google "NTLDR Failed" and find the easy fix...booting off a 2k/XP disc and fixing it with the Recovery console. Do so...voila...laptop boots. It had the HP software on it still, so it was XP Home + EasyCD so I used the CD burner, burned her documents/songs (took 3 discs) and am bringing the cds to work tomorrow to give to my boss.
In the meantime, I reformatted and installed XP Pro and I also bought a wireless G card and upgraded the ram with a 512 meg Corsair stick (so now its up to 768) and this thing's frickin' sweet! I might buy a new battery at some point but it's primarily a "couch" PC, so running off AC is no big deal. I'm just glad to not have to worry about ethernet cable anymore. :thumb: