Trouble installing windows XP

I'm in the process of fixing a computer for a friend. She bought it for 10 bucks from her college that was throwing away old computers to make room for new ones. the only catch is that it still had windows installed in a way that u must loggin to the school network with ur student id blah blah blah.

Obviously that doesn't do you much good so the first step would be to wipe the HDD and install a fresh copy of windows!.... right?

the Problem is:
It won't boot from its CDROM drive even tho it has the option in the bios to boot from CD.

Sooooo, can u guys give me some suggestions that don't involve burning it, throwing it, or smashing it?:bang:

I have already tried removing the HDD and using another PC to install windows and popping it back into the original PC...(Doesn't work so well with WinXP ProSP2)

edit:
what i know about the PC:
P3 1GHz proc
512 pc133 Ram
60Gig IDE HDD
GeForce mmx440 agp graphix card
3 1/4" floppy drive
Iomega IDE Zip Drive

edit2x:
Possible causes:
CD-Rom drive is bad
MOBO is bad
HDD is bad

you could try the six disk windows xp booting. Works tested! Had the same prob way back and later turned out my motherboard was fuuked up

6 disk win xp booty XD
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

1. Get a spare DVD/CD-ROM drive that you know reads discs. Place it in, see if you can format/boot from the Windows CD.

2. If you still get no joy put the hard drive from that PC into another PC and try formatting/installing Windows onto it.

3. Buy/get a spare hard drive, format/install it with Windows. Try to boot it on that PC.

4. Get a USB version of Windows, bootable. Load it up and access the contents of the hard disk?

I would say there is a very good chance the CD drive is screwed, if it is a school computer. Kids tend to play rough with computers that aren't their own when they are bored.

Open it up and make sure the IDE ribbon is connected and firmly in place. Make sure the CD-ROM is being detected

Also, winxp should work just fine on this rig ;)

theres a program called wipe drive if you can get your hands on it itll bypass windows settings and delete everying on the drive as if straight out of assembly. use that then instal windows.

Did you check to make sure the install CD works in another computer?

Hmm, it's unlikely that a school would allow students to boot computers via the CD drive, that's just asking for trouble. There's probably some additional restriction in the BIOS settings that needs to be turned off.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cosmic

Hmm, it's unlikely that a school would allow students to boot computers via the CD drive, that's just asking for trouble. There's probably some additional restriction in the BIOS settings that needs to be turned off.

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Maybe he could restore the optimal defaults, or factory defaults, or something like that?

He could try but if it's anything like my old school's computers there will be a password in place. Can't say for sure without more information from the OP..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cosmic

He could try but if it's anything like my old school's computers there will be a password in place. Can't say for sure without more information from the OP..

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Reset the CMOS by moving/removing the CMOS jumper?

I forgot about the password, my school's PCs have passwords in the BIOS, too.

That's probably his best bet. I mean, it could be anything, but given that we're talking about a school computer the most likely scenario is a restricted BIOS.

I knew from the getgo that the BIOS would be passworded so even before messing with windows i reset the CMOS and set it up accordingly.

I've checked all the connections(internal and external).
Have checked my WinXP disc (its good)
I've already wiped the drive via my own PC and even tried to use my own PC to load windows to it and put the HDD back into the other computer.
I don't have a floppy drive to setup the winxp 6 disk boot method
I don't have a spare usb drive(PC doesn't support boot from USB anyway)
and I knew from the beginning that this machine could run windows XP as it was already on it to begin with.(just couldn't do anything because of lack of admin powers)

So it seems that the only viable options are to:
1.) Replace CDrom drive (i have a spare i can use for this)
and if that doesn't work
2.) Replace the MOBO (which wouldn't be worth it)
and ofcourse my preferance
3.) Tell her the PC is fried an not worth repairing and just keep the HDD and put it into my computer (we could all use the extra disk space - 60GIG)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Foxboy

I knew from the getgo that the BIOS would be passworded so even before messing with windows i reset the CMOS and set it up accordingly.

I've checked all the connections(internal and external).
Have checked my WinXP disc (its good)
I've already wiped the drive via my own PC and even tried to use my own PC to load windows to it and put the HDD back into the other computer.
I don't have a floppy drive to setup the winxp 6 disk boot method
I don't have a spare usb drive(PC doesn't support boot from USB anyway)
and I knew from the beginning that this machine could run windows XP as it was already on it to begin with.(just couldn't do anything because of lack of admin powers)

So it seems that the only viable options are to:
1.) Replace CDrom drive (i have a spare i can use for this)
and if that doesn't work
2.) Replace the MOBO (which wouldn't be worth it)
and ofcourse my preferance
3.) Tell her the PC is fried an not worth repairing and just keep the HDD and put it into my computer (we could all use the extra disk space - 60GIG)

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You know you want to go with option 3.

but yeah that is about the options you have, try 1, if not, 3. ;]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Astaroth

You know you want to go with option 3.

but yeah that is about the options you have, try 1, if not, 3. ;]

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I'll try option 1 first<:>
but pray that it doesn't work!:evilgrin:

actually from the get go there really was no need to reinstall windows.... of course its always a good place to start... all you probably had to do was login as the local admin (every computer has one) and then remove it from the school domain... at least thats my experience with it...

could be possible the drive just doesnt like to boot stuff from it?

i had that problem when messing with xboxhdm.... the IDE cd drive i was using was set to master, set appropriately in the bios, etc. it just wouldnt boot...

however i booted windows with it installed, and it worked no problem... weird huh? i'd definitely try to get another good cd drive that you know boots cd's and do it that way

Gonna throw this in for fun, but have you tried flashing the BIOS altogether?

PROTIP: Installing on another computer will do more harm than good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cheezymadman

PROTIP: Installing on another computer will do more harm than good.

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Installing what where?

Do remove the "protip" part. :wacko:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Evans

Installing what where?

Do remove the "protip" part. :wacko:

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i think he means installing windows on the HDD from another computer.

which i'll agree that its bound not to work considering theres different hardware on the 2 systems

eh, not really.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=772307

There's other ways of doing it too. It's a pretty good idea in this situation

I've had my friend do this once before. All you get is maybe some installed drivers you don't need.
Protip: Uninstall them. :wacko:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by b1gwi11

actually from the get go there really was no need to reinstall windows.... of course its always a good place to start... all you probably had to do was login as the local admin (every computer has one) and then remove it from the school domain... at least thats my experience with it...

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Trouble would be getting the admin password which it DID have....
...and I would have to log in as admin while connected the the schools network right?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Foxboy

Trouble would be getting the admin password which it DID have....
...and I would have to log in as admin while connected the the schools network right?

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resetting the admin password isnt hard, heres a link to a CD that pretty much holds ur hand thru every step of it ...

*LINK REMOVED*

also you dont have to be inside the schools network to unjoin it from the domain... just make sure there isnt anything in the profiles that were connected with the domain that you wanted to save

We can't discuss password resetting/cracking here. ;) We can however, PM such links to people with legit problems =)

EDIT: sorry panda... thought it would be okay since he has a legit problem

Got the PM and will bookmark the site (seeing as i fix computers for people alot)...
but like i said i already dumped windows from the drive