Time Laptop - Broken and out of warranty!

Okay lads and ladettes, I need a wee bit of help.

My sister has a Time laptop (which I told them not to get but my dad and stepmom *grr* insisted it would be fine). Now its broken and I tried to restore it using the CDs given but I got a critical error (with both sets of CDs in exactly the same place, about 3/4 of the way through).

I then rang Time on £1 a minute (twice) asking for more CDs but eventually they told me I would have to pay £59 for 3 CDs because the warranty has ended. I then hung up the phone.

I then tried to install my standard copy of windows pro. After some fiddling about it did come up with the windows checking file screen once before saying that my CD was corrupt too!

What is the best course of action now? I don't want to pay £59 for the CDs from time only to find out that its an actual hardware fault which is why it isn't reading any CDs.

Any thoughts?

Thanks :)

Don't suppose that you can do a network install or have a usb/1394 connected dvd/cd player?

Well I wouldn't know how to do a network install but as the nic on it wasn't working before and was one of the reasons for reinstalling I wouldn't hold out much hope for it. As for an external DVD/CD player...I dont have one. :(

If I could get hold of an external DVD/CD player of some sort how would I get it to boot from it rather than looking for the internal drive?

At what point are you getting the critical error and what exactly is it saying?
What was the fault before you started the reinstall process?

You tried running any bootable utils to check for hardware errors? (memtest and partition magic are the 2 that spring to mind).

If you have a Windows 2000/XP CD - but it can't read it - try making a backup of that CD onto a fresh CDR - that way you know that there won't be any scratches on the CD etc - then try installing Windows from the fresh backup CD.

I'll try the old disks agen to find out what the errors are.

The problem was that programs weren't loading, certain hardware wasn't showing up in the device listing, crashing, couldn't get on the network. To tell the truth it had never worked well since the day it arrived from Time.

Boot utils? No I haven't but I shall now. :)

Well I just tried using my normal Windows CD and it sed 'ntkrnlmp.exe could not be loaded - Error Code 7'. Mean anything to anyone?

With the time disk the error comes on the 2nd disk of 3. It says "0x0B Read fault"

does this microsoft support page help at all?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jsterling

does this microsoft support page help at all?

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No :( None of the things I can do work.

Got a CD/floppy cleaning kit? Or tried cleaning the CD lense? I'm wondering if it's just struggling to read the CDs/floppies.

Other drastic measures include removing the HDD, put in a USB enlosure, copy the I386 folder to the drive, put it back in the laptop then boot up with a floppy boot drive and install from HDD - Drastic measures I know!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jiff Lemon

Got a CD/floppy cleaning kit? Or tried cleaning the CD lense? I'm wondering if it's just struggling to read the CDs/floppies.

Other drastic measures include removing the HDD, put in a USB enlosure, copy the I386 folder to the drive, put it back in the laptop then boot up with a floppy boot drive and install from HDD - Drastic measures I know!

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I do have a VERY old CD lense cleaner which I tried but had no effect.

Im guessing that removing the HDD would involve unscrewing and actually taking a lot of it apart? Could be worth a try tho as I do have a USB enclsure, as luck would have it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Evil Homer

Well I just tried using my normal Windows CD and it sed 'ntkrnlmp.exe could not be loaded - Error Code 7'. Mean anything to anyone?

With the time disk the error comes on the 2nd disk of 3. It says "0x0B Read fault"

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i used to work in the service centre at time/tiny, i'm afraid ntkrnlmp.exe could be a variety of problems, your hardware suspects are RAM or CPU, but first i suggest you use the windows 98 startup disk and FDISK the entire hard drive, wipe the partition clean and rebuild it using FDISK, then you will have to do a full format, and then do a fresh install

Quote:

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Originally Posted by the insaan

i used to work in the service centre at time/tiny, i'm afraid ntkrnlmp.exe could be a variety of problems, your hardware suspects are RAM or CPU, but first i suggest you use the windows 98 startup disk and FDISK the entire hard drive, wipe the partition clean and rebuild it using FDISK, then you will have to do a full format, and then do a fresh install

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What about the error fromt he actuall Time Recovery CDs?

0x0B Read Fault

Can you tell me what that means?

Windows 98 startup disk? But I'm trying to install XP :confused:

Thought it was possible to install xp without the cd's by getting a 2.5" to 3.5" HD adapter cable?? Plug it into your main rig and away you go. There was mention of copying XP onto a HD and then installing from there on a thread the other day. Just an idea.

Anything that's going to involve the HDD is going to require a lot of unscrewing because its sealed inside. Something Im rather relectant to do but if it comes to it then what can you do. Altho if anyone could give me a good link to somewhere explaining what exactly would have to be done that'd be smashing.

Okay. I just tried to open it up to get to the HDD. No luck. A nuclear warhead couldn't get into this thing.

:(

P.S. Does anyone have any thoughts on this error I got after the initial Boot screen? It starting to try and boot from the CD then this came up

No Bootable CD In ATAPI CD-ROM

The CD isnt bootable ?

Tried taking it out ?, it should boot normally then.

Its a Windows XP Pro CD, surely it should be bootable? :confused: The point is I'm trying to get windows to install but can't

If its legit, it should be bootable.

If you cant get it to work, provided you have a floppy drive : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Agent

If its legit, it should be bootable.

If you cant get it to work, provided you have a floppy drive : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

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Thanks :) I'll try that

Also, if anyone had any more thoughts incase this doesn't get it working tonight I'd most greatfull. Because if I can't fix it today, it's going back to Time tomorrow which will cost a fortune but time is an issue so any help at all would be great.

Thanks :)

i know your trying to install xp, but the windows 98 startup diskette has all the dos commands needed for FDISK, windows xp does not come with dos

do you have a silver laptop or a black one

Its silver. Why? :confused:

If you wanna know the exact model its a Traveller 1600, if that helps.

I just tried it with the floppies and got this error at the end of formatting

Setup was unable to format the partition. The disk may be damaged.

Make sure the drive is switched on and properly connected to your computer. If the disk is a SCSI disk, make sure your SCSI devices are properly terminated. Consult your computer manual or SCSI adapter documentation for more information.

:(

sounds like a bad hard drive to me have you tried scanning to search for bad sectors etc and do you know anyone with a external drive connector if you do borrow it and try that . :)

Right. Last night i scanned the disk with the Fujitsu HDD checker thing and it passed that. I then used the Fujitsu HDD eraser thing to competely get rid of any info left on the HDD (which took HOURS!) I've now tried installing from my Windows Pro CDs + the floppies but it isnt recognising my CDs at all. It says insert the CD labeled Windows XP Pro but its already in.

I tried using the Time recovery disks but because there is no longer a partition it won't load and I can't get a partition because I can't seem to get into the right version of DOS to run fdisk.

does the cd-rom recognize the cd and does the setup even start now

Nope :(

Have you tried a Memtest boot floppy? It could be your memory causing the problems. You can get it here. (you just need a working computer and a blank floppy :))

I had a probem similar to this before with a newish computer ie refusing to read disks and stopping part ways through installation due to errors etc becuase of memory problems. I tried numerous different OSs and disks before I thought of checking the memory. The memory was completely borked but the disks etc were fine.

Isnt there something to do with if the goods are out of warranty and they malfunction isnt there something that will save him from paying ,time ,money for fixing a laptop that was made to a good standard anyway(always the same with time in my experience).

ok, the silver ones wernt actually built by time, they are just branded time, they were built by a company called mitac, so it may be worth sending mitac an email sa i know Time are aresholes when it comes to customer support, we wernt allowed to repair those laptops, they were sent back to mitac

Ok i think i can help you, provided you have what you need :)

Wheni got my laptop off ebay, it didnt have a CD drive, just a floppy and a NIC. so HTF was i supposed to get windows98se on it? ans == copy the CD onto the hard drive via a dos network. fun :)

So, what you would need would be your [inthiscase XP] CD on your main PCs hard drive (running any version of windows), a floppy drive on both your main PC and your lappy, and a NIC with crossover cable/switch/hub in each. You also need to know what model of NIC you have in the lappy, eg 3com/intel/cisco etc etc

if you can get all that i will walk you through the process :) takes about 30mins to do, then you simply install from your hard disk

Ooooooh, cheers. But its too late :( It was sent away to Time Monday morning to make sure it was fixed before she had to go back to uni. And I must say, despite all Time/Tiny/The Computer Shop's downfalls (of which I have found there to be many) and despite the fact it cost a fortune to do, the turnaround time for repair was phenomenal. It was picked up Monday morning and despatched back to us yesterday so with any luck it'll return to us later this morning and I'll get the diagnostic sheet so I'll finally be able to know exactly what was the problem. I sure hope it was a hardware fault cos I'll be peaved if it was something I could've fixed.

So what was the answer ? :)

Or did it get lost in the post ? :D lol