A friend of mine who knows nothing about pc's asked me to look at his laptop, which is showing a fatal error when started and just reboots itself. I've reformatted many pc's for people and for myself without a problem, but only desktops. I CAN get into the BIOS and change the boot sequence on this laptop, but I just wanted to be sure there's no difference in reformatting a laptop vs a desktop. One other question. This laptop has Windows XP Pro. I have discs for XP home, XP office, and XP Media Center. If I use one of those, can I use the same product key that he has for Pro? Will an XP product key work for any version of XP or is it just for whatever the PC came with? Thanks in advance and +1.
yes, it is the same as reformating a desktop. as for the windows, no you can not use his key on your disc. you can only use the key that came with the disc. just like a game.
Last edited by sR.:.crimson_viper911 (2006-08-09 21:45:33)
when your installing, if i remember correctly windows will either ask you about the laptop part or it will just install and realize its a laptop and give functionality to the mouse pad etc
most (all) laptops have recovery cds. stick that in and install that. then you should have a woring copy of win xp and all of the software/drivers that is needed to run this lappy
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Actually, you can use any CD/DVD of the game if you have your own legal key.sR.:.crimson_viper911 wrote:
yes, it is the same as reformating a desktop. as for the windows, no you can not use his key on your disc. you can only use the key that came with the disc. just like a game.
That's the easiest way. But if there's no recovery CD, go to the vendor's site and download the drivers. Use the System Properties - Hardware tab - Device Manager to see what hardware needs drivers.max wrote:
most (all) laptops have recovery cds. stick that in and install that. then you should have a woring copy of win xp and all of the software/drivers that is needed to run this lappy
I was just going to mention that it is usually best to download and burn a disc of the drivers before you format. I personally find it easiest to do it that way.
+1 to sin-nisterminister for adding the point about getting drivers.
+1 to sin-nisterminister for adding the point about getting drivers.