XP Pro crashed on laptop bought from old company

[Guest]

About 6 months ago, my old company closed down. Before they closed down, they
sold everyone the computers that we were using. So I bought my IBM thinkpad
laptop from them. However, recently the computer crashed. I tried to use the
windows xp home cd from my dell laptop but it did not want to accept the
product key. So I uninstalled it. Now when I try to turn on the computer I
get the message "NTLDR is missing. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to Restart." I tried
to call IBM but they said they can't do anything to help.

The computer originally came with windows 2000 and then my old company
upgraded at some point to windows xp pro. So there is a product key under the
laptop but it is for windows 2000. The problem is that I do not have the
windows xp pro disc or the product key that goes with it and I am not able to
get it from my old company since it is not around anymore.

Is there anything I can do? I do not want to have to buy a new version of
Windows XP since this is an older computer and I just use it as an extra
computer. I don't expect it to be around for too much longer and I don't want
to put any extra money into it. But I do want it to be functional for a
little while longer?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

About 6 months ago, my old company closed down. Before they closed
down, they sold everyone the computers that we were using. So I
bought my IBM thinkpad laptop from them. However, recently the
computer crashed. I tried to use the windows xp home cd from my
dell laptop but it did not want to accept the product key. So I
uninstalled it. Now when I try to turn on the computer I get the
message "NTLDR is missing. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to Restart." I
tried to call IBM but they said they can't do anything to help.

The computer originally came with windows 2000 and then my old
company upgraded at some point to windows xp pro. So there is a
product key under the laptop but it is for windows 2000. The
problem is that I do not have the windows xp pro disc or the
product key that goes with it and I am not able to get it from my
old company since it is not around anymore.

Is there anything I can do? I do not want to have to buy a new
version of Windows XP since this is an older computer and I just
use it as an extra computer. I don't expect it to be around for too
much longer and I don't want to put any extra money into it. But I
do want it to be functional for a little while longer?

Install Linux.

 

[Beemer Biker]

About 6 months ago, my old company closed down. Before they closed down,
they
sold everyone the computers that we were using. So I bought my IBM
thinkpad
laptop from them. However, recently the computer crashed. I tried to use
the
windows xp home cd from my dell laptop but it did not want to accept the
product key. So I uninstalled it. Now when I try to turn on the computer
I
get the message "NTLDR is missing. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to Restart." I
tried
to call IBM but they said they can't do anything to help.

The computer originally came with windows 2000 and then my old company
upgraded at some point to windows xp pro. So there is a product key under
the
laptop but it is for windows 2000. The problem is that I do not have the
windows xp pro disc or the product key that goes with it and I am not able
to
get it from my old company since it is not around anymore.

Is there anything I can do? I do not want to have to buy a new version of
Windows XP since this is an older computer and I just use it as an extra
computer. I don't expect it to be around for too much longer and I don't
want
to put any extra money into it. But I do want it to be functional for a
little while longer?

XP is an excellent product especially for a notebook and if you hunt around
you might find an oem version, especially home, really cheap. You have got
to buy qualifiying hardware. I recall buying a silver ink pen for putting
traces on a cpu. Think I paid a $1 for the "cpu pen" and that qualified,
but YMMV. Maybe the sales dept thought I was buying a cpu.

That being said, you should be able to put win2k back on it. You got a copy
of win2k anywhere? I had win2k on an older thinkpad, A20M, ran fine on 6gb
drive. XP requires about 10gb and I upgraded to XP and got a 60gb disk.

What thinkpad you got? Mine was 500 celeron and I put a 700 P3 in it. Real
boot in speed under XP.

--
=======================================================================
Beemer Biker (e-mail address removed)
http://ResearchRiders.org Ask about my 99'R1100RT
http://TipsForTheComputingImpaired.com
=======================================================================

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Purchase Windows XP Home Edition and perform
a "clean install".

Clean Install Windows XP
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------­----------------

:

| About 6 months ago, my old company closed down. Before they closed down, they
| sold everyone the computers that we were using. So I bought my IBM thinkpad
| laptop from them. However, recently the computer crashed. I tried to use the
| windows xp home cd from my dell laptop but it did not want to accept the
| product key. So I uninstalled it. Now when I try to turn on the computer I
| get the message "NTLDR is missing. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to Restart." I tried
| to call IBM but they said they can't do anything to help.
|
| The computer originally came with windows 2000 and then my old company
| upgraded at some point to windows xp pro. So there is a product key under the
| laptop but it is for windows 2000. The problem is that I do not have the
| windows xp pro disc or the product key that goes with it and I am not able to
| get it from my old company since it is not around anymore.
|
| Is there anything I can do? I do not want to have to buy a new version of
| Windows XP since this is an older computer and I just use it as an extra
| computer. I don't expect it to be around for too much longer and I don't want
| to put any extra money into it. But I do want it to be functional for a
| little while longer?

 

[Guest]

No thanks on installing linux.

the thinkpad is an A31 with original specs except more RAM added.

I would prefer not to buy home edition as I do not want to spend $100 for
it. I only paid $250 for the laptop. And like I said I do not want to spend
anymore on it since it is just an extra computer.

Do you think I would be able to ask Microsoft if they would give me a free
windows disc and product key if I explained to them the situation? Or maybe
just a valid product key if I can get a hold of a windows xp pro disc from a
friend?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

About 6 months ago, my old company closed down. Before they
closed down, they sold everyone the computers that we were using.
So I bought my IBM thinkpad laptop from them. However, recently
the computer crashed. I tried to use the windows xp home cd from
my dell laptop but it did not want to accept the product key. So
I uninstalled it. Now when I try to turn on the computer I get
the message "NTLDR is missing. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to Restart."
I tried to call IBM but they said they can't do anything to help.

The computer originally came with windows 2000 and then my old
company upgraded at some point to windows xp pro. So there is a
product key under the laptop but it is for windows 2000. The
problem is that I do not have the windows xp pro disc or the
product key that goes with it and I am not able to get it from my
old company since it is not around anymore.

Is there anything I can do? I do not want to have to buy a new
version of Windows XP since this is an older computer and I just
use it as an extra computer. I don't expect it to be around for
too much longer and I don't want to put any extra money into it.
But I do want it to be functional for a little while longer?

No thanks on installing linux.

the thinkpad is an A31 with original specs except more RAM added.

I would prefer not to buy home edition as I do not want to spend
$100 for it. I only paid $250 for the laptop. And like I said I do
not want to spend anymore on it since it is just an extra computer.

Do you think I would be able to ask Microsoft if they would give me
a free windows disc and product key if I explained to them the
situation? Or maybe just a valid product key if I can get a hold of
a windows xp pro disc from a friend?

What the real problem is that you backed yourself in the corner. You
purchased a laptop that originally had Windows 2000 installed (from the
manufactuer) - and thus the only support (for Windows 2000) on that laptop
is from the manufacturer. The laptop *had* Windows XP installed on it - but
you received no CD from the company (going out of business or not - common
sense says you should have asked for a means to restore the laptop in case
something went wrong.) You don't have the CD Key for Windows XP anywhere
nor do you even know what type of license was on it (it may have been a
volume license or an OEM or retail or upgrade - you don't know.)

What you are is in between a rock and a hard place.

The only proof of ownership you have is of the OEM Windows 2000 that came
with the laptop because of the sticker on the bottom of the case. The only
people that can help you with that is the manufacturer of the laptop. They
are unlikely to help you with such a laptop. (Age, passed down, etc.) You
actually have no right to a Windows XP CD for that laptop since you have no
proof of ownership of Windows XP for it.

You either have to break down and spend the $100 for Windows XP OEM
installation CD/CD Key or you have to pirate it or you have to choose a
different OS (like getting a Windows 2000 OEM CD from somewhere and using
your CD Key from the bottom of the laptop.) Those are your choices.

 

[Beemer Biker]

No thanks on installing linux.

the thinkpad is an A31 with original specs except more RAM added.

I would prefer not to buy home edition as I do not want to spend $100 for
it. I only paid $250 for the laptop. And like I said I do not want to
spend

compuplus is asking $75 for home. I see no mention of purchasing hardware
from them in their ad. Call them up and ask if a fax of your $250
going-out-of-business receipt is o.k. for oem requirments.

A have paid over $250 for A20M thinkpads, not anywhere as good as your A31.
If you have added ram, have dvd and/or burner, you are looking at an ebay
value of $450+ Personally I think ibm products are far superior to dell.
Searching ebay for thinkpad gets far more hits than latitude and presario
combined.

anymore on it since it is just an extra computer.

Do you think I would be able to ask Microsoft if they would give me a free
windows disc and product key if I explained to them the situation? Or
maybe
just a valid product key if I can get a hold of a windows xp pro disc from
a
friend?

Go to thinkpad forum http://forum.thinkpads.com you should be able to get an
original thinkpad cd from someone with win2k on it. You wont get an XP disk
though.


--
=======================================================================
Beemer Biker (e-mail address removed)
http://ResearchRiders.org Ask about my 99'R1100RT
http://TipsForTheComputingImpaired.com
=======================================================================