Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Computers and Peripherals : Laptop acting goofy

[P-nut]

My brother gave me his "old" laptop (it's only about a year or so old). Somehow he got some nasty virus on his computer that's rendered it virtually useless; he said he tried to reformat using the separate partition and it wouldn't let him do that.

So for the past few days I've been attempting to reinstall windows using an XP CD. However, I'm having a lot of problems getting it to do much of anything.

When I power up the laptop using the AC adapter (the battery appears to be dead - as in needing to be charged - at the moment), it seems to take forever to do anything, and most times doesn't even get to the screen that allows me to boot from the CD. When it doesn't boot, the lights on the laptop will come on and I can hear the CD in the drive, like it's trying to be read...but nothing happens. Then the lights will blink off once or twice, the CD drive will whir, and it just sits.

I'm wondering if part of the problem is a faulty adapter? The laptop seemed to work okay with the battery (as in, I could actually get it to boot up more), but as I said, I believe it needs to be charged now.

Looking for suggestions or other things I can try. I'm afraid I don't have a ton of experience dealing with hardware, so I'm a bit perplexed here.

Thanks!

[r2d3m]

There might be a battery or internal problem in the laptop. If you have a local computer repair store, I suggest you take it there for some help, but not if it will cost you too much. Once XP was reinstalled, nothing would be on the partitioned drive if you formated it. This would eliminate the virus.

[P-nut]

Oddly enough, I was able to get the XP CD to do its thing right after I posted this. It's currently finalizing the XP install. Then I get to download the millions of updates I'm sure it will need - yay lol.

I did end up totally pulling the battery out because it kept trying to use it as the power source. Once I did that it started right up. Weird.

[taylorwilsdon]

Chances are there is a deeper problem here if the internal electronics are affecting the bootup process.

Free is always great but I would be careful and not store any un-backed-up data on it.

[P-nut]

Honestly I think the problem was the operator On further inspection I realized this other laptop requires a bit more push to ensure the adapter is fully plugged in. I haven't had any (hardware, knock wood) problems since posting earlier.