Good Morning all,

Due to a hard drive failure on my friends notebook it will not boot into windows anymore. The HDD does not even show up on the BIOS. It sounds really bad ( head crashing )so i will be replacing the hard drive and doing a fresh XP installation. The notebook is a LG LW40 Express which was original purchased in Australia. She has no recovery disc at all but the COA remains on the base. I plan to use my OEM XP disc to do the installation and obviously use the original COA.

Can anybody see any problems arising from the fact that the computer originated from Oz.

TIA

You may find it won't work as the key she has probably won't match the version of XP which you have i.e. xp home sp1 and yours may be xp home sp2.

Try it but I don't think it will tbh, whenever I've tried they never seem too work to the point where I don't bother anymore and just source a new disk.

You may find it won't work as the key she has probably won't match the version of XP which you have i.e. xp home sp1 and yours may be xp home sp2.

Try it but I don't think it will tbh, whenever I've tried they never seem too work to the point where I don't bother anymore and just source a new disk.

Cheers,

When i say OEM XP, i dont mean a recovery disc.

I plan to use this disc to do the installation but use the original COA key from her machine.

Do you think it will still not work and if so you mention sourcing a new disc?

I take it by that you mean sourcing a new XP installation disc and using a new COA?

TIA.

Edited 29 October, 200817 yr by Guest

The key on the base should work with any oem version of XP, as long as the disk used is not a recovery disk or a copy of a volume license xp disk it should install fine.

The key on the base should work with any oem version of XP, as long as the disk used is not a recovery disk or a copy of a volume license xp disk it should install fine.

Its a genuine OEM XP install disc. Not a recovery disc that came with another machine.

Thanks for your help.

volume license xp disk .

ANd there in lies the problem I seem to encounter, manufactuers copies fall into this category which is why I usually "obtain" a new copy with key.

Sorry for the slightly wrong info I was confusing my oem with my volume license copies

ANd there in lies the problem I seem to encounter, manufactuers copies fall into this category which is why I usually "obtain" a new copy with key.

Sorry for the slightly wrong info I was confusing my oem with my volume license copies

No problem, all posts are welcome!

Cheers.

Well thats the reinstall all complete and windows all up to date now. Only thing is that every now and then the dreaded BSOD shows, computer restarts and theres no problem. Checked the event viewer but windows help, is well, no help. Think its probably a driver. I have updated all the drivers from the LG site but Windows Update seems to think that it has found new driver updates required.

Anybody else experienced this i would love to hear from you.

TIA.

Any meessages like .....IRQ_not_less_or_equal or something similar

Could be anything to be honest

Any meessages like .....IRQ_not_less_or_equal or something similar

Could be anything to be honest

No there doesnt seem to be any conflicts. When you send the information to Windows it just says user action not required. I have changed the options so that it doesnt automatically restart and i can look at the text on the BSOD.

You see its an OZ model so a downloaded the drivers from the Oz site and a dont know if Windows Update is looking elsewhere for them.

Could be ......Memory, driver, power supply.

In this situation I would run a benchmark of some sort until I could get the bsod to happen every time it's run, then start changing items until stops, which will reveal the culprit.

Of course it help to have a large box spares lying round, which you may not have.

Sorry I can't be anymore help than this but as said it could be anything really

Could be ......Memory, driver, power supply.

In this situation I would run a benchmark of some sort until I could get the bsod to happen every time it's run, then start changing items until stops, which will reveal the culprit.

Of course it help to have a large box spares lying round, which you may not have.

Sorry I can't be anymore help than this but as said it could be anything really

Its cool mate. Spares, unfortunately, i dont have.

I'll wait and see if it happens again and note the error codes etc.

Can you recommend any good benchmarking software? Its an area i have never really dabbled in TBH.

Cheers

Its cool mate. Spares, unfortunately, i dont have.

I'll wait and see if it happens again and note the error codes etc.

Can you recommend any good benchmarking software? Its an area i have never really dabbled in TBH.

Cheers

I use a mixture as some will cause crashes some won't. I usually try folding at home as it will run the comp at full pelt which usually throws up any weakness. Or sometimes 3dmark.

The ultimate boot disk has good tools on it Ultimate Boot CD - Download the UBCD

You need to get the iso image file and burn it with nero or something similar.

I use a mixture as some will cause crashes some won't. I usually try folding at home as it will run the comp at full pelt which usually throws up any weakness. Or sometimes 3dmark.

The ultimate boot disk has good tools on it Ultimate Boot CD - Download the UBCD

You need to get the iso image file and burn it with nero or something similar.

Cheers mate, i downloaded the Ultimate Boot CD and was planning on running it of a USB stick but the download is on my other notebook which is at my friends. I will try that when i get it back.

Thanks for your help.

Well after updating the whole Fecking thing and after having a few BSOD's the thing has decided to let me down. Brand new hard drive which i had installed was showing in the BIOS, now its not.

Would you agree that it would appear to be a fault with the mainboard, possibly overheating?

I once had someones PC in my house which had the CoA on the side of the base unit.

I have 2 XP home licences that belong to my bro and sis.

One is a vanilla disc bought when XP was released, the other an SP2 disc.

I was doing a test on this base unit as a few friends also had problems with XP and wanted to repair-install or re-install windows.

The Vanilla disc didn't recognise the key from the side of the base unit.

The SP2 Disc did accept the key, and repair installed without any problems.

One of my friends didnt have a windows CD with their PC but they did have a key on the side of their base unit so I copied the XP Home SP2 disc and posted it to them so they could re-install using their own licence key.

Overheating wouldnt cause a HD to just dissappear. sounds more like a controller fault.

Well thats the reinstall all complete and windows all up to date now. Only thing is that every now and then the dreaded BSOD shows, computer restarts and theres no problem. Checked the event viewer but windows help, is well, no help. Think its probably a driver. I have updated all the drivers from the LG site but Windows Update seems to think that it has found new driver updates required.

Anybody else experienced this i would love to hear from you.

TIA.

Memory or motherboard.

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Well after updating the whole Fecking thing and after having a few BSOD's the thing has decided to let me down. Brand new hard drive which i had installed was showing in the BIOS, now its not.

Would you agree that it would appear to be a fault with the mainboard, possibly overheating?

Power issue could be more likely tbh

Try a bios reset first.

Thank you all for your comments and suggest with this topic.

After further diagnosis ( and a bit of common sense which i had lacking ) it would appear that it is a power issue indeed that is causing the BSOD's.

The power adaptor has to be angled and supported in such a way that the notebook is constantly getting power. If this is nudged or moved slightly the notebook loses power and causes the notebook to crash. On subsequent reboot the operating system is not found and the HDD is not listed in the BIOS. The computer will not boot from the battery either even although it is fully charged.

So would i be right in saying that the problem probably rests with the motherboard?

Thanks again for your help.

It does sound like the mobo is not playing nice.

This could end upo costing a few quid tbh

It does sound like the mobo is not playing nice.

This could end upo costing a few quid tbh

Yeah i thought that. If it was a desktop i would look at repairing or replacing items but when its a notebook i dont think i want involved. I presume then that through time if this has been happening a lot this would have had an effect on the original HDD. Say if the HDD was writing data and then it crashed it could cause the original HDD failure.

Say if the HDD was writing data and then it crashed it could cause the original HDD failure.

That sounds plausible. Your right if it was a desktop you could do a quick change, but laptops are a little more involved, and exspensive :(

That sounds plausible. Your right if it was a desktop you could do a quick change, but laptops are a little more involved, and exspensive :(

Yeah, i rember taking an old Acer laptop apart to change the optical drive. It was a blinking nightmare and i cracked the case re-assembling it!!!!!

Thanks for your help mate.