[harrorn]

I just acquired an old Dell Inspiron 5000 laptop. When I start it it first shows the dell logo screen and then goes to the bios screen and stops. it will not do anything else. I have tried putting a boot disk in the a: drive but that doesn't work. I have also tried to put a windows 98 cd in the cd drive but also no response. When it starts the a: drive, hard drive and cd drive can all be heard start to spin. I am inexperienced at propblems like this an do not know where to go from here. I was told that theoperating system had been removed and that all it needed was a new operating system. Could it be the hard drive or something else? thanks,

Ron

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I was told that the operating system had been removed and that all it needed was a new operating system

If the person who gave or sold you the computer didn't give you the Dell Recovery/OS discs, then you need to BUY an OS and install it before the computer will do anything more than its doing now.

But further than that... What kind of "boot disc" did you put in the floppy drive and what kind of Win98 disc did you put in the CD drive (oem, retail, upgrade)?

Edited by makai, 22 August 2009 - 11:09 AM.

[makai]

I was told that the operating system had been removed and that all it needed was a new operating system

If the person who gave or sold you the computer didn't give you the Dell Recovery/OS discs, then you need to BUY an OS and install it before the computer will do anything more than its doing now.

But further than that... What kind of "boot disc" did you put in the floppy drive and what kind of Win98 disc did you put in the CD drive (oem, retail, upgrade)?

Edited by makai, 22 August 2009 - 11:09 AM.

[harrorn]

Hi,
The computer is a Dell Inspiron 5000 laptop model No: PPM. I tried using a boot disc "CD Boot 3" i downloaded from the net. I got no response. I then tried Windows 98SE which should work for a fresh install but I also got no response. I received no software?recovery discs with the computer. I bought this to use as an offline unit> When I turn it on It goes to the Dell logo, beeps several times, you can hear the a: drive, cd drive and hard drive spin. It then goes to the Bios screen and stops. F1, F2 or any other command do nothing. How do I get it to the point where I can reload the OP? Thanks,

Ron

[makai]

Is THIS your laptop?

Hmmm... the page I linked (if it is your laptop) has links to how to install Win98... but only off a Dell recovery CD.

Not all Win98SE CDs are bootable. Some require a boot up floppy to install CD drivers so Win98 can install. The page I linked shows the laptop to have a floppy, and if it does, then go HERE and download the Win98 boot disk and try it. You may need to get into bios to make the laptop boot from the floppy first, but then, it may boot from the floppy anyways as it'll be looking for something to boot from.

[harrorn]

Hello again,
The link you posted for the laptop is my laptop. It is apparently a 5000e as the bios page shows the pentium III processor at 700/550 Mhz. I downloaded the boot sisk from the other link you posted but it did not work. This think boots to the bios page and then freezes. It says on the bottom of the bios page Press F1 to resume, or F2 to setup but neither key or any other gives a response. Therefore I cannot get into the bios to change boot to a: if necessary. I tried a different keyboard and still no response.Any ideas? The only error message posted on the page is ERROR 0271: Check date and time settings. Thank you for your patience.

Ron

[makai]

If you're getting a date error, it means the bios battery is most likely dead... or worse, somethings up with the motherboard. Since you can't even access bios at all, I'm going to have to guess there is more wrong with this laptop than just not being able to install an OS. My personal opinion is to leave this "project pc" alone and sell it for parts. Quite bland, but its day has passed long ago, don't you think?

[harrorn]

Makai,
Thanks you for all your suggestions and help. I guess I will try and find the CMOS battery and replace it. If that doesn't do anything I will probably sell it as a parts laptop. It has a good LiON battery, charger and a good LCD screen. They are probably worth what I payed for the laptop. Thanks agin for your help.

Ron

[makai]

The bios is written into the bios chip, and the battery is there only to maintain "user" changes, so even if your battery is dead, you should still be able to access the bios at "default" settings. It looks like the bios has lost user settings and has reverted to default... thus the date error, and thus the reason I think the battery is dead. Yah, for your own satisfaction, you can try replacing the battery, but I don't think it'll do anything... but... you never know!