Mini laptop prep

Troncoso

Troncoso

VIP Member
Mini laptop prep(New Issue)

Okay my girlfriends friend is bringing me a mini laptop to fix while they go out to lunch. Now I've never touched a mini let alone work on one. So just a couple questions to get me up to speed:

It runs xp she's said. Do they normally run regular windows or a compact version?

Is the harddrive removable?

Do they have optical drives?

Can they boot from USB?

From what I've gathered, her is crashed. Thanks for any help
 
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1shado1

1shado1

Member
Troncoso said:
Okay my girlfriends friend is bringing me a mini laptop to fix while they go out to lunch. Now I've never touched a mini let alone work on one. So just a couple questions to get me up to speed:

It runs xp she's said. Do they normally run regular windows or a compact version?

Is the harddrive removable?

Do they have optical drives?

Can they boot from USB?

From what I've gathered, her is crashed. Thanks for any help
Click to expand...

From my limited experience with netbooks:

Normal Windows
HDD is removable
No optical drive
Can boot from USB
 
jamesd1981

jamesd1981

Active Member
hey troncoso netbooks differ quite a but, some run linux, windows ce or windows xp, the higher spec ones can run vista and 7 but not most, they start form 4gb hard drive which isn`t actually a hard drive it`s more like small card, similar to gpu card but smaller, same with 8gb, you can get normal hdd like 160gb, you can take the cards and drives out, most dont have disc drive you need usb flash drive or external disc drive, post back with rough spec when you get it.
 
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bkribbs

bkribbs

New Member
Troncoso said:
Okay my girlfriends friend is bringing me a mini laptop to fix while they go out to lunch. Now I've never touched a mini let alone work on one. So just a couple questions to get me up to speed:

It runs xp she's said. Do they normally run regular windows or a compact version?

Is the harddrive removable?

Do they have optical drives?

Can they boot from USB?

From what I've gathered, her is crashed. Thanks for any help
Click to expand...

It can be a regular windows or a special edition for netbooks.

Hard drives should be removable, but if its old, it may not be easily removable in other words, a disassembly could be necessary.

Optical drives are 50-50, depending how mini. Probably not though.

Yeah, it should be able to boot from usb. It will either have a cd drive or have usb boot for sure, possibly both.
 
Troncoso

Troncoso

VIP Member
Wow, do these little computers boot fast. I seriously only have like half a second to hit f2 at the logo. crazy!
 
Troncoso

Troncoso

VIP Member
Okay. So I get this netbook. I get xp on it. The only problem I had was office wouldn't install and the audio was messed up. So I did a windows update and let it run its course and when it told me to restart I did. Now when I turn it back on, it gets stuck at the welcome screen...where it says 'welcome', forever! Anyway I get back on it and the sound is no good. It was doing that earlier so I tried an earlier driver and it was worse. What should I do to correct the audio?

Edit: okay, I just checked the latest from the website is the same in the pre loaded drivers so it didn't roll back any. but still...what the heck to do
 
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Troncoso

Troncoso

VIP Member
Can't. The thing just won't boot to the setup disk. Besides the thing is due back to her tomorrow. And I'll be working the morning. The only problem with it now is the audio. I get that and I'm good to go.

and actually I don't think that'll help. I uninstalled again and let windows update pick a driver...same one, same problem
 
The_Other_One

The_Other_One

VIP Member
Find the model and see if it has some built in recovery partition. I know the Asus netbooks have something. You have to change a few things in the bios first before you can access them (disable fast-post or something like that...).

Otherwise, those things are fun :p Grab yourself an external optical drive, a copy of XP OEM and reload it. It's probably going to have AHCI installed, so you'll have to disable that or find drivers for the SATA hard drive.
 
vnsmith

vnsmith

banned
Yes the hard drive is removable, but with what I see it is more complex.
Yes it has an optical drive (that depends on the model), and it can boot from USB
 
Troncoso

Troncoso

VIP Member
The_Other_One said:
Find the model and see if it has some built in recovery partition. I know the Asus netbooks have something. You have to change a few things in the bios first before you can access them (disable fast-post or something like that...).

Otherwise, those things are fun :p Grab yourself an external optical drive, a copy of XP OEM and reload it. It's probably going to have AHCI installed, so you'll have to disable that or find drivers for the SATA hard drive.
Click to expand...

Okay, well the recovery partition was deleted (by the user), I did use an OEM disk to re-install xp and, AHCI was disabled upon installation. But, none of this solves the sound issues.
 
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