i did not recieve a windows disc with my computer. so im stuck with a compaq windows disc.

 

Help plz!

The disk that you are attempting to use should be a bootable OS disk supplied by Dell or you will continue to have problems. It is possible to use other Windows disks, but the one supplied by Dell will allow you to install without having a license key, and only on a Dell system.

Test the disk on another system, doesn’t matter if the test system is Dell, what matters is will that CD/DVD boot ANY computer. If the disk boots on another system, your optical drive may be bad.
Cheers, Dave

Call Dell support, they will send you one, the Compaq disk will not install without a key, which is already used up!

 

Dell OS disks will install without a key as they recognize the motherboard and system.   You can download all the drivers you need by going to support.dell.com and searching by your service tag for the needed files.  If you can find somebody to borrow from with the same OS (home, professional, etc) and it is a Dell disk, it will install on your system just fine.

 

Cheers, Dave 

i have a disc they sent me before. It is for Reinstalling windows xp service pack 2. would it work?

put in the reinstallation discs.

Restarted comp.

pressed f12

selected onboard or usb cd-rom drive

got option "strike the f1 key to continue, f2 to run the setup utility

pressed f1

"selected boot device not available - strike f1 t retry boot, f2 for setup utility"

 

Yes, that sounds like the correct disk, after you get the system running from that CD, you will have to reinstall the various device drivers for network, sound, video, as a minimum, so you should also have a disk called Resource for that, if not, download the needed drivers from support.dell.com  There are instructions in the faq posted at the top of the forum on how to replace a hard drive.

Cheers, Dave 

 

i dont have any more dell computers to try it on..

 

and whats a optic dsc thing?

so basically my computer needs to get redone? looks like I wasted 140$ on a hardrive and a couple months of time. Guess ill have to wait till christmas untill my parents buy a new computer that doesnt die for no reason

like...

 

how am i suppose to know if the cables are bad or disc is bad or my cd drive thingy is broken?

 

 

You are sunk....see if that disk will boot another computer if not then disk is bad, if so, then your optical drive is bad or problem there with cable/power etc.

Cheers, Dave