No CD install/Is it any good?

[GeneralDark]

Hello,
I'm new here and did try a quick search looking for similer issues. A few days ago a buddy gave me his old laptop. He said he thought the dvd rom was NG. The unit is a compaq presario v2000. I have seen these laptops have a high rate of mobo failure. I'm hoping thats not the case.

The symptoms:
upon startup it goes to the hp/centrino screen then it goes to a flashing curser in the top left corner for a few seconds. Finally it rests on a black screen and tells me to remove any disks/media and restart.

I heard you guys like a challenge so if thats true and anyone is willing to help. I would appreciate it. (So would my son )

I'm pretty puter savvy and can follow instructions....I just don't know where to begin.
Thank you in advance to anyone who may give this a shot.

OS: winxp pro
cpu: 1.4 pentium m
ram: 512mb

Oh and the dvd rom doesn't appear to work. When I do put a cd in, the black screen with the flashing curser appears to hang a lil longer.

 

[Ididmyc600]

the HDD is buggered from the sound of it,,,, ive seen this happen when one bootable device interferes with the other one...try removing the HDD and see if you can boot from the CD

look in the BIOS for boot order or see if the screen shows " press ** for boot options"

 

[tuant]

remove all bootable media from the notebook (EXCEPT THE HARD DRIVE). Remove all CDs, Flash cards, SD cards, floppies, etc....Or go into BIOS and under 'boot sequence' disable everything except the hard drive. Make the Hard Drive first in boot order.

Hope this helps.

 

[GeneralDark]

Thank you for the replies guys. Since I started this thread a few things happened. First, I got a new laptop! w00t! I have also been out of town. When I go back home I will try the tips you have suggested and update this thread.