Resetting Windows XP

[learninmypc]

A friend gave me a Dell XP Latitude D620 lsptop & I've been trying for 4 hours to reset it to factory settings .
Upon (re)booting it up, it shows F8 & F12 , one for boot options & the other for settings & more.
It does not matter which way I set it, it will not boot from the XP Home CD I put in the CD/DVD drive.
I know the drive works because I put a CD in it & it started to play. Its got a GIGANTIC 74.4 GB harddrive & a whopping 2.00 gb ram
I will continue messing with it tomorrow, but not expecting much unless I can get it reset to factory

 

[learninmypc]

 

[learninmypc]

The above post is from pressing & holding the F12 key whic does nothing.

 

[learninmypc]

Pressing F2 brings up a Blue Screen white lettering starting with System & scrolling down to Boot Sequence, it gives the
1. Diskette Drive
2. Internal drive
3. USB Storage
4. . CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive Pressing enter, I can scroll to said drive, press space bar to enable it, Press Enter when done modifying this field.
After all this, I found out my XP CD is not the correct version so is there another way to reset it to factory settings?

 

[learninmypc]

@Cycloid Torus if I right click on the c drive & click format, will it reinstall the OS?
There is basically nothing on this laptop, I put a movie CD in & CyberLink POWER DVD pops up, mouse curser turns into an hour glass & spins & spins ,etc,etc.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

You clicked on a very old rock.

F12 (or was it F2) should get you to settings which you can adjust and SAVE. Once saved, you should be able to restart, press F12 (?F2) and see your changes are still in place. If they are not saved I would be suspicious about the BIOS being viable. You might want to revisit Dell and its archive of manuals (it would be nice to find one for this 2005 beastie). One possible idea would be to replace coin battery.

If you can't redirect system to boot from DVD, it is because it forgot where it was supposed to boot and has reverted to standard boot sequence (I.e., bad battery?, bad BIOS?) OR it cannot boot (bad DVD player or bad DVD).

Might try burning a bootable DVD - like Ubuntu (https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop), etc... just to see if it might be just a bad XP DVD. Others might even try to turn it into a 'Chromebook' clone. ( https://www.neverware.com/freedownload/ )

 

[learninmypc]

Ok, the previous owner told me they used it just for movies (DVD) & such but yeah, its ancient & a laptop so I might not be able to replace coin battery. Will tinker with it for a bit more, I only want it for movies, thank you

 

[learninmypc]

You clicked on a very old rock.

F12 (or was it F2) should get you to settings which you can adjust and SAVE. Once saved, you should be able to restart, press F12 (?F2) and see your changes are still in place. If they are not saved I would be suspicious about the BIOS being viable. You might want to revisit Dell and its archive of manuals (it would be nice to find one for this 2005 beastie). One possible idea would be to replace coin battery.

If you can't redirect system to boot from DVD, it is because it forgot where it was supposed to boot and has reverted to standard boot sequence (I.e., bad battery?, bad BIOS?) OR it cannot boot (bad DVD player or bad DVD).

Might try burning a bootable DVD - like Ubuntu (https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop), etc... just to see if it might be just a bad XP DVD. Others might even try to turn it into a 'Chromebook' clone. ( https://www.neverware.com/freedownload/ )

Since its a laptop, no changing coin battery. If I right click C Drive & click format, will it kill the laptop? As is, I don't see how they watched movies, oh well.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

"If I right click C Drive & click format, will it kill the laptop?" IF you cannot boot from another device, I would think that it might 'kill' the system. Try other things first. Amazon carries a coin battery for this model for $7. Dell probably still has manual on line.

 

[learninmypc]

https://data.technimax.cz/attach/artilky/delld620manual.pdf & more from google
https://www.google.com/search?ei=IT.....0.0..0.0.0.......0......gws-wiz.6MMIq0n1a2o
getting to be a pita

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Pita, yes...... possibility of booting from DVD or flash drive, yes too.

 

[learninmypc]

I'll go thru some of the google links in hopes of finding it, trying to think positive lol

 

[learninmypc]

@Cycloid Torus , most of those links were " not found", but oddly enough, making windows media player the default player, it works thanks for your input, no resetting anything

 

[retsxel]

so I might not be able to replace coin battery.

Rubbish, those easy to replace. Go to Ebay or Amazon and type in " CMOS battery Dell D620 " and you will find what you need. Replacing it is easy as Dell's are easy to work on. For example;
https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Dell-D610-D620-D810-9200-9300-9400-Cmos-Battery/140638876335
$4.50 shipped

You'll need to find a Dell XP SP3 restore disc as well.

 

[learninmypc]

Rubbish, those easy to replace. Go to Ebay or Amazon and type in " CMOS battery Dell D620 " and you will find what you need. Replacing it is easy as Dell's are easy to work on. For example;
https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Dell-D610-D620-D810-9200-9300-9400-Cmos-Battery/140638876335
$4.50 shipped

You'll need to find a Dell XP SP3 restore disc as well.

You must of failed to read the ENTIRE thread, it is a laptop & I know better than to go into a laptop. End of story

 

[retsxel]

You must of failed to read the ENTIRE thread, it is a laptop & I know better than to go into a laptop. End of story

Didn't read anywhere that you were afraid to open it up, not that it would take much as one of the back covers is enough. But whatever, best of luck to you.

 

[learninmypc]

Didn't read anywhere that you were afraid to open it up, not that it would take much as one of the back covers is enough. But whatever, best of luck to you.

Have a great day.

 

[retsxel]

Have a great day.

No, YOU have a great day.

 

[dagnawita]

Since its a laptop, no changing coin battery. If I right click C Drive & click format, will it kill the laptop? As is, I don't see how they watched movies, oh well.

4. . CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive Pressing enter, I can scroll to said drive, press space bar to enable it, Press Enter when done modifying this field.

 

[learninmypc]

4. . CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive Pressing enter, I can scroll to said drive, press space bar to enable it, Press Enter when done modifying this field.

Thank you but said laptop is no longer alive

 

[dagnawita]

F12 (or was it F2) should get you to settings which you can adjust and SAVE. Once saved, you should be able to restart, press F12 (?F2) and see your changes are still in place. If they are not saved I would be suspicious about the BIOS being viable. You might want to revisit Dell and its archive of manuals (it would be nice to find one for this 2005 beastie). One possible idea would be to replace coin battery.