How to Re-install

Hello,

I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro M15-S405 that I've been trying figure out how to fix a blue screen error and have finally decided to re-install since I can't keep it from shutting down to even go to my BIOS. I'm not as knowledgeable as I probably should be but finances leave me no choice.

My question is about how to do the re-install and in what order. I don't have an OS disk for my laptop but I do have one that dell sent me for my desktop which is the same OS. Techs at Dell say I can use it but I'm not sure and then I also would need a disc for the drivers, right? Would I be able to go to the Toshiba website to create a drivers disk?

Lastly, bought the computer used which is why I have no cd's so I'm assuming any programs installed on it will be lost? I haven't had it long enough to know what programs are installed but I do have my own office 2007 discs although I've used them on two of my desktops and my laptop that I sold to get this one so I hope its okay to use it. I do know that this one does have the program installed but I don't see any way to get in there to get the key from the installation. Is there a way I can do that? The guy I bought it from told me that he had just installed it and shortly before it went completely down I kept getting errors telling me I had a bad installation and to uninstall the program but before I could do that I got a blue screen.

If all of that isn't bad enough, somehow I changed the boot order and the HDD password (which I do remember) but I haven't been able to keep the BIOS open long enough to correct that problem nor do I know how?

Sorry, I realize anyone reading this probably thinks I have no business attempting this but at this point I have nothing to loose but I really need this laptop for classes.

Any help would really be appreciated.

 

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate it. My OS is XP Home edition but your right, it could be a problem since I have no idea is SP3 had been installed. I received an email from Microsoft a few weeks ago asking if I wanted to get the SP3 disc but if it works out I'm thinking I can just burn it from the website. I am nervous about using the Dell cd but Toshiba's reply to me was that they didn't have them anymore so I can't even purchase it from them, same with Microsoft so I guess I have no choice. I'll let you know how it turns out but it may take me a few days. Your post makes it sound easy but I have a feeling it won't be.

Thanks again, wish me luck

P.S. So I should run the OS disc first, right?

 

Halo,

Well, as anticipated, I ran into a problem with my disk from dell. I didn't run it because its XP Professional SP3 but my Toshiba is XP Home Edition (or thats what is says on the bottom of my unit on the product key) so when I went to the Toshiba site I wasn't sure which windows os i should choose.

I decided to try to re-install the drivers instead since the blue screen says something about ACPI I just downloaded the latest driver for that which is named "2m10v15.exe" and tried to run that on a disc. When I tried to start the computer it got hung on the logon screen literally all night.

Now, I don't know what to do. I tried to purchase a restoration disc from Toshiba but they won't even sell it. From what I can tell the only option I have it to take it to a Toshiba repair facility but the cost at minimum starts at $100 plus ??? and not only do I not have the $ to do that, I'm afraid that even if I did, I could save up for a refurbished one. I don't know what to do since classes start in a few weeks and I really need to get this thing up and running.

Any suggestions???

Thanks

 

I'm afraid I don't know anyone with the disc. I'm going to try to contact the seller to see if he has it but I don't know him and he may not reply to me.

I have another concern now. Because my disc drive didn't seem to power up I copied the drivers I mentioned earlier to my flash drive which also has some of my school work on it and when I used the flash drive on my dell desktop, it ran the driver download automatically!!! As far as I can tell, it hasn't damaged my dell but it did install some network devices that are showing up as problems in device manager. I copied my system info onto a notepad doc so I could upload it to you if I need to so you can see what it did.

As for the laptop, I haven't tried since I installed the drivers but previous to that I haven't been able to get to safe mode and if I do, it still shuts down almost immediately. What is the BSOD and where do I find it? Also, I was able to get into BIOS and changed the booting order but its as if I didn't change it. When I restarted, it still asked for the HDD password before logging on. I don't know if this is significant but when I did go to BIOS I had to enter the date, time, and other info and almost seemed like I was configuring the system for the first time. In fact, every time I go to BIOS I have to perform those actions. One of my professors told me I could link it to my desktop with an ethernet cord. I reluctantly tried that and it did seem to give me a little more time before going back to the blue screen.

Sorry for all the problems. I'm so frustrated, I'm starting to think this guy knew something was not right and sold it before it went completely down. What is puzzling to me is that I used it for maybe a month before it became unusable. It had some issues but nothing that made me think it would do this.:confused

 

Hi,
Sorry it took me so long to reply, I have been away but today I burned my cd and it appears to load however, I'm not sure how to navigate or even what it Ubuntu really is. I browsed around and found a few things of interest. When I click on F4; rescuing a broken system the window says:

"there is no dedicated rescue mode on this disc. However, since the disc provides a complete user environment, it is possible to use the command-line and/or graphical tools provided to rescue a broken system, and to use a web browser to search for help. Extensive advice is available online for most kinds of problems that might cause your normal system to fail to boot correctly."

I'm not sure which boot parameters I should use either but I am glad to see the machine respond to something. Thank you so much!!!

 

I don't mind using Linux instead of Windows. I noticed on the Ubuntu site that it comes with firefox which my preferred browser anyway and I can always convert open office files with a flash drive (I think). I don't know if I can use the internal internet that came with the machine or not as I haven't been able to actually go to the internet with it yet. So if I install Linux will it wipe out everything the same as a new install of windows? I could take it to my college to the IT department and see if they would be willing to loan me a windows cd.

One thing I wanted to mention is that I noticed there is a different installation for netbooks on the Ubuntu website but I just used the one on the page I went to so if choose to install it, would this cd do the installation for me? Honestly, I would just as soon use Linux since I'm using it for school I just need to research on the web and write some papers which it appears I can do plus I think it would be just as easy to install that than to search for a windows cd that I may not be able to find. What do you think?

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help. thank you so much