HP ProBook 6550b HELP!

[Snake Byte]

Long story short, My Uncle passed away and my other uncle took his Laptop and could not get in it, and for some reason he thought it would be a good idea to make some disc with some software some guy told him to use and did not know what he was doing and totally screwed up the Laptop, I forget the name of the software he used but it pretty much erased the OS from the laptop and it wont do the Recovery Option, and really it wont do anything, I cant get into the Boot Options or anything, but I have a copy of Windows XP here, and I just want to know how I can get it onto this Computer, I dont know what kind of information you need, but I will be happy to gather as much as I can to fix this Computer for my Grandmother. Thanks.

EDIT: Now I remember, he tryed to install Ubuntu on the Laptop, and he said while it was installing his baby was crying so he shut the computer off in the middle of the install.

 

[MindoverMaster]

You do know, Ubuntu is an operating system, not simply a piece of Windows software. Sounds like he wiped the drive and installed Ubuntu. You can install XP on it, yes, but all the old stuff is gone now.

 

[Snake Byte]

You do know, Ubuntu is an operating system, not simply a piece of Windows software. Sounds like he wiped the drive and installed Ubuntu. You can install XP on it, yes, but all the old stuff is gone now.

Yea, I figured that out while trying to search for the name he told me. So yea this thing does pretty much nothing but boot up and show the HP logo then goes to a black screen with a _ up in the top left corner.

So if I cant get it to the Boot Settings and boot it up from the CD then How will I get the XP Installed? Thanks.

 

[MindoverMaster]

From what you said, he shut it down in the middle of installing. So, no, it can't find the boot loader.

You should be able to put the CD in, and boot right off it. Might have to "press a key" after POST.

 

[Snake Byte]

From what you said, he shut it down in the middle of installing. So, no, it can't find the boot loader.

You should be able to put the CD in, and boot right off it. Might have to "press a key" after POST.

The CD is in, and this is what happens...

If you can tell me what "press a key" means, or what key I need to press and when that would be great...

 

[MindoverMaster]

Nice doggy in background!

Did you try hitting F11 or F12 to get to the boot menu?

 

[Snake Byte]

Nice doggy in background!

Did you try hitting F11 or F12 to get to the boot menu?

lol, he is half ****zu and half poodle.

tryed F12, it says Network Boot, then goes to a black screen that says:

PXE-E61: Media Test Failure, check cable.
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent.

and it just gets stuck there.

and F11 Does nothing at all.


If I hit ESC, I get the following options..

F1 System Information
F2 System Diagnostics

F9 Boot Device Options
F10 BIOS Setup

F12 Network Boot

Enter - Continue Setup

 

[MindoverMaster]

You want F9. It will allow you to select the device to boot off of. Every manufacturer is different.

 

[Snake Byte]

When I hit F9, two options come up, it says

Please Select:
Notebook Hard Drive
Notebook Ethernet

and Niether one of those does anything

 

[MindoverMaster]

What happen if you disconnect the hard drive? It should go straight to the CD. Otherwise, the cd/dvd drive is shot.