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Laptop OS gone. I think I stuffed up.

#Post
1

Lenovo B590 running W8. Was Googling for some info and the screen froze. No response from anything. No cursor movement. Tried 'enter', 'esc' & ctrl/alt/del. No affect, so restarted (using the button of course). Restarted to a totally black screen. With no response decided to use the Lenovo recovery discs. Followed instructions to the letter & looked as though things were happening. Progress bars progressing. On screen instructions, all followed. Finally finished, so restarted.... to a blank screen with a message the guts of which was 'An operating system wasn't found.' Thought of going through the recovery process again, but when I put a disc in now, all it tells me is that 'An operating system wasn't found'. Have done the machine's internal checks which show Hard drive, memory, all ok. Have temporarily altered the boot order to see if I could get it to boot off the OS recovery disc but it didn't (Pause waiting for laughter to subside). Just told me that 'An operating system wasn't found.' Never have liked this laptop much, and I own an axe, and it's becoming personal. Any ideas out there?

richard112 - 2021-07-18 13:34:00
2

It's pretty old, running a crap version of windows, underpowered by today's standards. Use the axe. Then go shopping????

Ps: assuming the hard drive is indeed not dead it's possible info could be recovered from it.

It's also possible a tech could sort out the problem - but do you want to? The cost could be more than it's worth.

Edited by nice_lady at 1:55 pm, Sun 18 Jul

nice_lady - 2021-07-18 13:53:00
3

Should run pretty quick on Linux, I recommend Lubuntu, real easy to install and use and has a very similar feel to Windows.

tygertung - 2021-07-18 14:01:00
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Thanks fellas. I need to be careful about compatibility with programs I need for our small publishing business. For instance we use Adobe Pagemaker which was superseded by Adobe In-Design, but In-Design while full of bells & whistles, works out pretty clumsy for our work. Pretty sure neither Pagemaker nor others would work with W10 or Linux. Did try Ubuntu many years ago. Still have the disc.

Edited by richard112 at 2:31 pm, Sun 18 Jul

richard112 - 2021-07-18 14:29:00
5
nice_lady wrote:

It's pretty old, running a crap version of windows, underpowered by today's standards. Use the axe. Then go shopping????

Ps: assuming the hard drive is indeed not dead it's possible info could be recovered from it.

It's also possible a tech could sort out the problem - but do you want to? The cost could be more than it's worth.


Really depends on which version it is,?
i3 Celeron with 4gb ram = real not much in there but probably ok with a fresh install of win8 & double the ram
i5 Pentium with 8gb ram & fresh install on an SSD should run nicely on win10

mrfxit - 2021-07-18 14:40:00
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Sure but if a tech is gonna do it the OP may add well flag that as cost would make it not worth it.

nice_lady - 2021-07-18 15:08:00
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What's a i5 pentium?

cube_guy - 2021-07-18 15:08:00
8

Is there no data on this that you want to try and salvage?
Initial thoughts are it's a graphics chip issue since you've tested the other stuff and it seems to work with basic display modes ok (ie installations) but only fails when the live system and higher graphics modes are supposed to kick in... You could try starting it in safe mode which always uses a basic video driver ...

Edited by king1 at 3:16 pm, Sun 18 Jul

king1 - 2021-07-18 15:14:00
9

OP says it's giving 'no OS' error..... Might have just had a hiccup and lost the partition table.

*shrugs* seen it happen .

nice_lady - 2021-07-18 15:51:00
10

yep that sounds like the reinstall failed, but the initial failure and subsequent restart is what got me thinking video. personally i'd probably go straight to a windows 10 install to try and get it up and running, but given the unknown state of the previous installation I imagine the only way will be to wipe the partitions and start again...

king1 - 2021-07-18 16:04:00
11

Sorry. Got distracted by a mean thunderstorm. Instantaneous lightning & thunder. Close as I've ever seen it. Don't have any data on this worth bothering about. Couldn't find the right key to get it into safe mode, then for giggles tried installing from a W2000 disk. It appeared to go through the installation procedure, but wouldn't start. Worse to come. Now trying with an Ubuntu disc!

richard112 - 2021-07-18 16:43:00
12

JFYI, I'm running Pagemaker V7.0 (really old) on W10 successfully.

bwg11 - 2021-07-18 17:37:00
13
richard112 wrote:

Sorry. Got distracted by a mean thunderstorm. Instantaneous lightning & thunder. Close as I've ever seen it. Don't have any data on this worth bothering about. Couldn't find the right key to get it into safe mode, then for giggles tried installing from a W2000 disk. It appeared to go through the installation procedure, but wouldn't start. Worse to come. Now trying with an Ubuntu disc!

Define "wouldn't start" - exactly please.

nice_lady - 2021-07-18 17:55:00
14
richard112 wrote:

Thanks fellas. I need to be careful about compatibility with programs I need for our small publishing business. For instance we use Adobe Pagemaker which was superseded by Adobe In-Design, but In-Design while full of bells & whistles, works out pretty clumsy for our work. Pretty sure neither Pagemaker nor others would work with W10 or Linux. Did try Ubuntu many years ago. Still have the disc.

Fair enough. There is a chance you might be able to run Pagemaker under Linux using WINE, which is a Windows compatibility layer, but you'd have to test it to find out.

tygertung - 2021-07-18 18:12:00
15

If he can install Linux and run it then there's no reason why Windows wouldn't be able to be installed and run.

Yet the OP has tried and failed.

More info about the failure to run might help.

nice_lady - 2021-07-18 18:15:00
16
richard112 wrote:

Pretty sure neither Pagemaker nor others would work with W10.

Guesswork ?

nice_lady - 2021-07-18 18:17:00
17

Sorry. Keep getting dragged off. W 2000 appeared to install to the point where it said it was going to open (can't remember the exact message), but there was no further response. Ubuntu got half way through the installation, and then bailed out claiming the cd/dvd reader was faulty. Seems to have shaken the 'Operating system not found' message out so having another go with the Lenova recovery discs. Re bwg11.'JFYI, I'm running Pagemaker V7.0 (really old) on W10 successfully'. Thanks for that. 7 is the version I'm using. Had considered buying an off-lease unit with W10 installed to see what happens. Had been told it can't be done. Can't remember by whom.
Thanks everyone for your interest & help.

richard112 - 2021-07-18 19:19:00
18

Make a bootable disc or usb stick of windows 10 and install that. Not sure whether it will be activated or not though.

muppet_slayer - 2021-07-18 19:23:00
19

Probably a faulty HDD. if you have succeeded in overwriting it with the fresh install attempt, well I sure hope you had your data backed up beforehand.

Edited by lythande1 at 8:28 am, Mon 19 Jul

lythande1 - 2021-07-19 08:27:00
20

It might be worth trying to run a "live session" off a Linux USB stick.

tygertung - 2021-07-19 08:55:00
21

make sure to get a usb 3 usb 2 wont be fast enough otherwise CD like knoppix
https://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
to put usb bootable on winblows
https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases/tag/v1.5.121

exe is obiously win
balenaEtcher-Setup-1.5.121.exe-

rightclick install as admin it should be a save source github.

Edited by intrade at 2:10 pm, Mon 19 Jul

intrade - 2021-07-19 14:01:00
22

USB 2 is way quicker read speed than CD. USB 2 usually reads at 43 MB/s but CDs are usually only able to read at a theoretical 9MB/s

DVDs are faster than CDs and can go at a theoretical maximum of 21 MB/s.

So really a USB 2 stick should be fine.

tygertung - 2021-07-19 15:17:00
23
tygertung wrote:

USB 2 is way quicker read speed than CD. USB 2 usually reads at 43 MB/s but CDs are usually only able to read at a theoretical 9MB/s

DVDs are faster than CDs and can go at a theoretical maximum of 21 MB/s.

So really a USB 2 stick should be fine.


yea i think i messed up usb 1 is to slow still works but stalls i meant to write .The port with blue tong is fast enough if you get a usb stick for that speed.

intrade - 2021-07-19 16:43:00
24

USB 1 can only go 1.43 MB/s, however that is much faster than a floppy disc which would usually only go about 50 KB/s

tygertung - 2021-07-19 21:13:00
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