Seeking advice for resurrecting an old PC, laptop.

OK, so, I've just acquired an old Dell Laptop and I'm trying to set it up with the ultimate goal of using this machine and it's s-video output to my smart TV.

I want to use my smart TV as "Monitor" that I can control with/from a PC and use the mouse and a keyboard as opposed to the "On-screen" controls that I have with the remote.

Intel core 2 duo CPU T5250 @ 1.50 Ghz 2.00 GB of RAM (this may have been upgraded) 146 GB hard Drive (this may have been partitioned)

I'm on my second attempt to Install the OS, Vista, because that's the disc I have.

After an hour of waiting for Vista to "Complete Installation", I bailed out and went back into the Bios and "reset the Factory" defaults.

Trying to Install Vista again and it's still hanging up on "Completing Installation" But this time I selected the "Logical Drive" as opposed to "Primary Drive" not sure if it makes any difference.

The last known functioning state was that Vista was up and running, Internet was connected, an auto update attempted to "Upgrade" to Windows 10 and failed with an error message that said "Not enough Hard drive available" or something to that extent. But this info was from someone that knows far less than I about how these things work.

I can't imagine that I won't be able to get this thing running with the Vista OS, I might be wrong but I don't know.

Should I bother with the hundreds of Vista "Upgrades" prior to attempting a Windows 10 upgrade?

BTW, I'm still waiting for it to complete installation on my second attempt. Another 40 minutes as I type this.

After looking at a lot of the other posts, and reading about the issues you're having, I think first thing you need to do is ensure the hard drive even works by slaving it out to another computer and then checking out the specs of the computer to see if Vista will even work on it. If it was meant for Windows 7, it might not "easily" backwards compatible.

Also, others have mentioned the use of an S-video port? You might not get good performance with that.

All that said, if the hard drive is found to be sound, you might want to see if Windows XP will load up on it. I know it's not much use for Internet browsing but installing it might prove that the laptop is still totally operational.

I have two O/S hard drives for the machine I'm on now, one is Windows 7 and one is XP. I have a docking tray that enables me to swap them out. I loaded XP just to see if it would even load, and it does. I keep it "for old time's sake."

Sometimes you gotta think more old school with these kinds of issues and find out what works and what doesn't. Check the hard drive, run whatever diagnostic software you have and ensure it works, then try an older O/S and work your way up. If nothing else, it'll be a good learning experience.

Thanks for your reply.

As for the Dell Inspiron laptop (Vista), resuurection attempts.

I can get to the Bios and have;

reset the defaults

Run the Diagnostics (get an error 2000, 0146) which seems to be a HD error, but not necessarily a critical error.

On my fourth attempt to “Install” Vista from the disk,

I loaded or reloaded the HDD Drivers from a Dell disc.

I was able to “Format” the drives, It’s actually one drive that was partitioned. This option was not available on my previous attempts.

Ran the Install and while my screen said “Completing Installation”, I let it run for hours and eventually the screen went blank with only a functioning mouse cursor. I let that run for hours again until I gave up.

Tried to start the machine from the HD and would get the standard MS “Start up”, the green bars running back and forth, forever.

I don’t have the ability to use a “Slave” drive.

For some reason I don’t think the Hard Drive is completely shot.

Also, I was verbally told the machine was originally a Win 7, but the MS sticker says Vista.

The only thing I have not done to its conclusion is run the “System Repair” from the Install disk. It takes forever and when I finally bail, the log file doesn’t record any HD errors.

In the meantime. I found a Disc that is an RW. Only one.

My XP machine, that I’m using now and never crashes can write to that disk.

I also have an HP Pavillion dv7 laptop, Vista, that won’t start/Boot up.

The HP has an HDMI port so I’m hoping I can get it running and just trash the Dell machine.

I have no “Recovery or Reinstallation” discs for the HP.

I went online and it seems that HP or MS is still charging to download these.

The HP machine has a different set of issues.

Another resurrection attempt.

I turn it on and I “Hear” the drive spin up for about 2 seconds and nothing. Blank screen forever.

In the past I’ve just let it sit like that and after 8 or more hours, and all of the sudden it starts up and I have full access. Like nothing was ever wrong.

I cleaned up my programs and went through hundreds of updates and the thing worked fine for a few days until it would just shut down. I’m very cognizant of the heat issues and always am sure to keep it vented.

When I power up the HP machine I can’t seem to get to the Bios. It’s just a blank screen and as I mentioned, the disk spins up and it goes silent.

I just turned it on at 12:30 est today and I’m going to let it sit there until it starts. It may take a few days, but I’m stubborn.

Assuming the thing fires up, I’m looking for a simple OS that I can download that will replace Vista and be reliable enough to simply run/display a web browser and Youtube videos onto my “Smart TV”.

I’ll put any OS on the thing, I don’t really care.

I just want something that works.

HP Pavilion dv7

AMD Turion X2, 64 bit

Both the mouse pad and keyboard haven’t worked properly well before the thing finally crashed. I’ve got USB alternatives.

Thanks in advance, to you and others that can share their insight.

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