Where to go get Windows installed?

[SailingHome]

Buddy gave me a sweet Dell E4300, but it is sitting on the dreaded black screen of death with the white mouse pointer. No repair disk. Would rather have XP anyway, I suspect.

Where can I go to have it reormatted, vosta or xp put on, and not end up with viruses and bloat (as well as not problems with serial numbers)

Thanks!

[cooked]

You think you prefer XP but you don't. Any larger town has a mall with something like a computer section. Go there, say windows 7 three or four times and see that you get a genuine version.

There are programs that will get rid of bloat-, ad.- and malware. Or you can google all your unknown programs and get rid of them with Revo uninstaller. Man up!

[NeverSure]

Is the computer finishing POST before you get that screen? Scroll down to get list of beep errors: Link

If it finished the POST test, tries to start Windows and you get the screen, it's probably Windows. If it doesn't complete POST it's probably the hardware and the POST beeps may tell you what it is.

If you'd post the message you get with your death screen, we might figure out what it is.

[SDM0712]

I normally use Banana IT for anything like this. Never had a problem.

SDM

[KittenKong]

"Buddy gave me a sweet Dell E4300, but it is sitting on the dreaded black screen of death with the white mouse pointer. No repair disk."

If this was purchased outside of Thailand it may have a factory restore partition for the Windows operating system. If so, use it. You will find the instructions on the Dell site.

If it was purchased in Thailand and your Windows is pirated then you will need to buy a proper copy of Windows 7 or 8 from a shop. XP is dead and should not be considered for purchase.

It is simple enough to install Windows 7/8 yourself. Just be sure that you have an ethernet cable to connect to your router so that the correct drivers can be downloaded after installation, or download them yourself from the Dell site prior to starting the installation. Use another PC and a USB memory stick for this and then install the drivers from the stick. Dell are very good at providing easy access to the correct drivers for your machine on their website.

Depending on your requirements you could even install Linux instead. This is free and is perfectly suitable for people who only do standard tasks like email, web-browsing, word processing/spreadsheets, home image processing, downloading/viewing films etc. This probably accounts for 80% or more of laptop users and it sounds like you would be in that group. Try Ubuntu.

[ignis]

most small computer repair shop will install Windows 7, around where I live they charge 90 baht, you then phone M$ and buy a genuine key, they will stay on the phone and help you set everything with the genuine Key.

There are places that sell the genuine DVD often with someone that will install it for you [around 300 baht + the M$ DVD] again M$ will have a list of suppliers nearest to where you live, or buy from somewhere like http://www.invadeit.co.th/category/operating-systems-windows/ [would trust these more then some other places] and do it yourself

Edit: with option 1, you will only have spent 90 baht and can use for 30 days, check the computer is working correct before buying a Key.

Edited April 28, 2014 by ignis

[KittenKong]

most small computer repair shop will install Windows 7, around where I live they charge 90 baht, ....

I'm not sure I would trust them to use an official Windows installation DVD and not to install a load of key-loggers or other viruses/root-kits at the same time. Even if they did it unwittingly.

[ignis]

most small computer repair shop will install Windows 7, around where I live they charge 90 baht, ....

I'm not sure I would trust them to use an official Windows installation DVD and not to install a load of key-loggers or other viruses/root-kits at the same time. Even if they did it unwittingly.

"I'm not sure I would trust them to use an official Windows installation DVD"

NO,+ nowhere did I say to let some shop guy to use

but OP said "Buddy gave me a sweet Dell E4300, but it is sitting on the dreaded black screen of death"

Is it worth spending 6,000 odd baht or a genuine Windows DVD when the machine may not even work ? in my way of thinking is better to pay 90 baht for a "copy" and make sure the machine works fine 1st.

[Crossy]

Our OP did note that he has a mouse pointer, so the OS is getting quite a long way into its startup sequence. A system repair may be all that's needed.

Does the machine have a Windows serial sticker? If so chances are it also has a recovery partition that can be used to rescue a crashed OS.

I would be extremely reticent about allowing any Thai computer shop (yes even IT City) to install Windows, the chances of getting a pirate copy is 99% certainty.

If you have, or can borrow a Windows disk of the same version that's installed you should be able to do a repair and get the beast going.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

None of the above. Do it yourself. Why pay 90 baht for a 'copy'? You can download the genuine thing at no cost at all from Microsoft's distributor.

You can use the downloaded image to create a Bootable USB drive, which will cost nothing if the OP already has a drive of 4GB or more or burn it to a DVD which costs pennies.

So it is left to the OP to give us more details of the machine, so that we can advise him going forward. But I would advise against him having the job done by anyone but himself.

Specifically, I need the Service Tag written on the bottom of the machine. If it already has a Windows 7 licence, I can link you to the DELL Recovery disc for Windows 7. Similarly to Vista or XP.

So, let's start with the Service Tag.

[ezzra]

There are several shops at IT mall in Fortune tower on Ratchada Rd. 5th floor that will format your

machine and install Windows on it for about 300-500 baht, I use one such guy, PM me for details..

[NeverSure]

Crossy is right and I apologize. The computer is completing POST and getting well into Windows.

Have you tried a factory restore in case it's there? With that model you would press F8 When you see the Dell screen. If available that would take you to a boot menu. If you're lucky, you'll get a "repair options" menu and next you select "Image Restore."

It's worth a try. If it works it will put the computer back to where it was when it shipped new. All of the drivers - everything would be in place.

The downside is that if it's XP, you'll lose all of your updates including any service packs that came out after your computer was shipped. If you're lucky it might have Vista which would update until current.

Edited April 29, 2014 by NeverSure

[KittenKong]

There are several shops at IT mall in Fortune tower on Ratchada Rd. 5th floor that will format your

machine and install Windows on it for about 300-500 baht,

That seems very expensive to me. Especially for such an easy task that is specifically designed to be doable by the end user.

[kkerry]

There are several shops at IT mall in Fortune tower on Ratchada Rd. 5th floor that will format your

machine and install Windows on it for about 300-500 baht, I use one such guy, PM me for details..

Most Thais pay 200 baht I'm told. Some pretty good copies available that I see now come with anti-virus, ad-blockers and a very good range of software that meets the needs of most people. I'll still stick to my original software but I understand why many people don't want to spend two weeks pay on an operating system when they can get it for a twentieth of the price.