I bought a computer in 2007 that was 8GB of RAM and a TB Hard-drive, but a recent windows update bricked the machine because it didn’t have enough space. Is that what’s going to happen to these machines? Just, right off-the-line and into the garbage?
Well what happened is it tried to update, got stuck, and now won’t start. tried starting it over and over and over again while hitting F1 and F2 and it just spins it’s fans. Though it randomly will start-up into a weird BIOS safe mode and give me a couple options, but I’ve yet to find the magic option that let’s me boot it up using the previous version of windows just so I can turn it into a Linux machine. It’s gotten to the point that I’m willing to pay someone to take it and convert it into Linux Fedora or Debian for me (and then pay for a quick tutorial in how tf Linux works 😭 )
EDIT is this actually a service? If this exists I’ll fucking do it, I swear
We can do some troubleshooting. Assuming its just software, you should be able to mash any of f11, f12, delete, or f2. Depending on the laptop, you may need to also press Fn. If that doesnt work, you get into the weeds of attempting to remove the bios coin battery or maybe (what worked for me one time) removing then reinserting the RAM sticks or shuffling them around.
From there, you should get a bios menu (UEFI most likely, but thats semantics). You should have a boot option, which you can use to follow any OS installation tutorial youd like.
The short version is find a working pc (library works) and an empty USB drive, download rufus, use Rufus to make a bootable usb, plug it into pc, do the thing that worked above, and bobs your uncle!
Id highly recommend CachyOs, choosing KDE Plasma and Limine, with BTRFS. None of those things have to make sense to you, but theyre probably the right choice for 9/10 laypeople.
Also you get “I use arch btw” bragging rights (I say so; some may disagree but theyll have to personally fight me irl)
Tip: you don’t need to boot in to windows to install Linux. If you can access the BIOS and/or a boot menu, you can boot off a USB stick and install from there.
EDIT is this actually a service? If this exists I’ll fucking do it, I swear
It technically is for a lot of PC repair shops that don’t otherwise advertise it, but I remember some ye olde Craigslist posts offering such a service back in the day lol.
I’d honestly do it for free if I knew you in person lmao.
I bought a computer in 2007 that was 8GB of RAM and a TB Hard-drive, but a recent windows update bricked the machine because it didn’t have enough space. Is that what’s going to happen to these machines? Just, right off-the-line and into the garbage?
Not sure, on Linux I don’t really think about these things. Never had a computer become “bricked”.
Tbh it’s great for the Linux community because we can pick them up secondhand cheap and continue using them.
Brick more laptops Windows. 🐸
I doubt its fundamentally destroyed unless it did that during a bios update. You can probably install linux on it
Well what happened is it tried to update, got stuck, and now won’t start. tried starting it over and over and over again while hitting F1 and F2 and it just spins it’s fans. Though it randomly will start-up into a weird BIOS safe mode and give me a couple options, but I’ve yet to find the magic option that let’s me boot it up using the previous version of windows just so I can turn it into a Linux machine. It’s gotten to the point that I’m willing to pay someone to take it and convert it into Linux Fedora or Debian for me (and then pay for a quick tutorial in how tf Linux works 😭 )
EDIT is this actually a service? If this exists I’ll fucking do it, I swear
We can do some troubleshooting. Assuming its just software, you should be able to mash any of f11, f12, delete, or f2. Depending on the laptop, you may need to also press Fn. If that doesnt work, you get into the weeds of attempting to remove the bios coin battery or maybe (what worked for me one time) removing then reinserting the RAM sticks or shuffling them around.
From there, you should get a bios menu (UEFI most likely, but thats semantics). You should have a boot option, which you can use to follow any OS installation tutorial youd like.
The short version is find a working pc (library works) and an empty USB drive, download rufus, use Rufus to make a bootable usb, plug it into pc, do the thing that worked above, and bobs your uncle!
Id highly recommend CachyOs, choosing KDE Plasma and Limine, with BTRFS. None of those things have to make sense to you, but theyre probably the right choice for 9/10 laypeople.
Also you get “I use arch btw” bragging rights (I say so; some may disagree but theyll have to personally fight me irl)
Good luck!
Is the BIOS battery just dead?
Tip: you don’t need to boot in to windows to install Linux. If you can access the BIOS and/or a boot menu, you can boot off a USB stick and install from there.
Here’s one of many guides out there: https://linuxvox.com/blog/how-to-create-bootable-linux-usb-drive/
It technically is for a lot of PC repair shops that don’t otherwise advertise it, but I remember some ye olde Craigslist posts offering such a service back in the day lol.
I’d honestly do it for free if I knew you in person lmao.
Same. I used to work in IT and this was my bread and butter for on-the-side money; “broken” laptops