Two questions from a computer illiterate.

The harddrive on my Laptop expired a few weeks ago. I bought a replacement but needed to get replacement software (the laptop came as part of my redundancy so I had no program disks).

So I bought off the ‘Bay an unused/new copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 – it turn out to be an OEM version from Dell labelled up as Reinstallation CD.

I keep getting the ‘BSD’ with references to programme issues. As the hard drive was blank have I used the wrong version of XP?

Secondly, does anyone use Open Office Pro instead of Windows Office? What’s it like?

The reason I ask is that I am tempted to just pony up and get Windows 7 for my PC and Laptops and then use Open Office Pro for word processing etc… I use AutoCAD so need a Windows based system – Although I prefer / am used to XP.

OO if fine most of the time. Power Point users complain about it though.
Windows – no idea. I ditched it some time ago as I had enough of viruses, trojans etc.

it turn out to be an OEM version from Dell labelled up as Reinstallation CD.

Was it a genuine disc or a CD-R?

If the latter, all bets are off, it could be anything.

What’s the make and model of the laptop?

When it bluescreens, what’s the error?

It’s a genuine copy not a CD-R.

The laptop is a Compaq NX7010. I’m confident that the hardware is fine – the RAM and HD are new – there weren’t any issues before the HD stopped .

There are several error codes when it bsd’s.

kmixer.sys – Address
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
BAD_POOL_CALLER

Are a few examples.

Run Memtest off a live CD before you go any further.

Software for Students is the best bet for Windoze. £30-odd for Win7 Pro. Office is £38 I think, but that will do for 2 PC’s.

Do the job righyt, and it will make things easier.

OO is fione for almost everything i use it
i have a version of word you can have
it will come on a cd-r though

Blue screen indicates driver errors, you need to get thelatest drivers for your motherboard/graphics/sound cards from their respective websites, best go to the laptop manufacturer site for a start and get latest drivers for your model. install them after windows and before anything else ideally. If you are installing a Dell cd onto a non-dell lappy you might be installing dell drivers which won’t help things.

open orifice is OK but if you are used to the way excel works, calc will be a nightmare as they use different way of working with formulas etc. I’ve also found formatting issues with docs made in Word when opened in OO.

After loading XP I loaded up the – supposedly – current drivers for the hardware. Although I did assume that the list of hardware was complete.