hi there i dont know if i am in the correct forum, but i am just wonderin if somebofy could help me out. i want to re set my lap top back to the way it was the day i bought it, it has windows xp. i did this before on my mothers pc some time ago, however cannot manage to do it now! i am so confused. i thought i was supposeed to hold f11 or f12 when booting up, but it isn't working for me. cheers in advance for any advance. ev
Welcome to Hardwareforums! Are you talking about BIOS settings? (There normally best left alone...). What do you mean by re-set? (exactly the way the laptop came (no personal files) or just settings?)
I think you want it as it left the 'factory' right? You'll need your Windows XP Disc, then put it in the drive, restart the computer and you can format and re-install from there, this will erase everything on your hard drive and do a fresh install of XP on there.
Before you do that, you'll also need to make sure that you've got your XP product key. If you can still boot into windows use [google]magic jelly bean key finder[/google] and note the product key it gives you. Or if you have it on paper somewhere great. Then a reinstall of windows should be alright. Make sure after you reinstall that you install at least Service pack 2 as its dangerous to take a windows system online without the updates.
it may be F11 / F12 depending on the manufacturer of your laptop, in most cases (desktop ps's) the key to press after POST is usually <delete> it may be that you need to reinstall XP but make sure you install XP SP2 or use your existing XP CD (if its not SP2, then use slipstream your original XP CD to make an XP SP2 CD, then access the BIOS and set first boot device to CD then with XP SP2 CD in your drive reboot and when prompted press a key to boot from CD then follow on screen instructions EDIT: but as addis said make sure you have your XP product key - good luck
