The Linux.uk Community Forum

Hi Brian and Steve

Hi Brian,

Oh it's a right mare! Thanks for your help.
It's a samsung laptop: Model NP-RV520-A07UK.
Essentially, I did a clean reinstall of Windows 7 OS via the recovery disk and seem to have lost the ability to go online.
I got a couple of 'Error reading disk' on start-up as well, but a disk check found nothing and seemed to fix that.

I stupidly assumed that the Samsung recovery disk would have all I needed.
I tried recovery and it recovers to the same state. It's all gone!

I went on Samsung's website and if I put in the model number it takes me to this page for drivers:
https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/model/NP-RV520-A07UK/

I tried live chat with Samsung but the person couldn't seem to grasp the situation.
I thought I'd download the two lan drivers and see if I can get them onto the Samsung, but now today I've got the disk error back on start-up and a flickering screen with flashing fine lines and squares. So I'm wondering if it's actually a hardware problem?

I hate computers sometimes.

Hi Keith

No, you are right and that was kind of what I was thinking.
I just didn't expect the laptop to lose the ability to connect to a network.
I'm assuming that without that I can't get any further?

Perhaps I can download the basic driver set from the samsung website...

Hi Keith

Sadly not so simple.
As the Smasung laptop was playing up already, I decided to guinea-pig it for the Linux as I was going to have to do a reinstall of the Windows 7 OS.

The plan was:
Clean reinstall of Windows 7 so the Mrs can use it for the kids homework as usual.
Then  add Linux for us to try out and once we are familiar with it, put it on the desktop as well.
I've done a boot from disk o reinstall Windows 7, but I've lost the ability to go online or connect to a network and I can't figure our how to fix it?

Before I started I only saved the Mrs pictures to a disk for her and didn't think I'd need to worry about basic hardware drivers.
I assumed the laptop would retain the basic ability to go online an upadte if needed.

Doh!

Hmmmm, In device manager the 'Network adapters' Bluetooth Device: Personal area network and RFCOMM protocol TDI are both working properly, but below that in 'Other Devices' the ethernet controller, network controller, PCI simple communications controller and SM bus controller as all showing a yellow warning icon over them and when I click on them it says no dirvers installed.

@ Rich, Steve, Keith. Sozo, Wishbone

Well,
You guys are great, however it appears I'm a bit of a disaster!

Unfortunately, I had to put this project on the back-burner for a few weeks due to a family bereavement and once it got back on my radar, my wife's trusty Samsung laptop running windows 7 (that we use for the kids homework) started playing up and running super slow.
After a few days of the basics, clean-up, defrag, remove google drive, remove and update virus protection, make sure firefox is up to date etc.... It didn't seeem to have fixed the problems.
I assumed it was either something was corrupted and in need of a clean reinstall of the OS or at worst it was a HD problem and it might need a new one (it's about 8 or 9 years old).
It's a 64 bit intel i3 2.2ghz with 4G of ram.
Well, I found the "Samsung Windows7 recovery disk" and thought 'yay', do a scrub and reinstall of Windows 7 and if it's all stable, put Windows 7 back on alongside a nice 64 bit Linux OS to try before I go to putting it on the Desktop as well!

Might as well only risk messing up the one PC at a time!

So in with the recovery disk, f2, boot from disk and off we go!

Or not of course.
I have now realised that the recovery disk seems to not be as 'comprehensive' as the Dell one's are and I've got a laptop that has lost all programs apart from the windows 7 and won't even recognise the network adaptor or go online.
I've got a horrible feeling I've just lost all the drivers and samsung programs off of the laptop.
Have I effectively 'bricked it'?

My Dell desktop is simple for a full reinstall, I guess I just thought all PC's would be the same.

Hi Keith,

I've been looking at peppermintos following your suggestion... and the simple instructions on the site are already making me feel a bit stupid.
I have no idea about md5sum... or how to open a terminal or command prompt in the directory, but hey-ho we learn by trying!

I hope you won't mind some follow up questions if I get stuck?

Thanks again.

Hi Keith, David and Rich,

Thanks for the replies everyone. Much appreciated.

Keith,

I had a look at the links thankyou. I'd found like you, that I am seeing the 64 bit versions but not the 32 bit.
My problem is that when I look at the lists, they all sound good, but I've never heard of 90% of them so can't judge.

David,

lol, my Desktop is nearly that old. Vista was the new OS and apart from a new hard drive that I put in it about 4 years ago and a couple of replaced fans, it's running the original hardware!
So that must be 2007.
I've had to reinstall everything a few times of course.
It was a good spec in it's day and as I regularly clean all the dust out, it's still going strong.
I want to remove all the programs that I don't use, but keep Vista on it so my son can still play some old RTS games that I've got installed on it.

Rich,

THanks for keeping your instructions simple.... I need that ;-)

It's an 2007 Dell XPS 210 with Vista (service pack 2)
Is this what you are after?

Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
Memory (RAM)    2.00 GB    
Graphics    Radeon X1300 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)    
Gaming graphics    1019 MB Total available graphics memory    
Primary hard disk    727GB Free (932GB Total)    
Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium

System      
     Manufacturer    Dell Inc.
     Model    Dell DXC061
     Total amount of system memory    2.00 GB RAM
     System type    32-bit operating system
     Number of processor cores    2
     64-bit capable    Yes
Storage      
     Total size of hard disk(s)    932 GB
     Disk partition (C:)    727 GB Free (932 GB Total)
     Media drive (D:)    CD/DVD
Graphics      
     Display adapter type    Radeon X1300 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)
     Total available graphics memory    1019 MB
           Dedicated graphics memory    256 MB
           Dedicated system memory    0 MB
           Shared system memory    763 MB
     Display adapter driver version    7.14.10.830
     Primary monitor resolution    1680x1050
     DirectX version    DirectX 9.0 or better

Hi All,

I'm looking to move to Linux based OS's on my home PC's and I want to start (dip a toe in the water) with my slightly venerable desktop!

I've never used a linux based OS before and although Im not a total PC novice, Im no means a tech savy I.T specialist either.
So instalation and set-up needs to be straightforwards and idiot proof.
I need basic PC features, a lot of web surfing, some word processing and basic photo/image editing.

My PC is pretty old and the spec is:
Processor: Intel Core 2 6600 @ 2.4Ghz
Ram: 2.00 GB
System Type: 32 Bit Operating System
Hard Drive: 1 TB

I was looking at Ubuntu or Mint, but I'm not sure they'll work with my older 32 bit architecture?

If anyone can  point me to a good (100% free) OS that would suit, I'd be grateful.