Hi,
Welcome to fixya.
-The first thing to check is your boot order in the BIOS.
-Unplug from power, remove battery wait a solid 5 minutes and try again.
-Go into the BIOS and choose the Default settings (press F9 to set defaults then F10 to save and exit).
-It sounds like it can't find a hard drive to boot from so it's looking for the Network to boot from.
-If you have an external CD/DVD drive try to boot your OS from that (after changing the boot order).If it did not work then there is a big chance that the problem is a failed hard drive.
What this means is that the laptop is looking for a boot record. It cannot find an installation of windows on the hard drive, the DVD rom or another boot device, so it is looking for a network boot, hence the message you get.
You need to check if (sounds silly I know) that there is a hard drive in the notebook, that there is windows installed on it and that it is not corrupted.
To check the above, open the bios by pressing the ( I THINK) F2 key as the netbook first boots up, you should be able to see the hard drive appear in the hardware list.
If the hard drive is present and has lost the boot record (which is what loads windows XP) then you will need to re-install it. The easiest way to do this is by borrowing a USB CD drive and plugging it into a usb port with an operating system disc in. The bios should see the external CD drive as a boot master and install the OS.
You can get the driver files for the netbook components here:
http://www.delllaptopdriver.com/system/dell_inspiron-mini_9_drivers_for_windows-xp.htm
If you cannot borrow a usb cd drive, there is another more complex way of installing XP via a usb stick, you will need to use another computer to create the boot usb.
http://www.techtipsgeek.com/install-windows-from-usb-flash-pen-drive/559/
432 views
Usually answered in minutes!
×