Laptop stuck on a recovery page

I have an old Acer 3003 WLMI running XP. that is now stuck. You switch it on, you get the Acer page then you get a page that says Starting Windows 98... This driver is provided by Oak Technologies inc. then you get to a page where on the upper left is written (very pale) Invalid media type reading drive D and in the lower right corner, the word recovery is written in big letters and that's it...stays there forever. I did open it and press F2, did change the
boot order to the CD/DVD drive and did use a Ubuntu Live CD and...it doesn't boot...it just shut off. Any ideas?

Now, I did remove the hard-drive and I was able to get the Ubuntu Live CD to start and run for some time but it couldn't boot. I got this screen (see pictures) but it's like Chinese to me. Also, after many attempts at removing/replacing the hard-drive, I did get a new message at the page just before the one that stucks. It says to press "ESC" but it didn't do any better. Last picture (recovery) is of the page that stucks.

Real not easy to post pictures.

 

Second picture is the notebook attempting a network boot - usually meaning it detects not other boot devices (network boot is usually the last on the list of boot devices)

Do you have a product key for Windows XP? I suspect the sticker might not be readable anymore after so many years...
Also did you burn the recovery DVDs for this notebook?

 

Hi! You're right...the product key is totally erased. I did burn the 3 DVDs and I have them...well....thinking of it...I also have an Aspire 5517 so I can't remember if the DVDs a I did burn were from that one or the 3003 WLMI. I'm not home now so I can't check.

 

Well you have two options - one is to use recovery DVDs and the second would be to clean install windows which would be hard without knowing the product key, so I guess recovery DVDs is the way to go.

 

Thanks! Well...I did pop the DVDs in my Acer Aspire 5517 and looking at the files, there's no way to tell if they are for that laptop or for the 3003 WLMI. Good news though on the other side...even though the sticker is more than half erased, the product key is still visible. I guess I would first try the DVDs in the 3003 WLMI. I never did that before. How it works? You pop one in and then...what?

 

First thing would be to enter BIOS,enable boot menu and set DVD as a first boot device.
Then restarting the notebook with the recovery DVD in the drive should be enough.

 

It doesn't work. I went to Youtube and one guy tells us get the DVD in then start the laptop while pressing F12 and it should starts the recovery but...that didn't work either. Should I conclude my DVDs are for the other laptop?

What one can do with the product key number ?

 

You could do a clean install of Windows XP, provided you have a CD with Windows XP that is (not a recovery one but a retail cd).

 

What is a retail CD ?
Would this do the trick ?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Windows-XP-...128885?hash=item43f3cd54b5:g:xCUAAOSw65FXuz5S

 

A windows installation CD, but not the recovery CD meant for a specific model, but rather a CD like you could buy off the shelve and install on any computer.
You don't have to buy one, just borrow one - you have a legal product key so as long as you have the right version of Windows it will work.

 

Well...I can't think of nobody that would have a Windows XP Professional 32 bits installing disc.

Would there be a way to install Linux instead ?

 

Yes there would but I don't really know why Ubuntu did not work - you'd have to ask in linux sub-forum here.
Are you sure you've had XP Pro? I seem to remember that these came with Home Edition.

If I may make a bold suggestion - you should give up on this notebook - I remember it perfectly. These were based on a single core Sempron and series 5000 was almost identical but based on a single core Turion x64.
Whatever you do these are too slow to be of any use even for internet browsing or watching a HD movie.

 

Yes, it has XP Professional. I never use that laptop. I just keep it as a spare in case my other one get in trouble...like last week. I did open up the 5517 to clean the fan and the screen went black after that. I was only able to fix it the next day so in the mean time I had my 3003 to reach the Internet. I don't have a smart phone.
One wonder how come there's nobody that did upload online these install disc for you to download for free (specially for those who have their key)...like so much other stuff.

 

Somebody told me to download "Ultimate Bootable CD". With that bootable Live CD, I was able to use the "Vivard" software and erase my HDD. After that, it was just a matter to install Ubuntu 16.04

 

Last step I did remove Ubuntu 16.04 and did replace it with Linux Lite.