hanging/blinking cursor on Gateway 9550 notebook

Greetings. I have a used Gateway Solo 9550 PIII 1.13 Ghz, 512 MB RA
that I got recently purchased at a yardsale. It's okay, just th
usual cosmetic damage(external surface stratches and minor dents
etc) with no cracked LCD and no missing keypad buttons. The onl
thing that just puts me in a straight jacket is that it won'
recognize an OS when you install the CD with an OS in it. Th
CDRW/DVD will spin for a few seconds then quit running of which th
"hanging/blinking" cursor appears. It can go to the BIO
when you press the F2 button and all, but when you insert an OS dis
(XP is my choice), the disk spins then shuts down. When I check th
BIOS, it does recognize the CDRW/DVD and the HDD(40.0 G) plus othe
hardware installed but when it exits BIOS, that dreaded curso
appears. Does anyone have a solution or solutions to the prob I hav
right now for I'm just about to get rid of this lappy but I wouldn'
mind to give it a 2nd or 3rd chance to work. Any solution or commen
would be helpful in this matter

There is a fair possibility that the CDRW/DVD is defective. If you can get a
cheap replacement, it is worth a try. I am assuming that the CDs you are using
are known to be good and bootable on another computer.

If you are in the US, I'll buy the darn thing and help you recoup some of the
money you spent. But my guess is that you are somewhere in the UK, from the
wording of your message... Ben Myers

On Thu, 20 Jul 2006 08:36:40 GMT, lid (gmannb1) wrote:

>Greetings. I have a used Gateway Solo 9550 PIII 1.13 Ghz, 512 MB RAM
>that I got recently purchased at a yardsale. It's okay, just the
>usual cosmetic damage(external surface stratches and minor dents,
>etc) with no cracked LCD and no missing keypad buttons. The only
>thing that just puts me in a straight jacket is that it won't
>recognize an OS when you install the CD with an OS in it. The
>CDRW/DVD will spin for a few seconds then quit running of which the
>"hanging/blinking" cursor appears. It can go to the BIOS
>when you press the F2 button and all, but when you insert an OS disk
>(XP is my choice), the disk spins then shuts down. When I check the
>BIOS, it does recognize the CDRW/DVD and the HDD(40.0 G) plus other
>hardware installed but when it exits BIOS, that dreaded cursor
>appears. Does anyone have a solution or solutions to the prob I have
>right now for I'm just about to get rid of this lappy but I wouldn't
>mind to give it a 2nd or 3rd chance to work. Any solution or comment
>would be helpful in this matter.

That happened to me on a gateway Desktop (also XP CD). I also thought it was
a bad CD Drive. I tried 2 different drives...same thing. It turned out to be
Incompatible memory although the memory worked out ok for Win98. I removed
one stick and worked ok after that.

Bob


"Ben Myers" <ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net> wrote in message
news:...
> There is a fair possibility that the CDRW/DVD is defective. If you can
> get a
> cheap replacement, it is worth a try. I am assuming that the CDs you are
> using
> are known to be good and bootable on another computer.
>
> If you are in the US, I'll buy the darn thing and help you recoup some of
> the
> money you spent. But my guess is that you are somewhere in the UK, from
> the
> wording of your message... Ben Myers
>
> On Thu, 20 Jul 2006 08:36:40 GMT, lid (gmannb1) wrote:
>
>>Greetings. I have a used Gateway Solo 9550 PIII 1.13 Ghz, 512 MB RAM
>>that I got recently purchased at a yardsale. It's okay, just the
>>usual cosmetic damage(external surface stratches and minor dents,
>>etc) with no cracked LCD and no missing keypad buttons. The only
>>thing that just puts me in a straight jacket is that it won't
>>recognize an OS when you install the CD with an OS in it. The
>>CDRW/DVD will spin for a few seconds then quit running of which the
>>"hanging/blinking" cursor appears. It can go to the BIOS
>>when you press the F2 button and all, but when you insert an OS disk
>>(XP is my choice), the disk spins then shuts down. When I check the
>>BIOS, it does recognize the CDRW/DVD and the HDD(40.0 G) plus other
>>hardware installed but when it exits BIOS, that dreaded cursor
>>appears. Does anyone have a solution or solutions to the prob I have
>>right now for I'm just about to get rid of this lappy but I wouldn't
>>mind to give it a 2nd or 3rd chance to work. Any solution or comment
>>would be helpful in this matter.
>

Greetings again. Well, I have gotten a NOS(new old stock) CDRW/DV
drive for the lappy of which it does the same deal and also change
the RAM(PC133 SoDimm 256MB, 2 count), a switcharoo if you will, an
it still the blasted cursor does its deal when I insert the XP disc
To me, it is a nice looking notebook despite its age (circa 2002) an
it would be my own laptop to be used for my work, a wildlan
firefighter(logistics, radio ops, management, etc), and just to hav
something to do when I'm just bored like crazy out in the thicket. I
there are anymore suggestions out there, I'm game to them, plust than
for the couple of posts made, even though they didn't do the trick
but I'll give it another wack at it. Again thanx