SOLVED! New Member with Old Devices

Big A would be Apple/Mac
See what I mean about the terminology !

I would agree with your contacting the seller.

It did cross my mind that they may have tried to wipe the hard drive before sending it to you.

Would you like to put all this on hold until you hear from them/him ?

It does not create a problem for us
I think I will try to work this out with the seller. It isn't fair to waste your time when this should have worked easily. I really appreciate your generous offering of time and ideas. Brickwizard, too. Many thanks.
 


That is ok...we understand. There is NO confusion on our part.

Have you bought on Ebay very often ?
 
I'm considering returning it as there is a 30-day warranty. This should have worked right out of the box.
Agreed It should,
so where do you wish to go from here ? wait and see what the seller says ? or have another go at it? but to continue you need a bootable install medium [iso] .
do you have a blank dvd-R or a blank CD-R , we may be able to burn a bootable disc using the mac disc utility [may depend on how old your mac is]
 
If you are at all unsure of getting a favourable response from the seller........Contact Ebay.

There should be a link on one of the emails you received that will take you straight to Ebay to register your dissatisfaction with them.


From experience, that can be an Important first step.
 
It does not create a problem for us
agreed, as we try to solve members problems we also learn ourselves
MacBook but that isn't the one I want to use for Linux. Sorry for the confusion.
No confusion but we need to find a way for you to make an install medium ready to start again
 
That is ok...we understand. There is NO confusion on our part.

Have you bought on Ebay very often ?
I purchased another laptop on eBay a few years back and it worked beautifully. I've also purchased several other items at different times and was never disappointed. This seller has 99.8% positive feedback with over 48,000 transactions. I doubt this was intentional as all the packaging and package inserts were from Dell. I just happened to get one with a glitch.
 
Agreed It should,
so where do you wish to go from here ? wait and see what the seller says ? or have another go at it? but to continue you need a bootable install medium [iso] .
do you have a blank dvd-R or a blank CD-R , we may be able to burn a bootable disc using the mac disc utility [may depend on how old your mac is]
The Mac will burn a disc but there isn't a DVD player on the Dell laptop.
 
If you are at all unsure of getting a favourable response from the seller........Contact Ebay.

There should be a link on one of the emails you received that will take you straight to Ebay to register your dissatisfaction with them.


From experience, that can be an Important first step.
Thank you. I'll wait 24 hours for the seller to respond. If I don't get a response, I'll take action.
 
DVD player on the Dell laptop.
Dam... that would have been the easy way out....
start another thread "" Mac , how do I burn a bootable Pendrive" put in the text which os it has and hopefully it will be picked up by one of our members with more experience of the mac than us.

Bwiz
 
agreed, as we try to solve members problems we also learn ourselves

No confusion but we need to find a way for you to make an install medium ready to start again
I may be able to get a friend to let me use his computer to make the bootable flash drive. Then I'll have it ready when I get the Dell resolved or returned and exchanged. Bedtime for me here. Thanks to both of you for all your willingness to help!
 
Hi, Friends.
Still no reply from the laptop seller. Tried calling Dell 800# and discovered they only take calls M-F. I've rebooted, set the time and date, done another hardware check. Still getting the message about a possible corrupt OS or "a boot device is not enabled in BIOS setup." I am now in the BIOS menu. Is there anything in particular I need to look for?
 

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Good evening @CarolQ , did you manage to make a bootable pendrive yet?

bwiz
 
I dont think you will, But i think we should go for it and try for an install, so here is what I would like you to try when you have your Iso on pendrive,
set the dell up next to the mac so you can follow this..
1, plug in the dell
2 insert usb into drive
3 switch on the dell and tickle F12 as it switches on [this should bring up the short boot menu]
look down the list and find usb click on it and enter, after a few seconds it should start to load to Ram, [you do not need a harddrive at this stage]
4,when it is loaded check everything works ok [wi-fi, sound, graphics] easyest way to do this is click on the wireless icon find your router and enter the password, when loaded go to your favorite music vidio site and pick something your familiar with, if it plays ok and the picture looks good you can then decide if you want to take a chance on installing.
5, double click the install button the iso will then check the components of your machine this may take several seconds to a couple of minuets, then provided the harddrive checked out ok it will start to install [if it fails at this stage the harddrive is probably shot]
watch it install when it asks about partitioning choose use complete disc, you will also be asked if you wish to install non-free/proprietary drivers tick the box for yes and enter
you will need to enter information as it installs so keep an eye on it, a typical linux installation can take from 10 to 20 minuets [far less than windows]
if it installs you will get a message do you wish to re-start now, accept
now sit back whilst it re-boots then it will take a couple more minets to clean up the installation and get rid of the install files,
then if all goes well we will have a working linux lappy
Sorry this is a long winded back to basics description but I am trying to cover as much as I can
[bed time is 23-00 gmt/utc] I will be about till then for more questions

Bwiz
 
I dont think you will, But i think we should go for it and try for an install, so here is what I would like you to try when you have your Iso on pendrive,
set the dell up next to the mac so you can follow this..
1, plug in the dell
2 insert usb into drive
3 switch on the dell and tickle F12 as it switches on [this should bring up the short boot menu]
look down the list and find usb click on it and enter, after a few seconds it should start to load to Ram, [you do not need a harddrive at this stage]
4,when it is loaded check everything works ok [wi-fi, sound, graphics] easyest way to do this is click on the wireless icon find your router and enter the password, when loaded go to your favorite music vidio site and pick something your familiar with, if it plays ok and the picture looks good you can then decide if you want to take a chance on installing.
5, double click the install button the iso will then check the components of your machine this may take several seconds to a couple of minuets, then provided the harddrive checked out ok it will start to install [if it fails at this stage the harddrive is probably shot]
watch it install when it asks about partitioning choose use complete disc, you will also be asked if you wish to install non-free/proprietary drivers tick the box for yes and enter
you will need to enter information as it installs so keep an eye on it, a typical linux installation can take from 10 to 20 minuets [far less than windows]
if it installs you will get a message do you wish to re-start now, accept
now sit back whilst it re-boots then it will take a couple more minets to clean up the installation and get rid of the install files,
then if all goes well we will have a working linux lappy
Sorry this is a long winded back to basics description but I am trying to cover as much as I can
[bed time is 23-00 gmt/utc] I will be about till then for more questions

Bwiz
Thank you for this. I'm attempting to reach someone else right now who might allow me to create the pendrive. Does it matter whether I use etcher or rufus?
 
technically no but personal preference from me would be https://www.balena.io/etcher/
as long as you select to burn an ios /image file/bootable drive [however it is worded]
 
It makes no difference
 
I dont think you will, But i think we should go for it and try for an install, so here is what I would like you to try when you have your Iso on pendrive,
set the dell up next to the mac so you can follow this..
1, plug in the dell
2 insert usb into drive
3 switch on the dell and tickle F12 as it switches on [this should bring up the short boot menu]
look down the list and find usb click on it and enter, after a few seconds it should start to load to Ram, [you do not need a harddrive at this stage]
4,when it is loaded check everything works ok [wi-fi, sound, graphics] easyest way to do this is click on the wireless icon find your router and enter the password, when loaded go to your favorite music vidio site and pick something your familiar with, if it plays ok and the picture looks good you can then decide if you want to take a chance on installing.
5, double click the install button the iso will then check the components of your machine this may take several seconds to a couple of minuets, then provided the harddrive checked out ok it will start to install [if it fails at this stage the harddrive is probably shot]
watch it install when it asks about partitioning choose use complete disc, you will also be asked if you wish to install non-free/proprietary drivers tick the box for yes and enter
you will need to enter information as it installs so keep an eye on it, a typical linux installation can take from 10 to 20 minuets [far less than windows]
if it installs you will get a message do you wish to re-start now, accept
now sit back whilst it re-boots then it will take a couple more minets to clean up the installation and get rid of the install files,
then if all goes well we will have a working linux lappy
Sorry this is a long winded back to basics description but I am trying to cover as much as I can
[bed time is 23-00 gmt/utc] I will be about till then for more questions

Bwiz
Your suggestions worked beautifully! I went through the entire process with success. The problem was when I restarted after installation, the Dell went back to the original problem pages and did not install the Linux 0S. The other possibility is that Linux is installed but something in the BIOS menu is keeping it from finding the correct path. Would that be a possibility? On a sidenote, during installation, I got a message that there was no detected operating system on the laptop. See the photos.
 

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When you restarted after the installation.......did you take the usb stick out ?
 


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