Cdrom

[Zonie]

I hope someone is able to help here: I was donated a Compaq Presario 1700 laptop which is in pretty good shape with the exception the os is pretty well shot (XP Pro). The laptop has 10GB HDD, 384MB Ram, 700Mhz Proc, and floppy drive. They have no idea where the CDROM got to so it cannot be found. I need to find a cdrom for this model but have been unable to except for ebay of which I am not a big fan.

I would like to be able to load an OS on this system as I could sure use this. Does anyone know of a location where I could purchase one or is there another way to get an os on here. I have tried to put the HDD in a desktop, copy the os cd to the hdd and install from there. It loads part way then I get an error and will not continue to load. Any help would be appreciated.

[Damned Angel]

You could use an external USB cd-rom drive.

[3fingersalute]

Reliable Computer Parts (http://www.rcp.com) has it for about $147.00, which to me seems a little high. Looks like your part # is 198702-001 for the OEM DVD/CD replacement. A quick google (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=198702-001&btnG=Search) of that part # brings some other places to try.

Also, I know you said your not a fan of Ebay, but for $30 + $8 shipping, here's a CD-RW drive (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38116&item=6757586900&rd=1)that's supposed to work in your model laptop. The guy has a pretty high feedback rating too.

If it were me, for $38, I 'd try the EBay one first. I've only ever personally bought one item from EBay that wasn't what it claimed to be, and EBay reversed the charges for me when the seller told me to take a hike.

[monkeyman2]

Dose it have a NIC (network) card? if it dose, you could load an OS into it from that...

[Zonie]

Thanks 3fingersalute, I did contact the ebay person by email and apparently it does not have the bezel which securesit into the laptop. I am thinking of contacting HP to se if I can still order this part.

Damned Angel: Good suggestion, however I do not have access to an external cdrom.

Monkeyman2: It does have a nic and had thought of that. I tried to creat a boot disk which would initialize the nic but was not successful. (probably me since I have not done this before.)

[Damned Angel]

You're probably best to order it from someone other than HP/Compaq.


http://partsurfer.hp.com/cgi-bin/spi/main?sel_flg=partinfo&template=main&cpric=&psrchmode=&partsrch=198702-001&submit.x=11&submit.y=8

[Zonie]

Well, I ordered the cdrom from hp, they had it at my door the next day. It cost me $146.00 bucks but what the hey. I don't have any money other then this tied up in it so it's worth it. Thanks for everone's assistance.

[Damned Angel]

not a bad price. I guess they haven't updated partsurfer in a while...