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Got a Panasonic Laptop CF-37, it had Win 2000 Professional on it...they put XP over that copy...now it is requesting it to be registered and it can't be due to the fact it is already registered to a different computer...want to uninstall this and put on Win 98, but the XP is not located in Add/Remove Programs...was going to fdisk, but cant do it that either...can someone help me with instructions please...
Try restarting in Safe Mode and see if "Uninstall Windows XP" is listed. If not you may have to reformat and reinstall whatever other Windows version you want.
you need a win 98 setup disk from
www.bootdisk.com
Download it, doubleclick the file it makes a startup disk.Have a good disk ready
Then boot to the floppy disk and get rid of all the non dos partitions and the regular partitions.
Notice when you boot to the setup disk it will load cdrom drivers and assigns a letter to the cdrom usually R:
Switch to the S: with the windows 98 cd in the cdrom and type setup
Hope that helps
I do not have a floppy on this laptop...also...when I run in safe mode it does not give me any options to remove XP..additionally, this laptop did have Windows 2000 Professional on it...I have a CD for that but I can not install over top of XP, it says that the program is older that XP...I have no problem if I need to reformat...just need direction.
As long as the Laptop has a CDROM, and it is capable of booting from it, using the 2k CD to boot to the setup is your best option. The reason people were suggesting using the 98 boot disk was because you said you wanted to go to 98. 2000 is definitely the better choice.
When you boot off of the CD, it will give you options to delete the disk partitions and recreate them. That’s where you want to go, the setup (blue screen background) will prompt you, and explain what options are available…just follow it, you shouldn’t have any trouble.
However, be sure that you have all of the drivers for the laptop burned onto a CD. Depending on how new it is, there may not be drivers available in the native 2k install, so things like display, network, and other devices wont run, or will not work correctly until you apply those drivers…
Hope you don't mind me replying here...it's good to have more than one person seeing this error, as I am not particularly familiar with it what you have described.Quote:
Originally Posted by mebirdlady (in PM)
When you boot from the CD, it should not be in Windows, it should boot directly from the cd. It will tell you as it's going, "Press any key to boot from CD", if you see that, and do that, you will be in the CD setup, which I am guessing is different from where you are currently. It sounds like you are actually in Windows, hence it won’t let you downgrade...
Additional note, you need to ensure the laptop has the CDROM ahead of the Harddrive in the boot order. You need to enter the BIOS/CMOS setup to change that in the event it's not giving you the option…
Actually got it running Windows 2000 again...but now my monitor says on 16 for color not 256...things don't look crisp? any suggestions...and thanks again for all your help
Do You Have a driver CD that came with your laptop? you said laptop originally had w2k.
Just checked driver page Panasonics Link does not list Laptops is this an older model or are you overseas perhaps?
Only other possibility is to do a FCC search of your laptop maybe it was made by another manufacturer. unless you can recall what the video was detected as ie S3 Trio/Verge-ATI-TNT Etc.
Herman Kamphorst
I am in North Carolina, I just checked the device mgr and I am in need of drivers for the audio controller, PCI SImple Communications Controller and the Video Controller (VGA Compatible)...I am pulling out my hair
I just found a site for the drivers for the laptop ....
http://tcc.toughbook.com/
looks like win2k does not recognise the chipsets and are setting its most generic as detected.
are there any other make or model Nos or type no.? How old is the laptop?
is there an FCC No located on the model No Tag?
let me know if you want me to search from here but i need the answers to the above questions.
Herman kamphorst
laptop was given to me...
fcc reg # 4x2usa-33859-mm-e
modem model # 3com model# 3cn3bm556
I'm on the Tough book website there is many updates and drivers checked roughly 3 sets of 30 items from bios to modems and sound Etc.
are you able to download and burn to a cd the drivers you require?
I could download and email them to you .
Herman K
The drivers are listing an MB or LB or ND after the CF-37
which is yours?
VB...email is [email protected]
that is a great website, but they have yet to send my password for me to log on and get these files...so here I sit and wait...and wait...and wait...
Sent all DRivers for CF-37mb there was no VB listed Via email
Herman Kamphorst
I called the panasonic website, they told me that this laptop can only run win95, does that sound right? I have tried the drivers and nothing is working....any other suggestions?
Sounds like the person in tech support should be in another dept. since the drivers I sent were listed for only win 2k.Unless your laptop has many revisions under the same Model No.Not sure right now.
You could try the other verisions listed on the website I sent you the drivers for CF-37MB only.
Did you get your access login?
I got an access login from the customer service person..I tried the driver that u sent me...it didn't work....any other suggestions or way to install it that I am unaware of....Login : MJames2, password.fregrir711
thanks,
janice
Hey janice
Sorry for the delay in response ,Not sure what to tell you from Here other than download the other versions that were listed the MB revision is what I sent You because no VB rev was listed. Have you Tried some Generic Drivers in windows? Could Tech support give any Idea the age of this Laptop especially if their saying was shipped with win95. But Usually Generic win 2k drivers will Work I've installed win2k on some pretty old Laptops
ie Hitachi Pentium 150 & 100 ,older acer pent 100, Dell Latitude 366 etc.
They all used generic Drivers.
Herman Kamphorst