Posts by lonefalcon13

I used nLite to whip up a custom Windows XP installation disc—packed with extra drivers (mostly specifically for the IL90_91)—and I finally managed to push the installer further than before! It actually got past the initial hump and showed me the menu options—Enter, R, or F3. At first, when I hit Enter, it just looped back to F3, but then I remembered reading some advice online about tweaking the BIOS settings. I went in and disabled AHCI (or whatever the setting was called), and—presto!—the installation went through perfectly. Honestly, I think you really need to do both steps to make it work smoothly...
I have to say, I’m pretty blown away by how lackluster the support from Forcebook has been regarding their drivers. They handed over this driver CD that feels totally half-baked—almost like someone was just throwing things at it to see what stuck. I can't get the sound card or the modem to work for the life of me, even though everything else seems fine. I'll just have to hunt down the right IL90_91 drivers somewhere else on the web...
Thanks, everyone!

redheron12 said:that’s just the service partition—it's packed with hardware testing tools and stuff like that...

You're going to need those SATA drivers first.

Since you don't have a floppy drive—and since you don't have an OEM Windows XP disc handy—try going into the BIOS and emulating a USB device as a floppy disk.

Otherwise, your best bet is to just burn your own Windows XP CD with the SATA drivers integrated using a tool like nLite.

There's no floppy drive on this laptop, and it looks like I'll have to build a custom CD with the drivers included—even though I have no clue which ones to download! My buddy isn't around to help, and he isn't exactly a tech wizard, so I can't even get the specific model info from him... But, hopefully, the specific driver version doesn't matter too much, and I can just whip up a new Windows XP CD using nLite.

I’ve been thinking about booting into Linux—I currently have Fedora 6 running—so I might just try using it to wipe out that boot (x: ) partition. Honestly, I suspect that hidden partition is what's causing all these headaches for Windows XP (x: ). My big question, though, is this: does Windows XP recognize SATA drives right out of the box?? I’m trying to figure out if it’s even worth my time messing around with integrating SATA drivers into the installation media, or if it already handles them natively. I’d like to think it should work fine, but you know how it goes—you hear so many conflicting stories...

I’ve run into a bit of an unexpected headache! A buddy of mine picked up this old laptop—it's running a dual-core 1.8 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 160 GB HDD, and some basic dedicated graphics... basically, nothing fancy. I have a hunch it might be a SATA drive issue, but I haven't had the chance to confirm that yet.
Basically, I loaded up a Windows XP SP2 disc, and after all those initial files load and right when the installation menu is supposed to pop up, I get hit with a message saying no hard drives were found. The only option it gives me is F3 to quit. It’s strange because when I tried using an actual Windows Vista disc to format the drives, everything worked perfectly fine—even a full reinstall of Vista went smoothly. However, while I was looking for drivers during that process, I noticed a tiny little boot partition (X:) that I hadn't seen before, showing about 33 MB of capacity with 2 MB used. I would really appreciate some expert advice if anyone has dealt with this before; I’m not interested in running Vista, I just want to get XP working properly!
I’ve been scouring the web, but honestly, the advice is all over the place. Some folks claim you don't need any SATA drivers at all, others say it's some kind of security feature that needs to be bypassed, and then there are those who insist you have to download specific SATA drivers and integrate them directly into the XP installation (they even have guides on how to burn a custom CD that includes them). Thanks in advance!

I was running Windows XP SP2, and I noticed something weird—when I pop in a Windows Vista DVD to search for drivers, a "Boot(X:)" drive shows up alongside my other partitions under My Computer 🙂 if I remember correctly. It looks like a tiny little partition, maybe around 33MB with about 2MB of actual data, and it’s got its own Windows and My Documents folders inside...
Now, I honestly have no clue how to wipe that Vista footprint away. I'm also wondering if there's even any point in trying to install Linux, since I suspect some kind of built-in protection might just block me right at the start...?

Installing Vista goes off without a hitch. But when I try to run Windows XP—after everything loads up just fine—I hit a wall. It pops up an error saying it can't find any hard drives at all, so the installation just stalls out right there... the only option it gives me is F3.
I mean, I get that modern laptops don't have floppy drives anymore—that's totally expected—but I'm honestly a bit stumped on how to actually fix this...

Hey everyone! I’m looking for some advice regarding a friend's laptop. It’s a relatively new forcebook—dual core at 1.8 GHz—and obviously, it doesn't have a floppy drive. We’re running into a bit of a snag while trying to install Windows XP; the machine actually came pre-installed with Windows Vista when he bought it. Does anyone have any bright ideas? I can't quite wrap my head around why it isn't detecting the disc—I was thinking maybe it's a driver issue, but if that's the case, how would one even go about loading a driver in this situation?? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Who should I reach out to about switching my $167 hours over to volunteer work instead? I assume I’d need to talk to the local county court?
And is it actually true that they don't end up calling anyone in for that kind of service?

Thomas Miller80 said:If you actually bothered to read everything, you would’ve noticed the statute of limitations is two years from the offense—which isn't just mentioned in this thread, but is also right there in the stickied post. For crying out loud, just follow the INSTRUCTIONS—read them before starting a new topic.

Okay, I did see that! But I also saw people mentioning how they filed paperwork right before the clock ran out. It’s pretty obvious here that the initial incident happened on June 24, 2005, yet the official decision wasn't issued until May 19, 2007—and let's be real, there's no way that paperwork was just sitting in the mail for two and a half months... My big question is: is there anything I can actually do? They just sent me a bill for $500 plus $37 fees. Thanks!

I’ve gone through almost everything posted here, but I still haven't found an answer to my specific question.
Over two years ago, I was caught speeding and slapped with a fine from $167, which I ended up appealing to the High Court.
Well, the decision finally arrived today. According to the paperwork, the proceedings were initiated back on June 24, 2005, but they claim a final ruling was issued on May 19, 2007—effectively denying my appeal.
My question is this: Is it actually possible that I've been waiting nearly three months just to receive this, or is this how they handle statutes of limitations? What kind of moves can I make here? Is there any way at all to dodge the penalty? Thanks in advance to all the brilliant legal minds out there!😉