Lenovo 3000 n200 optical drive problems

[Karl F. Larsen]

Nigel Henry wrote:
> On Wednesday 10 December 2008 01:37, squareyes wrote:
>   
>> Hi all,
>> does anyone on this list a fully functional Lenovo 3000 n200 laptop?
>> Mine has never had a properly working optical drive. Will install
>> operating systems then doesn't exist in either Win XP or Ubuntu.
>> Been in touch with Lenovo techs a number of times, different answers
>> each time.
>> 1.Update bios
>> 2.Install Win XP drivers (Don't seem to be any)
>> 3.Sent me a new drive same problems (Sent it back)
>> 4.My fault as original image not still on machine, sent me Recovery CD's
>> Won't recover, Vista gets to welcome page then shuts down in a loop.
>> 5. Sent machine to Lenovo, was told nothing wrong with it, but at last
>> optical drive working. Shrunk Vista and installed Ubuntu 8.04, optical
>> drive now gone again, in both Vista and Ubuntu.
>> 6. Rang Lenovo and was told optical drive will only work with Vista even
>> though they have for sale WinXP recovery CD's
>> As this is NOT mentioned at point of sale if indeed it is correct,
>> doesn't this breach anti trust laws?
>>
>> Would be very interested to hear if anyone has one of these machines
>> working correctly, and if so,
>> just how did they get it working, or should we  avoid this machine?
>> Lenovo forums seem to have numerous optical
>> drive problems listed.
>> Don't really want Vista, but will keep it if it means I can get Ubuntu
>> running successfully.
>>
>> Many thanks in advance.
>> Take Care
>> Winton
>>     
>
> Hi Winton.
>
> I've replied to you a few times when you last asked about the optical drive 
> problem.
>
> On the face of it, it looks like Lenovo has done some sort of deal with 
> Microsoft, where the the only distro that will work on this machine is MS 
> Vista.
>
> Assuming that you still have Vista installed, and is in the state that it was 
> when Lenovo returned the machine to you, with the optical drive working. How 
> about installing Ubuntu using Wubi.
>
> I've never tried this, as I don't have a windows install, but try googling 
> Wubi.
>
> The first hit I got was the one below.
>
> http://wubi-installer.org/
>
> You hopefully will have some success with this. At the same time I think that 
> it's obscene that the only distro you can use on the Lenovo 3000 n200 is 
> Windows Vista.
>
> Just trying to help.
>
> Nigel.
>
> 	Nigel it is bad all over. I bought a cheap laptop that turned out to be a HP and it had Vista on it. A fairly new Intel Mobile Video and 2 gb RAM and 160GB HD. I decided to put WindowsXP professional on it. It was a total flop. I skrewed up the file system and it was a mess!

    The HP help told me the laptop doesn't have the "hooks" needed by 
WindowsXP. I did load it on this computer and it loaded just fine. So I 
know there is nothing wrong with the CD and it loads fine if no-one has 
doctored the computer.

    I had to load Invincible on the laptop because it has the better 
video software for Intel Mobile and it is on the laptop working just 
fine. HP had no comment about Linux working but were surprised I think. 
They sent me a rescue CD with Vista free. It is always good to be nice 
to the helpers :-)

    I had to load Vista which ruined Invincible and then I re-did the 
theft of 80 GB from the Vista partition. This put 80 GB unused between 
/dev/sba1 and /dev/sda2. Had to move /dev/sda2 80 GB right so it is now 
right beside /dev/sda1. Then reloaded Invincible and it is ready for at 
least 3 more Linux versions

    Vista now has the "legendary" file set working and it looks like 
Windows 3.1 and the DOS window opens when it is loaded up.

    Takes me back to 1986 when Microsoft was a good company. So was IBM.


Karl