New hard drives usually come blank, it probably just needs to have an OS installed. You can use the 64bit OS with your laptop as long as it has the appropriate drivers and a 64bit compatible processor / chipset. 64bit drivers are different than 32Bit, I would not try installing 32bit drivers unless the manufacturer says it will work.

I’d look for the restore disks that came with the older laptop if possible.

Good Luck,
David

My wife was holding her laptop by the screen, with the lid open, and it slipped from under her fingers and dropped to the floor from about thigh high. It turns on but it gives me an error saying: could not find OS. I thought it was just hardrive damage so I replaced it with a new one, but am still getting the same message. What can I do? I bought a new laptop (a TouchSmart) and it came with Vista but in a 64-bit version and restore disks (dvds), the old one had Vista, but the 32-bit version. Can I use those restore disks on my old laptop, or will that make things even worse? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

Thank you.

Sounds like the laptop may be overheating. Anything is possible when you drop something on the laptop but more than likely it’s either a fan not working or one of your heatsinks was dislodged. Another possibility is that a section of the motherboard is damaged.

Unfortunately, you’re going to have to spend money to repair this one either for parts or for someone else to fix it for you.

Good Luck,
David

i have a Compaq presario m2254 au laptop. It has an AMD Turion 64 processor and is 3 years old (has no warranty).

i have dropped a reasonably heavy object on top the keyboard of my laptop this morning. The laptop screen froze and became blurred, I tried working on it, but of no use. I then shut it down. After some time i tried starting it, i found that it will work for some time say approx – 5-8 minutes and then gets shutdown.

First i thought maybe the hard drive got lost, i tried keeping another hard disk, but the result was the same, it boots up, loads all icons in taskbar, i open firefox and browse a little and then suddenly shuts down. I tried the same wid linux, where it behaves in the same manner. If i just power on the laptop without doing anything, it does not shut down, after a while screen saver comes.

I think my laptop has experienced some kind of shock, if this is the case is there anything i can do ?? giving laptop for outside repair is very expensive here …..

It all depends on how old the laptop is. For older models, I’d recommend looking on Ebay or craigslist for either the parts themselves or a laptop with a working screen but a bad logic board. If it’s a newer laptop, then buying the screen new may make more sense.

I wrote an article about sourcing repair parts a few months back, here’s the link:

How to source Apple repair parts

Good Luck,
David