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The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 2200 with only a 45gb hard-drive. It had Windows XP but I chose to replace it with Ubuntu. I installed it from CD created by download and then by use of Infra Recorder to produce the bootable disc.

The install gave messages suggesting that the cd drive was faulty or dirty or that the cd needed to be created at a slower speed. Despite this the install produced a ubuntu desk top screen with icons including one for Firefox. I selected Firefox and successfully navigated the internet to the BBC Website.

I also looked around other components of the desktop.

I concluded that I had a successful install and so shut down the system and the laptop.

When I subsequently switched on the laptop again the first screen to appear was, as always, a message advising that Battery Recalibration was needed and that it would run for 3-5 hours. F1 to continue or ESC to cancel. As always, in response to this I pressed ESC but this time with no result. I cannot now get past this screen.

This is an oldish laptop recently inherited from my daughter and so of minimum value but I had seen it as my chance to try Ubuntu without impacting my regular desktop PC. Can the laptop be rescued for another go at Ubuntu? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thankyou.

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2 Answers 2

Here are the things I would try to narrow down the diagnosis of what is wrong and what I could do to fix it:

  1. I would check that the md5 hash of the data on the disk is correct via the place you downloaded the disk image in the first place, to be sure that the initial cd install wasn't corrupted, sometimes burning a full os image gives me weird results.

  2. I would also simply try running from a ubuntu live cd and seeing if you can get an os running without the hard-drive being involved. If you can't even boot via a livecd, that points to issues beyond the current install.

  3. Finally, are you able to start the process of reinstalling the ubuntu os again? Not fun, I know, but it's possible just reinstalling over your current install (with a newly burned & checked ubuntu image) might make the difference.

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This problem seems not to be related with ubuntu at all.

It seems that some Dell laptops show the Battery Recalibration message when they have problems with the battery, this could means that the battery is almost dead and the bios batteru controller cannot charge it.

I will try starting the laptop without battery, just with AC, if this works then you should buy another battery. If you do not want to buy another battery check your bios ( advanced tab ) where you should find a way to supress the message.

Hope this helps

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