Trying to help my friend, things aren't going smooth... Help?

[SZF2001]

Hey guys, I got a somewhat big (or little) problem going on with my friends laptop.

You see, his sister got a scholarship which came with a Mac laptop, so she gave her other new laptop, a Gateway MT3705, to her brother, my friend.

Now he's not the smarted when it comes to computers, and neither am I - I mean, I'm using Ubuntu for crying out loud. But that's not the point.

You see, I installed the latest version (Feisty) on it, but nothing could be recognized - no sound or wireless. I check the forums and other people are having the same problems...

I see that wireless somewhat works in Dapper, so I give that a spin. Wireless worked, barely - it couldn't tell it's own signal strength and whatnot. Also, no sound card again.

I can't find a certain workaround that works - I could have used ndiswrapper, but with my experience on that program, even when you chmod it, or make it load on boot-up, or anything - sometimes it just won't load up, and my friend wouldn't know how to get it back up.

Also, sound drivers and those solutions had a few different solutions and only some worked for other people. I'm not spending my summer wasting away on someone elses laptop.

So, I do the next thing I can do - install Windows XP. He has a copy of Vista, but it's not the Premium package so he can't really do anything, which angers him (I mean, it would anger me too). We look around for drivers, and the Gateway website supports them. Because, you know, we didn't have any wireless access or ethernet access going and whatnot...

We get most of the drivers working. Except the ethernet driver. Still trying to figure that out.

ANYWAY, we have a little problem. It's giving him a few days for a registration key... So, he tries the one in his house running a Dell, the one he legally bought - it doesn't fly.

We try my key, because on this box I'm running Ubuntu and don't need the key anyway - it doesn't go.

So now we don't know what to do. With legally bought keys, we can't have this laptop going for more than thirty days, and I don't feel like repeating this whole process over and over again (installing Windows and waiting another thirty days, along with more driver installations.)

Let's do a quick recap:

- Registration keys, legally owned, won't work for XP and we only have a few days.
- - Along with that, we are broke (money wise).
- Ethernet drivers don't seem to work, unless someone can get the right one (remember - it's a Gateway MT3705).

Is there a number we can call or something? It's getting ridiculous - we just want a working laptop.

[smoker]

Let's do a quick recap:

- Registration keys, legally owned, won't work for XP and we only have a few days.
- - Along with that, we are broke (money wise).
- Ethernet drivers don't seem to work, unless someone can get the right one (remember - it's a Gateway MT3705).

Is there a number we can call or something? It's getting ridiculous - we just want a working laptop.hmm, i think it mainly depends on the type of xp install disk, eg, is it an oem, retail, corporate, version, etc. an oem key usually won't work on another make of computer, and i think it is still illegal according to the eula. if a retail cd, then you can transfer the xp as long as it is not enabled in more than one computer at a time.

when you enter the key, if it is refused, there should be a pop up or something that will link to a website, and if refused there, you should have a list of numbers, and a free phone number to call microsoft. on calling you will be asked to enter the list of numbers and answer a few questions, and if all is well, you will be given another list of numbers to input on the pc to legalize xp.

failing all that, i know what i would do, but as it is illegal, i cannot tell you:-)

there are some good 'torrent' appz about,

best of luck

ps - try http://www.driverguide.com/ for the gateway driver, it is free, though you have to register, and untick all the spam-mail boxes.

[SZF2001]

A few questions... Like, regarding who bought what?

I know his mom did, I know her name and stuff... But I don't know if I would know the answers.

EDIT: I just got off the phone. This is such ********.

So, the XP we have installed is for a pre-installed Dell. Since that one is active, and it's already been activated anyway, the key will NOT work.

The key on my old computer that now hosts a Ubuntu box will not work either, since it has already been activated (even though it was years ago) and was made for, again, another pre-installed Dell.

The Vista key is too short.

I asked the guy, "exactly how much money do you want from us?" He didn't sound too happy either about the situation, but he told me I needed to buy another XP disc.

No, really, two copies of Windows XP and a copy of Vista is not good enough for them. How much money will these bastards try to suck from my friend?

Is there a Linux OS that works flawlessly with a Gateway MT3705?