My laptop is possessed by demons (daemons?)

[harelb]

[Added in edit later: Just to be clear when I was finally able to go in to BIOS last night, I did NOT change anything; I found the settings to be what they were before...the settings I reported were the ones I found, not new settings (I hope it didn't sound like I was saying I changed them) So the bios is set the way it was earlier...and earlier is when it was not agreeing to boot-from-CD .. ]

I appreciate the smiley and encouragement..and appreciate the time you took to type in that list but it looks daunting..half the battle or 10% of the battle so far? ...The good news is the is downloaded much faster...So I can and will burn a CD, but, somewhere earlier in this thread I mentioned not being able to boot-from-CD the last time I tried (from the 32bit burned cd)

Did you see that? Because if I still can't boot-from-CD then I won't be able to do step 1. Because I couldn't boot from CD earlier, will teh CD being of a 64bit ISO all by itself with no other changes, make my laptop** behave itself and boot from the CD? If so that's great, I just didn't hear you say that this, all by itself, would make it able-to-boot-from-CD...

** (the same one that will not even show the Samsung icon (which you'er supposed to click f2 AFTEr you see it, in the official tips) unless I hold down f2 *before* I see "Samsung"

The other concern is can you explain why I would need to do the rest if I am able to do the CD and it is absolutely, positively the very veyr very simplest way to fix my laptop? Because I already don't know how to do your 2.0! I tried on this (on my Desktop computer) and got "Command not found" ...I am willing to go back and forth with questions on 2.1, 2.2, etc (if they come up...but based on 1.0 and 2.0 it suggests they will come up) if you are, but, if there's a simpler way that will avoid us needing so many steps that will just get me an *operational* laptop - just one that just works , that might be simpler than this 19 steps you have outlined (again with thanks for your details here, honestly thanks! but as ou can see even 2.0 is not working for me on my desktop, and that's just 1 of the 19 steps?)...that might drastically simplify the steps needed, that would be wondeful.....

[harelb]

Just to be clear when I was finally able to go in to BIOS last night, I did NOT change anything; I found the settings to be what they were before...the settings I reported were the ones I found, not new settings (I hope it didn't sound like I was saying I changed them) So the bios is set the way it was earlier...and earlier is when it was not agreeing to boot-from-CD ..

[harelb]

Update did a full "md5sum" check on the iso...and compared and matched properly with hash number...Then did the burning of a new CD this time for this 64bit iso..slowest burning it allowed for more accuracy....CD is done being burned..only thing is like the previous time I burned, got a final dialogue box saying "Please eject the disc from "HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8527B" manually.The disc could not be ejected though it needs to be removed for the current operation to continue" (strangely, the dialog box has a "cancel" but not an "ok" button.. I hit eject..without clicking cancel..then (x)'s out the dialogue box..."image successfully written toCD" it says..hopefully that was not the cause/will not now cause, issues..

This is how I will try to boot from disc (i)turn laptop on first since I can't open CD drive otherwise (ii)then insert CD (iii)then do a "Restart" and hope it boots from CD (saying cancel/no if it asks me "a volume with software packages has been detected. Would you like to open it with the pacakge manager?" I once said yes and it's definitely not for boot-from-cd it thinks it's just a CD with data on it) So using those three steps..is this correct? not correct?

Well tried it just now and I heard a few sounds on the cd drive, but then I just get the usual login screen does not boot from CD.Same problem as before..

of course (and this might be, but worth mentioning in case it not, irrelevant) in step (iii) "Restart" does not work right in this misinstalled 12.04 [/I](see one of earliest posts - the "A program is still running: GNOME Settings Daemon" error message and "shut down anyway?" or "restart anyway?" - does this every time from the misinstalled 12.04 and never ever does it from the old (apparently 32 bit but still worked fine) 9.10.... and I say yes) so not sure if it was shut down/restarted properly. So I turn off and then turn laptop on now with shift key down so I can get into ubuntu 9.1 (which does not have that error message when I use Restart or Shut Down) and then, with CD in, hit restart..that will still restart with 12.04 when I do restart but at least it will have done a proper Restart..

No, it still isn't booting from the cd - I'm not getting that two-choice
http://leekaelin.co.uk/downloads/Tec...0_Capture1.JPG
"try ubuntu" or "install ubuntu" thing...either my i-iii is missing something (I tried re-reading the how to install they just say "boot form CD" like there is nothing to do but put the cd in) missing something basic or it's something about the laptop state or IDK what...but this is the latest roadblock at just step 1...one that I worried about a couple hours ago in what's post #31..

can anyone help??

[fantab]

You have to change in BIOS "BOOT MENU" to boot your CD first, if you don't then the HDD is booted. I think instead of F2 you have to use "Esc" key, you will know the exact key for "BOOT Menu" from the Samsung Screen...

Insert the CD.
Start Laptop.
Get to Samsung Screen, Enter 'Boot Menu', select CD drive, enter to exit, or sometimes you have to save and exit.

ONE MORE THING: Enter your BIOS setup and navigate to "Advanced" you should be able to see and set SATA MODE" confirm that it is set to 'AHCI', if not change it to 'AHCI'. Post a screenshot if you get confused.

[harelb]

Thank you. I will try that. Need a day or two to catch up with other things. I've also relocated my laptop's owner's manual (hurray) and will read it over. Need a few days. Then I'll be back with partial (I'm sure) progress report and more questions...thx