Why the Hell I can't Install an OS on My Old Dell Laptop

[Prakhar Tripathi]

Whenever I try to install Windows on my old Dell Inspiron 15, it just does not, I always use a USB flash drive and whenever I select the USB from the boot options it just stays still and then a pixilated border forms around the screen and if I press any key it just reboots, I also tried installing ubuntu on it and after selecting the USB from the boot options it took me to the "Grub Rescue" (and I don't know how to use grub rescue). The BIOS still works and functions properly but I have been unable to install any OS on this Laptop for about 6 months now and don't want to throw it away. Help!!!!!!

[whispous]

What laptop is it, and what Windows version is it

[Prakhar Tripathi]

5 minutes ago, whispous said:

What laptop is it, and what Windows version is it

It is an old Dell Inspiron 15 3521 and I tried installing Windows  10, 8.1, 7  and Ubuntu 22.04.3

Edited February 10 by Prakhar Tripathi

[whispous]

18 minutes ago, Prakhar Tripathi said:

It is an old Dell Inspiron 15 3521 and I tried installing Windows  10, 8.1, 7  and Ubuntu 22.04.3

How old? What CPU?

[Prakhar Tripathi]

2 minutes ago, whispous said:

How old? What CPU?

2013, i3 3rd gen

[Alex Atkin UK]

38 minutes ago, Prakhar Tripathi said:

Whenever I try to install Windows on my old Dell Inspiron 15, it just does not, I always use a USB flash drive and whenever I select the USB from the boot options it just stays still and then a pixilated border forms around the screen and if I press any key it just reboots, I also tried installing ubuntu on it and after selecting the USB from the boot options it took me to the "Grub Rescue" (and I don't know how to use grub rescue). The BIOS still works and functions properly but I have been unable to install any OS on this Laptop for about 6 months now and don't want to throw it away. Help!!!!!!

Does the BIOS have any options for boot mode?  If its old enough, it might be legacy boot only, or need switching into UEFI.

I'm not sure how current Linux distros handle legacy boot, its obviously trying something if it gets to GRUB recovery.

I've also found some BIOS have quirks where it will show more than one boot option for a USB stick, where one will work and the other does not.

[Brian McKee]

Some older systems don't like booting from a usb 3.0 flash drive. Do you have a 2.0?

[Prakhar Tripathi]

3 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Does the BIOS have any options for boot mode?  If its old enough, it might be legacy boot only, or need switching into UEFI.

I'm not sure how current Linux distros handle legacy boot, its obviously trying something if it gets to GRUB recovery.

I've also found some BIOS have quirks where it will show more than one boot option for a USB stick, where one will work and the other does not.

Yes, the BIOS supports UEFI and it does give you the option to choose devices to boot from, mine is only showing one USB stick which I plugged in.

[Prakhar Tripathi]

5 minutes ago, Brian McKee said:

Some older systems don't like booting from a usb 3.0 flash drive. Do you have a 2.0?

tried that did not work

this laptop does not even have a USB 3.0 port... lol

[Brian McKee]

Just now, Prakhar Tripathi said:

tried that did not work

this laptop does not even have a USB 3.0 port... lol

Has nothing to do with the port. Some usb drives just simply do not work on some systems. Had a corporate mini machine I repurposed into a server that simply just refused to work with any USB drive I had besides an old 8 GB HP drive.

[The Hope]

Computers sometimes make mistakes in actions they perform.

Sometimes just using a different USB, or rewriting the iso to the USB can solve the problem.

 

The most reliable method to write bootable Linux USBs is to use the following command from a BSD or Linux system. (with root privileges)

dd bs=4M if=path/to/archlinux-version-x86_64.iso of=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-My_flash_drive conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress

 

If you use Windows, balenaEtcher is the safest option. https://etcher.balena.io/