My wife replaced her netbook after smashing the screen. I'm wanting to turn the old one into a desktop PC for my daughter. I've removed the monitor all together, moved the wifi antenna cable into the base, and plugged it into a LCD TV via VGA cable.

When I boot up the BIOS screen/DOS text does not appear, however a few seconds later Windows XP starts up and displays perfectly.

I'm trying to install Ubuntu from a USB stick, but when I reboot with the stick inserted, it just loads Windows XP again. I've tried holding down f12 on boot up, but I don't see the BIOS screens to make any 'boot from USB' option.

Does that make any sence? Can anyone offer any help?

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Now: Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS), Dark Souls (PC)
Next: Donkey Kong Country Returns (3DS), Animal Crossing (3DS)

Try hammering F8. Im guessing you are using an external vga connection or some mental hacked ribbon cable to the motherboard?

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New master race build guide | Budget HTPC build

You might want to double check the BIOS. I know some of the eeePC netbooks had a toggle in there to prevent accidently overwriting the OS.

The problem is I can't see the bios screens. The monitor is black until Windows boots up.

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Now: Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS), Dark Souls (PC)
Next: Donkey Kong Country Returns (3DS), Animal Crossing (3DS)

What type of netbook is it?

we might just be able to google a solution once we know what type it is, but plan B would be to open up the case and disconnect the internal VGA and see if that makes it detect the external monitor faster.

Isn't there an 'FN' + external monitor button you can press on power up? It'll be the 'F' key with the monitor on it. On my HP netbook it's F2.

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Prime Directives : Prosecute those who steal memes from other forums.

It's a Samsung N130.

I think the external monitor button (Fn + F4) doesn't seem to do anything until Windows starts.

Pretty sure I fully disconnected the internal VGA cable when i removed the monitor.

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Now: Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS), Dark Souls (PC)
Next: Donkey Kong Country Returns (3DS), Animal Crossing (3DS)

Not a clue then. I'm pretty sure my EEEpc701 would echo BIOS output to every display.

Why can you not use a Live CD, which will almost certainly be enabled before the hd in the boot order? Also, it's F2 for the BIOS, not F12.