Hello whomever reads this.
Here's my situation. My grandparents got me a HP Pavilion N5310 laptop back in 2001 for college. In between then and now the MONITOR has died, the cooling fan has died, and the CD drive wont read discs (though the computer says the drive is working). I have an external CD drive connected to the computer through the PCMCIA card port. I also have an external monitor (not a very good one) that I use. To keep the computer cool I use an oscillating fan. YES, I KNOW I NEED TO SPRING FOR A NEW COMPUTER...until then, I need to GET this one cleaned. And, of course, I've lost the factory CD that came with the unit (I'm sure it's somewhere in Florida...). The computer's floppy drive still works, as does the keyboard, and everything else, for the most part.
What I'm trying to do is to reinstall WindowsME (what the computer came with) from a WindowsME disk (which I have recently acquired). I have also downloaded the driver pack for the notebook from HP's website. I also have a backup of the DRIVERS currently on the computer.
My concern is that SINCE my CD drive is through the PCMCIA card port, after I wipe the hard drive I wont be able to access the CD drive, which will preclude any attempt to reinstall WindowsME (or much anything else). So that's my quandary. Any suggestions, recommendations, and insights will be most appreciated.PCMCIA Card CD ROM?
Thats a new one....

Or is a PCMCIA USB card?

You should buy a new computer : )
(You can get a CHEAP one that will still do more than your current one... you might consider looking)

But, since you have some reason for keeping this old one around...

Usually, you can call the company that sold your computer to you. They should have another restore disc around. The Windows ME disc, without extra software, should be available on eBay for relatively cheap.

If you can copy the CD ROM Drivers to a floppy, thats a start.
See if you can run any kind of bootable CD (A CD with an operating system installed on it). If the CD ROM can boot at startup, it uses generic enough drivers that you would be able to install Windows.
Seeing if your BIOS shows the CD ROM drive would do the same thing as well.


BTW: You dont have the fan oscillating, do you? You probably can just aim it at the general inside. Hey, at least it takes care of the computer dust : )