Laptop problems

I got a laptop that my dad gave me.
It's a Acer aspire 3682wxci:
-Intel Celeron-M 420 (1.6 GHz)
-Integrated Wireless LAN 802.11g
-In Built Card Reader
-CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive, 256 MB Ram, 40 GB HD.
It was configured withwin xp.
I tried to install Fedora core 6, windows would not boot anymore. So i tried reinstalling it, the cd boot would not work i tried with almost 5 different versions of windows. I first i thought it was my cd/dvd drive but that is working fine and all of windows cds are in good condition. So does Anyone have any suggestions,on how can i reinstall windows xp and remove linux for good.

And anyone got idea how to get my wireless to work it uses a Atheros AR5BMB5 Chipset and the sound to work on fedora core 6 ?

Since you have not really used Fedora much if it is ready to run I would do the following. It would be best to have XP installed and running before installing linux distros. Depending on the XP disc you are using but if it for fresh install and Acer specific then delete all partitions and create one for the XP install from the XP installition. Then once up and running do the Fedora install and add the grub boot manager to the MBR of the harddrive.

Now for the nic you will need to install madwifi. Many post on that here and many fedora specific. use the search tool to find them. Now to give you the heads up the easiest install of madwifi is use yum with the correct repositories setup. Again links to those repos are here. The thing you need to understand about madwifi and many other driver modules is if you install from source code then the kernel source needs to be installed. Fedora does not install the kernel source during installation. Why I will never know. But this is what is used to compile the module for madwifi. Many post on that here as well.

Brian