Need some much needed help/advice/opinions

Discussion in 'Software' started by cbailey249, May 18, 2012.

  1. cbailey249

    cbailey249 Private E-2

    I realize my problem might not fit exactly into this forum, but it's either this or hardware I guess. My computer has broken down and won't start back up, and any help or educated opinions would be greatly appreciated. I'll try to make a long story short as possible. Basically, I was downloading TV show torrents on my computer, left them there, then after a while my computer could no longer shut down and would freeze constantly. After backing up all the stuff I needed, I decided to do a system restore with the recovery discs from Best Buy. They got about 65% through on the 2nd disc and it said error and started over. I looked at the disc and it was scratched so I instead did system recovery from the hard disk. After completion, my computer has no longer been able to start up. It takes me to a windows error recovery page and says "Launch Start up Repair (Recommended)" or a blue screen that quickly counts up to 100% and automatically restarts. After it attempts the start up repair, it says "Starup repair cannot repair the computer automatically," and then after choosing whether to send the info to Microsoft or not, automatically restarts. A friend of mine who is decent with computers says it sounds more like a software problem, and if I went out and got Windows 7 or something (I have vista), that should take care of it. Just wanted to get a few other opinions on how I should go about fixing this before going to Best Buy and having them tell me I need the most expensive fix. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
     
  2. cbailey249

    cbailey249 Private E-2

    Oh, and if it matters I have a HP Pavillion dv6000.
     
  3. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Hi cbailey and gloozit,

    I'm going to recommend against writing a new MBR because it will likely remove the function of the F10 key (or whichever key you used to start recovery). Hp probably uses a custom MBR so rewriting it may damage your ability to run the HD recovery in the future.

    Did the computer ever start normally after the HD recovery or did it immediately go to Startup Repair, the first time you started it?

    Try hitting F8 repeatedly during the HP screen and see if you get Advanced Startup options. If you do then select Disable Restart on Error or similar worded option. See if the blue screen gives you any information about the error such as a code number or a file name.
     
  4. cbailey249

    cbailey249 Private E-2

    I couldn't find the advanced start up options you talked about, but I did find a hard disk self test and the test status came up "#10009- Replace Hard Disk." Not sure if this helps you at all or tells you anything different.
     
  5. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Your HD may have problems but since it finds Windows enough to even show a Microsoft screen I think it is not completely bad and the diagnostic may not be completely correct.

    Did it ever start normally after the recovery? If it never restarted after recovery, I think I would just do the recovery again. If it still doesn't start we could try to figure out why.

    One thing is when it says it can't automatically repair there should be a link on the bottom right of that window that says "view diagnostic and repair details" can you give those details?

    Also are your recovery discs DVDs? Do you have a couple of blank DVDs to copy them to? Sometime copying the DVDs and writing fresh ones gives you a second chance with the recovery discs.
     
  6. cbailey249

    cbailey249 Private E-2

    No, the computer has never restarted since the first time I ran the system recovery, and I have ran it a few times since that first time. As for the details on the start up repair, it says number of root causes =1. Then for the 12 "test performed" sections, the result for all of them is "completed successfully. Error code = 0x0." Then at the very bottom it says "root cause found: Failure while setup is in progress." And yes they are DVD-R's. Maybe I will try copying them after I get some more blanks discs.
     
  7. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    When system restore will not work, to overwrite corrupted files. I suggest you use the F11 recovery option. Sometimes you have to try several times to hit it right, sometimes it will boot from the F11 straightaway. its a matter of hitting the F11 button at just the right time.
    http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00809678
    HP has a recovery partitions at boot up press the f 11 key repeatably until it goes into recovery mode and follow the on screen instructions. It will restore to factory specifications.
    Pressing the f11 key during the startup on a computer with an HP factory image will start the system recovery process even if the prompt is not displayed.Most HP laptops seem to have this partition, unless you have previously deleted it.Scroll down that link to the relevent paragraph (this is the Vista recovery page)
     

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