Problems withWindow Vista Home Premium

Well sir ... I went to visit my mom yesterday and there was a computer sitting next to her door, turns out it was a neighbor computer and he ask me to look at it because he thought he had a virus. It is a Hp Pavillion with an AMD Phenom x4 cpu.... model:a6763w no video card ... looks like 4Gb of DDR2 6400 memory. Vista Home Premium ... Turns out the guy did nothing to update vista ... and his anti virus expired. I have tried to get into vista but I can't. Sometimes when I boot it up I don't get any video.:confused Sometimes the mouse won't work. Sometimes the keyboard won't respond. When it does boot up I can't get into windows. The password for admin doesn't work and when I try to go in as a guest I get an error.

And that is as far as I can get ... it really bothers me that I don't have video every boot ... something is up with that. Perhaps once the updates are done that could solve the problem, but for now ... I need a way to get into vista so I can do something to correct the issue.

Any ideas?rolleyes

 

Have you tried doing a complete system restore by tapping F11 at a cold boot? This will of course completely wipe the HD, if the restore partition is still available and good.

 

I go for a restore also.
Support for Vista with no service packs ended April 13 2010
Support for Vista with SP 1 ended July 12 2011.
So the two Service Packs, if not included when the computer was new will have to be installed otherwise, Windows update will not work.

Vista SP1 32 bit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30
64 bit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21299

Vista SP2 32 bit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=16468
64 bit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17669

 

:waveTap F11 after cold boot and it when into the BIOS ... :confused

 

If system problems make it impossible to access the Windows desktop or any programs, start the recovery process by turning on the computer and pressing F11 repeatedly at the first logo screen that displays.

Please note that it states to press F11 REPEATEDLY.

 

If system problems make it impossible to access the Windows desktop or any programs, start the recovery process by turning on the computer and pressing F11 repeatedly at the first logo screen that displays.

Please note that it states to press F11 repeatedly

Sorry for the double post

 

Never used an HP myself but Googling says to hit Esc first to get to the Start menu and then F11

 

Okay I guess it worked as far as the F11 ... when I saw the logo I repeatedly hit the F11 key ... after that I got the windows activation box and tried to activate it, but I ran into the same problem of not being able to log into admin ... it keeps telling me the password is incorrect. So I'm back to square one ... kind of ... rolleyes

 

Just be aware, if you aren't already, that using the computer's recovery system, which is what F11 is for, will destroy any personal files or software the owner may have on it so better to check with him before doing anything drastic :eek

 

It's too late ... I already did it ... he will have to accept it if he wants a working computer ... rolleyes

 

OK, but for next time there are ways to recover a user's files before going ahead with a recovery.

 

What ways are that for future reference?:confused

 

There are many bootable CDs you can create or download, basically they contain a small operating system. You plug in a flash drive or other external drive, boot to the CD and copy off the files. My favourite is a Puppy Linux CD.

 

See this complete guide for restoration.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...=us&dlc=en&lang=en&lc=en&product=3895732#N104

 

You'll want to view the portion that states "Starting a recovery and the computer is off".

Then follow directions, you don't want to use Windows Restore.

 

Okay ... got it restored and am able to get into windows as a guest, but the problem of the password remains ... I can't do anything because it won't accept the password I was given by the owner ... how do I get around it?

 

I went to this website and downloaded the program ...

There was no instructions on how to make a bootable cd out of the files so I used nero and made a bootable data disk with it ... unfortunately it won't load the program ... don't have any idea why it just stops at the blinking cursor once the maker and copyright is displayed. Also the beginning of the program when it boot up isn't like it states at the site.

 

If you did your restore as a "System Restore" NOT as a "Microsoft Restore" then there should have been NO passwords on the system. You might want to restore the system again and carefully look over your options. Do not save anything related to the old install.

 

I used the recovery software that was installed on the hard drive to get into windows ... actually I asked it to do a repair ... but that was after I use the F11 key that was suppose to wipe the drive. Vista has done updates without me signing in as admin ... so far 55 updates ... with those updates it is behaving better, but I can't activate windows without signing on as admin ... I'm keeping it running to see if it will download and install more updates ... windows defender is working now. It is SP2 ... :wave

 

If you did a repair then it did not install a "factory reset" to the original state the computer was in when it was first started up with no passwords.

Please use only black text, it's so much easier to read. Thanks.

 

Windows passwords are case sensitive - could that be it?

 

I asked the owner about it and he said no ... it is running a lot better now that it did the updates ... no more problems with the video ... I just don't understand why I can't get this software for removing the password to work. I unzipped it with WinRAR and burned what I though to be the iso image with IMG burn ... it will start to load the program ... then lock up.:confused. The computer itself is running fine with the exception of bugging about activating windows ...

 

Well sir ... I got it together ... found a tool call "Trinity Rescue Kit" and it allowed me to create a new admin, then I was able to activate windows ... I never used Vista before but I see it was limited without the activation. Anyway I got it together and we can mark this one as PROBLEM SOLVED. :-D:wave