Compaq Presario CQ50-105NR Notebook Computer

[dfchelbay]

Does anyone have this machine? I bought mine a year and a half ago. Recently, when turning it on, I could not get the computer to boot up past this screen:

Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device such as an external USB drive while the device is in use, or by faulty hardware such as a hard drive or CD-ROM drive that is failing. Make sure any removable storage is properly connected and then restart your computer.

If you continue to receive this error message, contact the hardware manufacturer.

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc00000e9
Info: An unexpected I/O error has occurred.


I researched these codes and did what was recommended from different bloggers. This laptop has never had anything other than a mouse plugged into any of the ports. I called HP and they wanted $199.00 to put a warranty in place, otherwise they would not help me. I went to the Geek Squad at Best Buy an they told me it would be $139.99 for a tech to look at the computer. Neither of these are budget friendly.

I do not have the Recovery Disk for this laptop. Apparently, unbeknown to me, you have to create your own recovery disk for this laptop. When this happened, I went looking for the disk to discover it was not among the items that came with the computer. I have never owned a computer that did not have them already done and within the box...live and learn. So, I can go no further trying to do anything without the recovery disk first, so that I can at least get it booted up.

Does anyone have this laptop that could make a copy of the recovery disk for me? Or, anyone have any brilliant ideas on how to get this laptop up and running again? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[musicmama]

HP (who owns Compaq or vice versa) has a feature on their website that allows you to order restore disks for most PCs/laptops. The restore disk tends to run between 35 and 50 dollars. To find out if your laptop is eligible, search by the model number on the website and look for the "Order Restore Disks" option. There are also instructions about creating your own set, that may help you out.

Depending your level of PC expertise, you could boot into the BIOS and disable the CD drive. If you can then boot up into Windows, this might answer what your problem is and you could see what a replacement would cost. (Caveat -- I am not a PC tech but I have done most of my own repairs and this is what I would try.)

Good luck!

 

[ctjsowens]

Got this exact same computer for my daughter. I would say order some from HP/Compaq. I think you can get them for around $10 or so and thats the way I did it because I had made some for a prior computer that we had and when we had some probs with it one of the disks I had made didnt work and I didnt want to wind up in the same situation. The Compaq we have is a good computer and have had no probs.

 

[librarygal]

Did you buy the laptop with a credit card? Many will double the manufacturers warranty. This reminds me that I need to create a boot disk for my new Compaq laptop. I was able to buy a three year warranty from SquareTrade for only $39 using one of their discount codes for the laptop but is does not cover software issues.

 

[dfchelbay]

Got this exact same computer for my daughter. I would say order some from HP/Compaq. I think you can get them for around $10 or so and thats the way I did it because I had made some for a prior computer that we had and when we had some probs with it one of the disks I had made didnt work and I didnt want to wind up in the same situation. The Compaq we have is a good computer and have had no probs.

We looked in to buying the disk from, HP. They wanted about $50, just for the disk and could not say whether that would even do anything for my computer. DH says that what if we get the disk and it does nothing to boot the computer up...we just wasted $50, plus S&H, and we still need to either get it fixed or replace it. He doesn't want to waste a penny on this laptop. I never realized how much I used this laptop, taking it all over the house, surfing while watching tv, while laying in bed sometimes. Can't do that with the other laptops we have, they are too large and cumbersome.

So, if anyone has this laptop, or maybe even something similar, I sure would appreciate a copy of a disk, I'll pay the cost to make it. Thanks all.

 

[PatMcDuck]

All computer should COME with the disks needed to reformat them! My last 2 Toshiba laptops came with them.......... and it was a fairly easy process, I just re-formatted DH laptop last week.

Now I have a MacBook, and it is AMAZING! No more problems.

 

[dfchelbay]

All computer should COME with the disks needed to reformat them! My last 2 Toshiba laptops came with them.......... and it was a fairly easy process, I just re-formatted DH laptop last week.

Now I have a MacBook, and it is AMAZING! No more problems.

I agree. My Toshiba and Sony came with the disks...this HP did not. Only found that out after there was a problem...I was supposed to make the disk myself when I first got the laptop. We;ve also looked into the Macs in the past. Unfortunately, the programs we like to run are not yet programmed for Mac. I'll have to just keep waiting I guess.

 

[ctjsowens]

We looked in to buying the disk from, HP. They wanted about $50, just for the disk and could not say whether that would even do anything for my computer. DH says that what if we get the disk and it does nothing to boot the computer up...we just wasted $50, plus S&H, and we still need to either get it fixed or replace it. He doesn't want to waste a penny on this laptop. I never realized how much I used this laptop, taking it all over the house, surfing while watching tv, while laying in bed sometimes. Can't do that with the other laptops we have, they are too large and cumbersome.

So, if anyone has this laptop, or maybe even something similar, I sure would appreciate a copy of a disk, I'll pay the cost to make it. Thanks all.

Whoever you talked with at HP gave you the incorrect info. I thought they were around $10 and I just looked them up online and the total with shipping came up to $16.03. These are your best bet and should correct your prob.

 

[dfchelbay]

Whoever you talked with at HP gave you the incorrect info. I thought they were around $10 and I just looked them up online and the total with shipping came up to $16.03. These are your best bet and should correct your prob.

It doesn't surprise me. They wouldn't even speak to me until I gave them all my information first...name, address, phone, email, etc. Then they told me I had to buy a warranty before they could proceed with the call. They were of no help at all, gave me incorrect information, and worst of all they are flooding my email with offers to buy computers...EVERYDAY! Even after I specifically told them I did not want any phone calls, emails, or letters of solicitation of their products.

I'll go to the website and check this out. Thanks for the info. Dealing with them on the phone has been nothing but a pain in the a**.

 

[ctjsowens]

Another thing is that they will charge you for talking with you for info such as tech info etc. All brands may do this but after talking with HP/Compaq about our desktop they wanted to charge me for talking. Said thanks but no thanks and I figured it out for myself.

 

[Mic]

I can't offer any help to the OP, but I would like to say that we have several HP/Compaq laptops(and desktops). My husband prefers them because we have had better customer service from HP than other brands. We purchased 2Dell laptops in 2005 that did not come with the restore discs, and did not have the information on the computers themselves so we could make our own discs. We truly had to order the discs from them to restore the computer after my husband wiped one clean from a virus infection. My husband immediately makes a restore disc after a computer purchase; I know most people do not know to do this. Our 2 oldest daughters are in college, and my husband asks them to bring their computers home at least once every few months so he can run the virus scans and clean up the hard drive. And restore the system if they have downloaded some harmful junk. For what it's worth, I have had good luck with all of 3 of our Compaq laptops. Mine is over 4 years old and the only thing I've done to it is max it out in memory(it has 2 GB now). My oldest daughter's Compaq was purchased in July of 2006, and she still uses it daily. My only gripe about hers is the fact that it has Vista basic and only 1 GB of RAM. My son said we really need to upgrade the RAM. My second daghter's Compaq laptop was purchased in early August 2008and is still going strong. We call her the "download queen" because my son has wiped her system down and restored it many times. She could not even get it to boot up a few weeks ago; it took my son a few hours to fix it. So far, none of her issues have been hardware-related. Her computer runs Vista Home Premium (like yours), but has 3 GB of Ram instead of 2. Before you order the restore disc, try googling the error message you are getting. My sister was getting a similar message on her Gateway laptop and my son replaced her hard drive(@$40)...I'm not saying that is your problem, but if it is, it's a relatively cheap fix. You will need the restore discs to format the hard drive. But on the outside chance that it is a driver issue or a CD rom issue, you can make the discs from your computer once you fix the error. I wish I could help more. My son LOVES working on computers, but he is at school right now. If he can offer a solution, I'll PM you later.