please help computer folks! HP laptop seems to have blown its operating system?

[janey99]

I hope someone here can point me in the right direction. DS has an HP Pavilion dv5 laptop that came with Vista. It's about 1.5 years old. 3 gigs of memory. He was watching a movie via Netflix watch it now, when it suddenly went dead. We have tried to restart, can't get past the HP logo screen. When we hit F11, it says it can't find an operating system, please load one. Went to the HP website and it says we need recovery disks. I have received them, but now I'm afraid to run them.

My questions -

What the heck happened??!!

Is everything that is/was on his hard drive lost? I know it will be once I run the recovery, but is there ANYTHING to do now to try to access and save anything, particularly his itunes and Spore files?

Did anyone else ever have this problem? Did it fix with a reload of Vista? Do I have to upgrade to Windows 7 to get any type of stability to this system?

I am so disappointed in this computer/Vista - from the start it had annoying problems which I think are related to Vista - heats up really fast and really hot; the touch buttons don't work or work by themselves (no one is touching anything, slider bar for volume appears on the screen and moves up and down by itself and you can't do anything about it); really slow, lots of "features" that just get in the way of using it (all the Vista "protections").

Arghhh - I hate this thing. I will never buy another HP product!

Additional questions - is itunes ever helpful in rebuilding a library when its records should show that you bought items? DS seems to think his Spore creations were not stored on his computer, but on some Spore server he was somehow able to access, and should be able to access again. Is this true?

Thanks!

Jane

 

[parrotbay]

With a PC it could be anything from software, OS problems, virus or something fried.

My solution.... Buy a Mac .

I don't think you can re-download already purchased stuff from iTunes. I think the policy is, once you buy it you are responsible for backing it up.

 

[dawson5]

I hope someone here can point me in the right direction. DS has an HP Pavilion dv5 laptop that came with Vista. It's about 1.5 years old. 3 gigs of memory. He was watching a movie via Netflix watch it now, when it suddenly went dead. We have tried to restart, can't get past the HP logo screen. When we hit F11, it says it can't find an operating system, please load one. Went to the HP website and it says we need recovery disks. I have received them, but now I'm afraid to run them.

My questions -

What the heck happened??!!

Is everything that is/was on his hard drive lost? I know it will be once I run the recovery, but is there ANYTHING to do now to try to access and save anything, particularly his itunes and Spore files?

Did anyone else ever have this problem? Did it fix with a reload of Vista? Do I have to upgrade to Windows 7 to get any type of stability to this system?

I am so disappointed in this computer/Vista - from the start it had annoying problems which I think are related to Vista - heats up really fast and really hot; the touch buttons don't work or work by themselves (no one is touching anything, slider bar for volume appears on the screen and moves up and down by itself and you can't do anything about it); really slow, lots of "features" that just get in the way of using it (all the Vista "protections").

Arghhh - I hate this thing. I will never buy another HP product!

Additional questions - is itunes ever helpful in rebuilding a library when its records should show that you bought items? DS seems to think his Spore creations were not stored on his computer, but on some Spore server he was somehow able to access, and should be able to access again. Is this true?

Thanks!

Jane

There was a post on here just a few days ago with an HP with problems.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2426490

There is some great advice there.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

My solution.... Buy a Mac .

Worst advice ever.

 

[parrotbay]

Worst advice ever.

And why is that?

I've been a Mac user for 15 years and had very few problems (2 or 3 in 15 years). Almost every problem I've had, I was able to fix myself.

Had a power supply fail in my 5 year old iMac once, fixed it myself. Once I had to go to the Apple store to replace a bad disc drive in my MacBook, no charge & took 10 mins.

Best of all no viruses!

Luv my Macs .

 

[janey99]

There was a post on here just a few days ago with an HP with problems.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2426490

There is some great advice there.

Thanks so much for the link - I am going to try removing the hard drive and putting into an enclosure to get the info!

Jane

 

[Imzadi]

Why are you hitting F11? That could be one of your problems right there. (I, too, have an HP DV 5000 series, but I don't have Vista, I have Win XP and I hit F8.)

Try F8 to get into Safe Mode. Hopefully, you will just be able to do a System Restore to an earlier date, like a couple days ago, and get your PC working again. This is, of course if you haven't fried your PC. Your fan may not be working properly or you overloaded with too many system processes going.

To get into Safe Mode:

Reboot computer and immediately and constantly keep pressing down the F8 button until a Window appears asking you which Safe Mode you want. Scroll down to like the one that says Safe Mode.

Once you are in Safe Mode,
Go to START -> Programs ->
Accessories -> System Tools ->
System Restore

Then pick a date like a couple days ago, what ever is BOLDED around then. (You can always UNDO it, or even Undo and pick an earlier date if necessary.)

It will reboot you to that date.


As for needing the Recovery Disks to reformat your PC. You should only do it as a last resort and IF your DS has backups of all his personal files elsewhere.

Are these the Recovery Disks your DS made when he first got his machine? Or are they disks from HP? If he made them, his HP computer should already have a back up in the D drive. He can probably do a Recovery Process without the disks. This is one of the features of having an HP. There "should" be a back up of his info & personal files, separate from the operating system files on his PC. I, too, have an HP DV 5000 series. (It has a different set of problems. ) But, if he didn't set up his PC correctly to begin with . . . he may not have his files in a separate section of his PC.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

And why is that?

I've been a Mac user for 15 years and had very few problems (2 or 3 in 15 years). Almost every problem I've had, I was able to fix myself.

Had a power supply fail in my 5 year old iMac once, fixed it myself. Once I had to go to the Apple store to replace a bad disc drive in my MacBook, no charge & took 10 mins.

Best of all no viruses!

Luv my Macs .

I have no particular issues with Apple products particulary, rather the blind faith people have in them and the typical PC bashing that often accompanies them. There is a reason PCs hold such a large market share, they are universally accepted and 90% of businesses use them.

Macs are also not immune to viruses, there have been a few reports of them as of late, and although they have not been overly detrimental to the machines yet, the keyword is YET. Marketshare is one of the key drivers of virus adaptation, and with Macs controlling less then 10% it often isn't as big of a focus.

Hardware issues is a double edged sword. On one hand you have the benefit of control with Apple products where they try to be the only manufacturer and authorize a very limited number of suppliers to produce parts. This is great for quality, but on the downside this typically throws off free market rules and causes higher prices and lower selection due to reduced competition. For PCs you have free market, giving a lot of choices, but you can also run into quality issues from time to time (especially in the lower price brackets).

Like you have years of experience, some in the Apple world in my younger years and mostly PC as of late (my first computer I got when I was 12; 18 years ago).

 

[LoraJ]

I had a similar issue with my HP, same age. Although mine is a desktop. I could not do F8 or F11.Turns out the hard drive died. Which, by the way can happen on a Mac. I could only access Setup and Bios and it did not see my drive. I ended up buying a new hard drive and I re-loaded the recovery disks and it is running fine now.

Since you can't do F11, if you can't do F8 either, it is probably your drive is dead. Is it a Seagate?

But now I have to pay $$$ to get my documents folder back from the dead drive. All of my music and photos were on othr drives and I have just backed them up in like 3 different places.

I am happy with PC's but I don't think I will be getting another HP after this.

Did you back up your i-tunes purchases? Were they on an ipod?

 

[Imzadi]

I had a similar issue with my HP, same age. Although mine is a desktop. I could not do F8 or F11. Turns out the hard drive died. Which, by the way can happen on a Mac. I could only access Setup and Bios and it did not see my drive. I ended up buying a new hard drive and I re-loaded the recovery disks and it is running fine now.

Since you can't do F11, if you can't do F8 either, it is probably your drive is dead. Is it a Seagate?

But now I have to pay $$$ to get my documents folder back from the dead drive. All of my music and photos were on othr drives and I have just backed them up in like 3 different places.

I am happy with PC's but I don't think I will be getting another HP after this.

Do NOT call HP customer service for help, unless your PC is still under warranty. I can tell you for an HP, that it would be totally useless to call HP tech support. They charge you $50 just for talking to them. They call it a "diagnostic." To actually get your PC fixed may cost more. The "diagnostic" is done by the overseas customer service rep who knows NOTHING but from reading some manual they were given. So they have no REAL working knowledge of how to fix PCs. They are imbeciles. And all for a non-refundable $50.

Go to your LOCAL computer technician, like Best Buy, for their Geek Squad. For the same $50, at least, when he talks to you, he actually has the computer in hand, can open it up, plug things in, jiggle stuff around, try things out, hook your PC up to things to actually TEST what works and what doesn't. Novel idea, isn't that? Than talking to an idiot who reads you some tech manual & can't really "diagnose" squat.

I will NEVER buy another HP computer after my phone "diagnostic" with them. That one $50 call cost the thousands they could have made, keeping me a loyal customer by buying my next laptop from them. This was my second HP laptop with them, and it is my last.

 

[LoraJ]

My friend is giving me a program that he has that can detect defunct drives. I am hoping that works. HP wanted me to send back my whole computer to them and pay $350 and I told them no way. They said that was the only way to get the computer running. I paid $15 for the recovery disks and $70 for a new drive and all is well. It's just getting my condo association documents off the dead drive that is the issue. My DH said he read an article that going to Best Buy for data recovery with a dead drive is not a good idea.

 

[landofoz]

Sounds like a VERY similar problem I've been taking care of over the last few weeks. We have a Compaq Presario that just one day wouldn't start and said it had no operating system, etc.

I called HP (same as Compaq) tech support and luckily mine was under warranty. It was the Seagate hard drive that just stopped working. All data was lost...so I thought. I have a friend at work who has a machine that can get a hard drive to spin and read the data even if it's dead. I was able to recover the files for no cost. However, unless you can ask around for a friend of a friend, you may not be as lucky.

As far as the recovery DVD, it won't work if it's the hard drive that's dead. And if the hard drive isn't dead, someone can save your files. Recovery DVD is when you are ready to start from scratch. I'd call tech support and find out what is likely wrong with it. But it won't be covered unless you bought an extended warranty. Standard is usually 1 year and would have covered this before the end of the 1st year.

A big AMEN to the idea of regularly backing up data. I hadn't done that in a month or two and had a ton of stuff I really needed on my hard drive. I was very lucky to get it back. Lesson learned.

 

[janey99]

Thanks for all the comments so far everyone!

Imzadi - we can't hit nothin' - I have tried turning this thing on and hitting every F-button 20 times each. The only one that gets anything is F11, and then it says to load an operating system. Nothing but a dos-type screen that goes nowhere. We read on the HP website how we were supposed to be able to get to some screen from there to back up from a partitioned part of the drive, but we also read that if you can't get that far, you need to order recovery disks, which I now have.

Lora - I hope the hard drive isn't fried! We do have a bunch of techie friends, so I'm going to ask around if someone can try to get some things off it. Most, if not all of his itunes stuff is on his ipod(s), but he's worried that he won't be able to get all that back onto a computer when he has one back (don't know if his fears are warranted).

We bought it at Best Buy, so maybe I will contact the Geek Squad and see what they have to say. Thing is, this computer only cost about $400 - I can easily see spending more than that to try to fix it and then failing, and then having to shell out for a new computer anyway. If it wasn't for DS really wanting his Spore stuff, I wouldn't even be thinking about all this - just going straight to new laptop!

As I mentioned, this was our first HP and it will certainly be our last!

Jane

 

[Linda in sunny SC]

Sounds like the drive died to me.

 

[jsmith]

I can pretty much tell you with out seeing the machine even that if access to the bios is telling you to install an OS that the hard drive has gone bad-if it will still spin and is doing something like not reading to boot sectors it will be fairly easy for someone like the Geek squad to retrieve what ever files you want-if the hard drive wont spin data recovery will be come more difficult. Just replacing the hard drive is a fairly easy 15 minute task that anyone should be able to do.

 

[dawson5]

I've seen people have luck with putting it in the freezer before trying to retrieve files. I have one dead drive with about 8GB of pictures on it that I want to retrieve. We've not tried this yet, but we just pulled it after trying numerous programs to try and recover without luck. I know that one guy says to try spinrite first, we did without luck, but I truly fear that this drive is dead.