PC Help

[Buckeyefan 1]

Need some major help with a laptop here guys. Anyone familiar with pc's enough please chime in.

I ran HijackThis and got rid of a bunch of spam/possible virus' and now this older HP Pavilion isn't booting up. It's stuck in the blue Windows XP screen and won't go anywhere from there.

I may have deleted something important and now not sure where to go from here. The bios setup is still accessible, but it's all foreign to me. Hoping I don't have to reload Windows XP. TIA.

 

[masak_aer]

All i can think about is using your original XP cd and use the repair function. When you get to C:\ type "chkdsk" and then run "fixmbr" see if those work. Hate windows but i have to use it in the office. I think you have just corrupted the system files when you use the hijack program. I don't use that program since i am too lazy to read each line carefully.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

The original windows XP cd doesn't exist. Does it matter if it's another copy of XP?

I've got a copy of Windows Vista that I can load, but haven't touched it yet for fear of major issues on another pc I got for my daughter.

 

[MDS]

It is most likely a device driver hanging up.

The first thing to try is to perform a cold boot (start with the machine off) and press F8 for advanced startup options. You can try Last Known Good Configuration and if that doesn't work use Enable Boot Logging, which will write a log of everything that happens during the boot process. The boot log will often show which, if any, driver is causing the problem.

 

[avaserfi]

It doesn't matter what physical disc of XP you use as long as its the same version i.e. home edition vs professional. You might also need your registration code.

I wouldn't load vista until you manage to fix the problem.

 

[jinjuku]

When powering up the laptop, start tapping the F8 key. This will get you to a pre-boot screen where you can choose 'Safe-Mode'. There are a few different ones:

Normal Safe-mode
Safe-mode with Networking Support
Safe-mode command prompt

Choose the normal safe-mode. Let us know if it boots up all the way.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

When powering up the laptop, start tapping the F8 key. This will get you to a pre-boot screen where you can choose 'Safe-Mode'. There are a few different ones:

Normal Safe-mode
Safe-mode with Networking Support
Safe-mode command prompt

Choose the normal safe-mode. Let us know if it boots up all the way.

Same thing, gets stuck on the blue Windows XP screen.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

It is most likely a device driver hanging up.

The first thing to try is to perform a cold boot (start with the machine off) and press F8 for advanced startup options. You can try Last Known Good Configuration and if that doesn't work use Enable Boot Logging, which will write a log of everything that happens during the boot process. The boot log will often show which, if any, driver is causing the problem.

Did that, and it goes right to booting up. Still stuck on the same screen.

Did the last known good config as well. Same thing. Frustrating.

 

[MDS]

Do you mean that you weren't able to get the boot options screen by hitting F8?

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Do you mean that you weren't able to get the boot options screen by hitting F8?

No, I actually did get the boot options from F8, but got the same result from the instructions above. I was out on sales call all day. Back to trying to get this thing to boot. I may just load XP all over again.

 

[adk highlander]

Go back and look at masak_aer's post. That is more along the line of what you need to do.

1) Go into your BIOS and change the first boot device to be the CD.
2) Boot the machine with the XP CD in the drive and it will bring you to the screens to re-install/repair the OS.
3) Choose the repair windows choice and follow the screens. This will just repair the system files and will not touch the user settings.
4) You may need to reload a few drivers when you are done but that will do it for you.

Let me know if you need more detail and I can go through it with you.

 

[Sheep]

Go back and look at masak_aer's post. That is more along the line of what you need to do.

1) Go into your BIOS and change the first boot device to be the CD.
2) Boot the machine with the XP CD in the drive and it will bring you to the screens to re-install/repair the OS.
3) Choose the repair windows choice and follow the screens. This will just repair the system files and will not touch the user settings.
4) You may need to reload a few drivers when you are done but that will do it for you.

Let me know if you need more detail and I can go through it with you.

Do this. I had a bad silicon image driver and this fixed the problem.

BUCK! You're only supposed to delete 1 thing from the list of stuff hijackthis pulls up. The one about genuine windows.

SheepStar

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

I switched the boot scheme to cd rom, and put the windows xp cd in and it's not bringing me to the screen to repair anything. This really stinks. It's not reading the cd at all. Any ideas?

 

[adk highlander]

Gotta love windows.

Does the laptop have a floppy drive that you can use while the CD rom is installed or do they share a slot?

If you can use a floppy try this:

Here is a link to Microsofts XP Utility for a floppy install. Download the file and install it on a floppy.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=55820edb-5039-4955-bcb7-4fed408ea73f&DisplayLang=en

 

[masak_aer]

I switched the boot scheme to cd rom, and put the windows xp cd in and it's not bringing me to the screen to repair anything. This really stinks. It's not reading the cd at all. Any ideas?

When you are at the bios setup, check to see if your cd-rom is detected. Load the default (factory)settings and save on exit (double check make sure that the first boot goes to your cd-rom), try loading your xp again.
If it still doesn't work, let us know.
If you don't have any important documents in your files, might save you lots of time by reinstalling windows from scratch.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

When you are at the bios setup, check to see if your cd-rom is detected. Load the default (factory)settings and save on exit (double check make sure that the first boot goes to your cd-rom), try loading your xp again.
If it still doesn't work, let us know.
If you don't have any important documents in your files, might save you lots of time by reinstalling windows from scratch.

Thre is no floppy disc port, and the pc is not recognizing the cd/dvd rom drive at all. I've tried every angle in bios, and nothing seems to work. I would love to reinstall windows from scratch, but how do you do that if your only drive is cd/dvd rom drive that isn't being recognized and your only method of input is bios and start up modes that take you to the same blue xp screen?

 

[masak_aer]

Thre is no floppy disc port, and the pc is not recognizing the cd/dvd rom drive at all. I've tried every angle in bios, and nothing seems to work. I would love to reinstall windows from scratch, but how do you do that if your only drive is cd/dvd rom drive that isn't being recognized and your only method of input is bios and start up modes that take you to the same blue xp screen?

If even the bios isn't recognizing the cd drive, then two things might be the culprit:
1. the cable to the cd drive is loose (check cables, and power cable to the drive and to the motherboard)
2. corrupted motherboard. It might be harder if it is a laptop to change it.

Anybody else have some other opinions?

 

[mike c]

there was a time when people called me for computer problems. but right now, I'm one of the old people that don't know squat about PC's. sorry I can't help BEF1.

nowadays, I solve all my PC problems with a full format. (which is why I have all my data in separate HD)