HP computer question

[atc007]

Hp 5400, Windows XP. I have system restored it a few times in the past. But forget how... KB, Doug lol.. Anyone !? I can't get it to boot into windows to get into system restore. I have tried f1 through 12 at boot up. No luck.. MAybe this came with a disc?? I can't remember ,but don't think so??! All I want to do is a system restore. No back ups, nothing to save. Thanx guys!

[kb0nly]

If using the F10 HP Recovery at boot won't work then its likely very hosed... Have you tried using F8 at boot to see if you can get into Safe Mode? If you can boot up into safe mode you might have a chance to do a restore, but otherwise when they get that bad i usually just grab a windows cd and toss it in and start from scratch!

[atc007]

I'm trying to give this away to a very deserving family. Single Mom and a great Son. And it is flipped! I can go to what says safe mode,but it asks to use Windows and locks up. I don't have any discs .. I'll keep at it..

[kb0nly]

Ok, well Windows XP isn't that hard to find in the wild.... Its not like you would be pirating it, you just need the media, you have a COA on the case with the cd key, so worst comes to worst just download a copy of XP and make a disc to use with your key.

[Motorgidd]

I'm trying to give this away to a very deserving family. Single Mom and a great Son. And it is flipped! I can go to what says safe mode,but it asks to use Windows and locks up. I don't have any discs .. I'll keep at it..

Hey atc007,

I have a couple different versions of XP disks if you are still looking... XP Home and XP Pro. Heck I know I have a couple extra pc's sitting around too if yours is toast!

[atc007]

Hey thanx for the offer! Like I said, I just wanna make this one new as possible for this family. It is Officially toast. It's making a bad sound from the lower left when firing up? I know the dvd drive is on the back right.This sound isn't coming from back there. It is officially dead. I have seen some sick computers before,but never this lol. So, would one of those $ 10 restore deals off ebay work? Or stick to the HP stuff? I'm not ready to give up on her yet, I wanna try restoring it. Thanx again guys,

[Motorgidd]

Do you have a link to the "$ 10 restore" on Ebay? Im not sure what that is. You say you are hearing a bad noise from the pc? You could have a bad hard drive. Take the case door or cover off and try and see if you can hear where the noise is coming from.

[Jwmajic]

Get the windows disk and change the boot drive order to load the dvd drive first then try reinstalling winblows. If you want to do a real good job get a boot disk to boot it up in dos them do a chkdsk.

[Dirtcrasher]

F8 usually gets you into the boot screen. I just start tapping it as soon as I turn the infected PC on.......

If you need a XP license, I think I still have mine. Let me know and I will search for it.

Now I run Windows 7 so I don't need it.

I doubt it's your hard drive making noise, maybe the mother board cooling fan??

[kb0nly]

Describe the noise a little better, is it a clicking noise or a grinding noise etc? I thought we were dealing with a desktop, but you said lower left is noise and back right is DVD, so i assume laptop now correct?

The lower left would be the right location for the hard drive on most HP laptops. I would almost bet its a bad drive if its making noise, and thats quite common as well. A new drive for a laptop though isnt that bad, less than $50 depending on size. If the computer is in good shape otherwise cosmetically and its worth putting a new drive in then i would get one for it and a windows disc and load it up.

If i was closer to you i would gladly do the labor as my contribution, i just got done doing a pile of used computers the school donated to low income families, they were all quite deserving and i made it my karma points for the month. LOL

[dougspcs]

Odd noises usually mean hard disk failure..

In my shop an XP computer(dead OS), possible HD malfunction, older system is a DNR situation!

Modern retail PCs have between 2-5 years lifespan..time to walk away and go shopping.

Hope you can find a Windows 7 PC, because Windows 8 is not great!

[Dirtcrasher]

350$ Gets you a tower but I understand you were trying to help someone......

[kb0nly]

Odd noises usually mean hard disk failure..

In my shop an XP computer(dead OS), possible HD malfunction, older system is a DNR situation!

Modern retail PCs have between 2-5 years lifespan..time to walk away and go shopping.

Hope you can find a Windows 7 PC, because Windows 8 is not great!

While i generally agree, most of my customers can't afford $300-$500 for a new laptop or desktop. Most if not all of them can afford $100 to put in a new drive, maybe bump up the ram and reinstall windows and get another year or two out of it. XP is far from dead though, i still work on 40% or better of XP machines here. All good running serviceable computers for what they are used for. Sure Microshaft is gonna kill updates, but that will still make it a few years more before totally obsolete. For some basic users its still a good OS... Lots better than Win 8!!

As for Win8... I TOTALLY AGREE... It sucks big hairy donkey.... Well you know.

[Dirtcrasher]

While i generally agree, most of my customers can't afford $300-$500 for a new laptop or desktop. Most if not all of them can afford $100 to put in a new drive, maybe bump up the ram and reinstall windows and get another year or two out of it. XP is far from dead though, i still work on 40% or better of XP machines here. All good running serviceable computers for what they are used for. Sure Microshaft is gonna kill updates, but that will still make it a few years more before totally obsolete. For some basic users its still a good OS... Lots better than Win 8!!

As for Win8... I TOTALLY AGREE... It sucks big hairy donkey.... Well you know.

I didn't know Windows 8 is already garbage?? Geesh! Vista was garbage too; The windows 7 I run seems ok but even after a whole formatting session, a week later it's slow to open live mail and other programs and I have no idea why. It should have a clean slate, no??

[kb0nly]

I didn't know Windows 8 is already garbage?? Geesh! Vista was garbage too; The windows 7 I run seems ok but even after a whole formatting session, a week later it's slow to open live mail and other programs and I have no idea why. It should have a clean slate, no??

The biggest problem with 8 is they tried to make a cross platform OS, one that will work on traditional desktops and laptops but also tablets. They put too much emphasis on it being a touchscreen GUI and made it over complicated for those who still use a mouse. They just released Windows 8.1 yesterday, its a slight tweak, basically its like SP1 for Win 8. They added the start button back to the desktop, but sadly it only takes you back to the horrible Metro UI Tiles start screen. It sucks! There is a company called StarDock that made a Windows 8 start menu addon, to make it more like traditional windows. Its ok but still a so-so addon to an OS that should have been made right in the first place. Add that to horrible hardware and software issues that i have been fighting for owners and its just not worth it. I have rolled back a lot of new computers to Windows 7!!

As for your slowdown issues... I always tell everyone max out the RAM and get an SSD instead of a hard drive. Or even one of the hybrid drives which has an area of SSD for the OS and software and then a traditional hard drive for storage space. The slowdown with windows live mail is something i come across pretty regularly, the more email you get sitting in it the slower it loads, eventually it just bogs down due to hard drive seek times loading all that data. At least thats my analogy because after going SSD i dont suffer those issues anymore.

I run a SSD on my desktop and laptop, i get boot times of 10-15 seconds tops, clicking on things like live mail or office launches it immediately, its click and there before you can move your finger.