ziomatrixacs
New Member
OK guys, this is a bit of a story.. so please bare with me. I will give you as much data about the computer as possible, but I dont know much about it.
I use an iBook G4, with OS X 10.4. This computer is able to get high speed internet and therefore is my downloading work horse. It can write CD's but not DVD's
My PC is an old XP machine, from 2002. It is able to burn DVD's and CD's but suffers from dial up syndrome. These are my tools to fix this computer..not much but they get the job done.
My friend has a newish HP 17" laptop. It came with Vista (NO idea what version, home , pro, ultimate, 32 bit , 64 bit, I just know it is vista) installed but NO discs what so ever. I am a mac user, so I felt a little odd about this since Apple included 4 different discs with my computer. She needed to buy some virus protection, so she went to best buy and got Norton Anti virus. After installing NAV, she ran a scan and here is exactly what she told me it said. "It said it found a white horse and asked if I wanted to delete it, I clicked yes and the computer shut off and wont work any more."
She isnt very technically inclined so she gave the computer to me to check it out. Here are the symptoms. Computer will not boot up. It shows a HP logo then it sits at a black screen with a white dash _ flashing. I am able to access BIOS and I ran the only two test, hard drive and memory, and it passed them both with no hitchs. On start up, it gives me a list of function keys like:
F1 is go to BIOS
F2 shows you the boot log or something like that
F11 goes to system recovery
So natually I asked if there is anything she wants to keep, and she says no. I pushed F11 and nothing happens. It just sits there. Nothing. I try again and hold it this time. The computer makes a horrendous ear drum peircing BEEP BEEP BEEP and nothng happens.
Running out of options now arnt I? I dont have a disc to reinstall vista. I dont have a recovery disc to fix vista. I cant access the system recovery thing.
My options seem to be:
Contact HP but they will probably give me the run around or charge me for a disc that should have been included in the first place.
Contact best buy (where she got the computer) but they will probably tell me to go to HP or Geek squad and pork out a few hundred bucks.
Go to a computer repair place but that will cost around $100
--OR
Buy Vista and install it all over again.
And there is a possibility of having to buy a new HD if this damaged vista cant be removed, which is a problem I think I will have.
My mom has a friend who works at best buy and helped fix our home PC mentioned a while ago after its HD went south. I asked him what I should do and he said "Good luck" he was also offered to get paid $50 for fixing it and he didnt take it.
I went to neosmart.com and found some repair disc thing, but I dont think it will work. Im not sure if Norton deleted the boot section, or if it deleted just a single file causing it to not boot. Im not sure if the supposed partitioned repair area thingy is damaged either, since I can not access by pushing the F11 button.
So, does any one have any suggestions? Id install XP onto her machine but I think that requires the HD to be whiped clean and her to buy XP which probably cost the same as Vista. Im not sure what is the right question to ask, is it how screwed is she? Im not sure what to tell her. Should I tell her just send it in and risk the huge fee for something that should have been included (and she probably still wont get a disc) or tell her to sell it then get a Mac Book and run Vista on that?
Thanks for any help!
I use an iBook G4, with OS X 10.4. This computer is able to get high speed internet and therefore is my downloading work horse. It can write CD's but not DVD's
My PC is an old XP machine, from 2002. It is able to burn DVD's and CD's but suffers from dial up syndrome. These are my tools to fix this computer..not much but they get the job done.
My friend has a newish HP 17" laptop. It came with Vista (NO idea what version, home , pro, ultimate, 32 bit , 64 bit, I just know it is vista) installed but NO discs what so ever. I am a mac user, so I felt a little odd about this since Apple included 4 different discs with my computer. She needed to buy some virus protection, so she went to best buy and got Norton Anti virus. After installing NAV, she ran a scan and here is exactly what she told me it said. "It said it found a white horse and asked if I wanted to delete it, I clicked yes and the computer shut off and wont work any more."
She isnt very technically inclined so she gave the computer to me to check it out. Here are the symptoms. Computer will not boot up. It shows a HP logo then it sits at a black screen with a white dash _ flashing. I am able to access BIOS and I ran the only two test, hard drive and memory, and it passed them both with no hitchs. On start up, it gives me a list of function keys like:
F1 is go to BIOS
F2 shows you the boot log or something like that
F11 goes to system recovery
So natually I asked if there is anything she wants to keep, and she says no. I pushed F11 and nothing happens. It just sits there. Nothing. I try again and hold it this time. The computer makes a horrendous ear drum peircing BEEP BEEP BEEP and nothng happens.
Running out of options now arnt I? I dont have a disc to reinstall vista. I dont have a recovery disc to fix vista. I cant access the system recovery thing.
My options seem to be:
Contact HP but they will probably give me the run around or charge me for a disc that should have been included in the first place.
Contact best buy (where she got the computer) but they will probably tell me to go to HP or Geek squad and pork out a few hundred bucks.
Go to a computer repair place but that will cost around $100
--OR
Buy Vista and install it all over again.
And there is a possibility of having to buy a new HD if this damaged vista cant be removed, which is a problem I think I will have.
My mom has a friend who works at best buy and helped fix our home PC mentioned a while ago after its HD went south. I asked him what I should do and he said "Good luck" he was also offered to get paid $50 for fixing it and he didnt take it.
I went to neosmart.com and found some repair disc thing, but I dont think it will work. Im not sure if Norton deleted the boot section, or if it deleted just a single file causing it to not boot. Im not sure if the supposed partitioned repair area thingy is damaged either, since I can not access by pushing the F11 button.
So, does any one have any suggestions? Id install XP onto her machine but I think that requires the HD to be whiped clean and her to buy XP which probably cost the same as Vista. Im not sure what is the right question to ask, is it how screwed is she? Im not sure what to tell her. Should I tell her just send it in and risk the huge fee for something that should have been included (and she probably still wont get a disc) or tell her to sell it then get a Mac Book and run Vista on that?
Thanks for any help!
. If you contact HP they should be able to supply restore discs for that particular model, the costs are normally just shipping so are not to bad. so this would be an option if the repair disk fails.
, but others experiences posted on the net would suggest they are not the best. HP are a major company and although they may be a little lethargic they are normally fairly reliable
Ted
