Operating system not found

Shanker

New Member
My Gateway laptop using Vista will randomly restart, then stall on the black screen that says "Operating System Not Found." Usually, with a hard reboot, it will eventually find the desktop, but this can take a very long time, up to 30 minutes.

Originally, everything was fine until the computer suddenly became very slow and balky while surfing the Web one day. After it became essentially non-functional, I reinstalled a clean version of Vista with the recovery CD, and everything seemed fine for a day or two before the slowness and random restarts started happening again.

Besides the Adobe 8 flash player, all I have dowloaded since the reinstall are Avira Free antivirus and RegDefense registry cleaner, neither of which seem able to scan completely or update themselves before the computer crashes.

If I can get to the desktop and start Internet Explorer, I can usually navigate quickly and easily as if nothing at all is wrong, but it may take a couple hours to get to that point.

What the heck is going on here? Should I replace the hard drive?
 

My Computer

Hello Shanker,

In case it may be the hard drive, then I would recommend that you create a set of recovery discs if you have not already or this is the same type of recovery CD you mentioned using. This way you can restore your Vista using them if needed. You should also backup anything that you do not want to lose to be safe as well.

You might see if running a startup repair may help. I would avoid running a registry cleaner. They tend to do more harm than good, and could be part of your problem.

You may need to do a factory restore again. :(

Gateway Support - Full Factory Recovery

Hope this helps some,
Shawn
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Thanks for your reply, Brink. I hadn't tried F8 before. Unfortunately, I can't do a full factory recovery because the only option missing from my Advanced Boot Options screen is "Repair your computer." Wassup with that?

Then when I again tried to reinstall Vista from the recovery disc, I couldn't install in Partition 1 because there isn't enough room (roughly 4.7GB of 9.5GB available but 6.7GB needed), and I shouldn't put it in Partition 2 because the computer thinks all zillion gigs of it "may fail soon." Where's the smilie that shows question marks flying out of my big round yellow head?

It may take me all night to get there, but do you think this page from Gateway support will be useful to me?

Gateway Support - Factory System Recovery in the Gateway Recovery Center

Incidentally, while typing this message on another computer, the laptop loaded a nearly normal desktop except that the icons at the bottom of the screen seemed to be older-style, including a small rectangular "Start" button instead of the usual big round one without the word "Start." This happens sometimes, along with louder-than-normal clicks and whirrs accompanied by even louder "pop-pops." Blue Screen of Death immediately followed.

What a sick little laptop I have.
 

My Computer

That would be how to do a factore recovery from within Vista. If it works go for it. It sounds like you may be needing to get a new hard drive soon though. :(
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
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