WMcD Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 So maybe you can tell us some more -- if not for me but for the guru's. What was going on as far as a problem before you decided it needed fixing. That sounds a bit harsh but maybe it will allow some diagnosis. One thing you could try is installing Ubuntu and see if it installs and runs. A couple of years ago, a friend brought me a friend's loptop which was not loading, wouldn't recover, there were no OS disks, no money, etc. Please fix it. This was my first and only experience with Ubuntu. But this Linux based system did load. Then I installed Open Office. Not bad. Addition by edit: This software is free, no mulla, nada. Smile. If Ubuntu loads, I'd think you've shown there is not a hardware problem. But do try the hard reset, first. Best, WMcD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 Gil, Decided to recover the laptop because it had gotten slow and buggy. the usual efforts to clean it up to run better just weren't helping. so a restore to factory condition will clean up the crud to run in good order. takes a bit of time to reload stuff, and let windows update run, but the result has been good in the past. Did the hard reset as you described. Still had the system freeze at 12% complete in the process after reset. This afternoon I searched google on the 12% recovery stall and found a few discussions of this very issue in some HP forums. What they say, and am trying now, is that the laptop will appear frozen at 12% for 4 hours and then finish the recovery. Sounds strange, but they explain that the HP recovery disks start with sort of a generic install and then because the DVD has hundreds of particular configurations included, the machine is doing a software routine to find the particular config that the particular machine needs. It doesn't sound right, but my machine has been idle at 12% with no discernable HD activity for three hours. I'm about to call it a night, so will get up in the a.m. to see what's what. There were half a dozen or so folks who wrote that this is what worked for them. I'll post an update in the a.m. So hope to confirm that the difficulty has been the HP software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 Well, you could blow me over with a feather. I am astonished, but also delighted, that recovering the system on this laptop has been accomplished. Had it not been for actually letting this machine sit for four hours while the installation had apparently stalled, I would have difficulty believing that it was true. There were no screen changes, no HD activity, nada. I suppose the processor was running routines sorting things out. A word of thanks to all you gentlemen who took the time to offer solutions in trouble shooting. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peshewah Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Glad you got it going. Doing alittle research was smart on your part. Will, if you ever need someone to confuse you, LOL, I will sure do my best. Good luck Daddy Dee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 Thanks peshewah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilbert Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 A quick check on ebay shows that it will cost $160 to $180 for the mobo and laptops are a pita to take apart. Then there is probably a good chance it's actually the power supply, can't say, don't know your symptoms. If it was a desktop it would be a no-brainer, but in this case, it maybe time to let things go. Exactly correct, and PITA is putting it mildly. Your best bet, IMHO, would be to spend a couple hundred more, and get a new, standard configuration laptop from your favorite maufacturer. You can buy a hell of a lot of machine for five or six hundred dollars. You'll be much better off with everything new, and if you're old laptop is more than 4 or 5 years old, you will see a huge increase in performance, particularly with the new (relatively new) Sandy Bridge architecture of todays multi-core intel CPU's. It's just unbeleivable how fast todays laptops are. Earlier this month I purchased a brand new Lenovo Thinkpad, the W530, and WOW!!!, fast doesn't begin to explain this beast, and it's only geared as a workstation. It blows away every desktop in the house, I just can't believe how fast laptops have become. My old laptop, (a 2005 Tecra S3) is going to my eldest daughter, who's moving to the 6th grade and needs her own PC for school work. If you can swing the extra coins for an SSD Harddrive, do it, they've come way down in price and the performance gains and boot-up times are reduced to nothing. There's no comparison with the std. HD of any interface type, SSD's are smoking fast. EDIT: I should have continued reading. Just noticed you got squared away by reconfiguring/formating bace to original. Congrats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted August 16, 2012 Author Share Posted August 16, 2012 Gilbert, Not a problem. This is a fabulous forum. In the last nine years I have learned more about audio than I ever imagined and have gotten top shelf advisement on all manner of issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Did you try the oven method? It might be a bad solder joint and one method is actually to put it in the oven, worth a try if you are going to throw it out anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share Posted August 21, 2012 Thanks Jay! Interesting idea for a last resort. It would make sense to try that. Turned out to be a software problem (inherent) in the HP recovery dvds. Amazing to me that HP would continue to ship an item such as this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 wow, what idiots! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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