Is my HP Laptop problem software related? OR is it hardware related?

Question

Starting last night, my HP dv5000 started acting funny. Last night, upon startup, for some reason, it would not allow me to logon to my profile, or any other. Instead, it gave me an error message related to a memory problem(I wish I could remember it), and unable to log onto the server(I use it on my home network). It ended with, "please contact your administrator". I then decided to try safe mode. I was able to get to the boot (F8) menu, but when I tried safe mode, the screen just went back to the normal home screen- and stayed that way. Right back to where I was before. Faced with the fact that I might have a serious issue, I decided to try to get the dos screen, so I could at least save some files to my external drive. No luck getting to the dos prompt. The screen just stayed blank when I chose that option.

OK...now I tried to do the "repair" install using my F11 key and utilizing the partitioned disk and restoring to the original factory settings. It went through all it's processes, backups and what ever else it does. Then it rebooted...I'm thinking "perfect...I fixed it"....THEN it HUNG on the windows XP slash screen, where it stated. "please wait"...and I did......for hours.

Last step...I decided to go "all in" and just select the "F" option on my recovery process menu to "format", and reinstall windows using my recovery disks. THIS was a very long process, but started to look very similar to the previous process I went through. Low and behold, it rebooted....AND HUNG ON THAT SCREEN AGAIN! What gives?

So my question....is this hardware or software related?

I have a bestbuy extended warranty effective, they told me tonight it was software related..and it wasn't covered. "Windows is corrupt", he said. He then said they would diagnose it for $215.....I decided to opt out for now......

Thoughts? I'm at my wits end. I'm wondering, if I buy a fresh copy of Windows XP myself, and try to reinstall from scratch...if this will work? I'd hate to blow $150 on a copy of Windows if I don't need to...I would think everything is there on my recovery disks.....that's what it's for, right?

Sorry for the long note.....

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

From experience, hard drive issue. If after the format and new install doesn't fix it(assuming it worked fine before), the only other option is the drive the OS is imprinted on.

Answer 2

If you could not do a system install from the recovery CD set then it is a hard drive failure, I would try a different best buy repair center and do not tell them what you think is wrong or that you had it checked at another store. The software was factory installed I would think and they should honor the warranty.

Did you buy Hewlett Packard's warranty or Best Buy's ?

I would also contact HP's customer service on problem with lap top and Best Buy.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

This is a fairly common windows problem but you aren't going to like the answer. You are going to have to reformat your hard drive and install a fresh copy of windows. I have been through this twice with two different computers. I used the windows disk that came with my computers but lost a lot of my software that was not replacable. I should have backed up more often on cd's.

Answer 4

regrettably you won't be in a position to make a blanket assertion approximately all desktops from one style. HP is frequently making good factors that final for a real looking quantity of time. yet there are heavily hundreds of different HP fashions. this is frustrating to easily say all style X's desktops are reliable and all style Y's are undesirable.