HP PC will not boot off XP CD - Restarts into HP's System Recovery

[Guest]

I am helping my Aunt with her HP 750 PC (P4, 1.6GHz, 80G HD, 512 RAM, XP
Home). She just upgraded to XP SP2 and since then has not been able to run
her PC.

I worked with Microsoft to recover her PC with no success. Will not complete
startup even in Safe mode (hangs on amdagp.sys). Cannot get to a command
prompt.

I then tried HP's non-destructive recovery but the process "hung" at 40% (on
Pinnacle program files) after displaying error messages about not being able
to extract some files. This happened 4 times. We then decided to do the
destructive full-recovery. The first time, the process stopped on the 7th CD
with an error. The second time, the process stopped on the 6th CD. The third
time, the process completed but then the system immediately restarted and the
HP system recovery process started. It hung at the 40% recovery, as previous.
..... I waited over an hour and it just stayed at 40%.....

I can no longer access the system BIOS using F1. The system will not "boot"
off the Windows XP CD even though the BIOS is set to boot off CD first. ...
The system will not boot off a Universal boot floppy disk. ....

HELP!!!!!

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

I don't know how HP's setup is configured, but is the correct driver
installed:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_2336,00.html

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I am helping my Aunt with her HP 750 PC (P4, 1.6GHz, 80G HD, 512 RAM,
XP Home). She just upgraded to XP SP2 and since then has not been
able to run her PC.

I worked with Microsoft to recover her PC with no success. Will not
complete startup even in Safe mode (hangs on amdagp.sys). Cannot get
to a command prompt.

I then tried HP's non-destructive recovery but the process "hung" at
40% (on Pinnacle program files) after displaying error messages about
not being able to extract some files. This happened 4 times. We then
decided to do the destructive full-recovery. The first time, the
process stopped on the 7th CD with an error. The second time, the
process stopped on the 6th CD. The third time, the process completed
but then the system immediately restarted and the HP system recovery
process started. It hung at the 40% recovery, as previous. .... I
waited over an hour and it just stayed at 40%.....

I can no longer access the system BIOS using F1. The system will not
"boot" off the Windows XP CD even though the BIOS is set to boot off
CD first. ... The system will not boot off a Universal boot floppy
disk. ....

HELP!!!!!

Are you using a USB keyboard? If you can't even get into the BIOS, you have
larger problems than Windows. I presume you did a cold reboot (turn off
computer, then turn it back on) before trying....have you tried HP support?

I really hope she backed up her data before doing anything.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your comments. I know nothing about her system because when I got
to it, nothing could be accessed. I do know that it worked fine before
installing SP2 and I also strongly think that she did not do the appropriate
updates etc. before installing SP2, which probably caused the problem.
However, now I can't get anywhere to do anything.... I had set the BIOS to
boot from CD so I could reload XP Home (she didn't have much stuff to lose)
but after the failed HP recoveries, I can't get into the BIOS, I can't get to
a command prompt, and I can't do anything (if I choose Quit, it just restarts
and goes back into the recovery program) but run HP's recovery program -----
which hangs at 40%..... THIS IS AWFUL!

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

I think you will have to contact HP. I'm not sure what has happened so that
you can't even access the BIOS now. I'm still not sure why HP insist that
an install of XP needs 7 CDs!!!! XP is normally on one CD!!!! There must a
lot of HP dross installed, which could very well be the problem.

 

[Guest]

Hi!
1) Her son (who lives out of state) backed up her data at some point this
year and she doesn't remember adding too much "stuff" since then... she is
OK with having to start from scratch - just as long as she can get her system
running....

2) HP has not provided much "help" so far....

3) Not using a USB keyboard or mouse. Disconnected from all other
peripherals...

4) Cold boot completed several times... Also opened box and reseated the
memory, made sure cables all connected, etc.

Have just created some WinXP boot disks from the Microsoft site and am
trying to reinstall... Will post success/failure...

THANKS..... Cate

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Hi!
1) Her son (who lives out of state) backed up her data at some point
this year and she doesn't remember adding too much "stuff" since
then... she is OK with having to start from scratch - just as long
as she can get her system running....

2) HP has not provided much "help" so far....

3) Not using a USB keyboard or mouse. Disconnected from all other
peripherals...

4) Cold boot completed several times... Also opened box and reseated
the memory, made sure cables all connected, etc.

Have just created some WinXP boot disks from the Microsoft site and am
trying to reinstall... Will post success/failure...

Good luck & do post back. Like I said, if you can't get into the BIOS,
something is wrong on the hardware side. You can disconnect your floppy, CD,
and hard drives and still get into the BIOS on a functional computer. Does
the box beep when you boot up?