reinstall vista home premium without cd

[lollerbongo]

My desktop(zoostorm)keeps shutting itself off, scans reveal no virus, after
running memory diagnostic windows will not load, I want to a full
reinstallation but I dont have a cd as it was pre-installed, i'm told to
click f8 repeatedly at start up but unsure where to go from there to restore
the factory settings, something about advanced boot, command prompt, repair
restore etc, I have my license key(product key), a step by step walk through
would be appreciated greatly, it is a 32 bit vista running vista home premium.

 

[Malke]

My desktop(zoostorm)keeps shutting itself off, scans reveal no virus,
after running memory diagnostic windows will not load, I want to a full
reinstallation but I dont have a cd as it was pre-installed, i'm told to
click f8 repeatedly at start up but unsure where to go from there to
restore the factory settings, something about advanced boot, command
prompt, repair restore etc, I have my license key(product key), a step by
step walk through would be appreciated greatly, it is a 32 bit vista
running vista home premium.

Since Windows came preinstalled and you apparently didn't make physical
recovery disks, contact the computer mftr. to get replacement recovery
disks. You'll be contacting them anyway because what you're describing is
most probably caused by failing hardware, not software. Reinstalling
Windows onto faulty hardware is futile.

Here are some general hardware troubleshooting steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts with
known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of
BigComputerStore/GeekSquad). If possible, have all your data backed up
before you take the machine into a shop.

Malke

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

This does not sound like a software problem. It sounds like hardware. In
any case, F8 does not sound like the right key. F8 brings up the Advanced
Boot Options. On my wife's HP laptop the option to restore to factory
condition is the F11 key.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Even the updates may not be a big deal if Vista SP1 was preinstalled.

 

[Curious]

Since you received no recovery disks with the computer the computer probably
has a preinstalled recovery partition and the instructions that you have
that came with the computer will tell you how to use it to recovery they
also will tell you how to make a backup copy of the recovery partition so
you can recover if your HDD fails.

 

[Curious]

If you did not save the printed installation and recovery instruction that
came with your computer then you have to have to contact the Manufacturer's
support group to find out how to use the recovery or recovery partition that
is apparently on your system's original configuration to find out how to use
it.