HP Laptop ill Not Boot

B

bill of oz

Member
i have an older HP laptop with windows xp on it, everything has always worked fine until yesterday....i have tried to boot the computer probably 30-40 times now and i keep getting the same result, and here it is.....

the computer boots up to the black screen with white writing that says "windows did not start successfully, blah blah blah...."

and gives you the choices of safe mode, safe mode with networking, etc etc.....i wont list them all because im sure you all know what im talking about....

i can scroll up and down to select an option, but when i press enter to select the option the computer freezes up and does nothing, i can no longer use the arrow keys to move up and down, it just freezes, it doesnt matter which option i select, i get the same result,

i would consider myself intermediate to advanced but not an expert with computers, not sure what to do or try next??????
 
Can almost guarantee its a bad hard drive. Find out what brand and model of drive it is and let us know.
 
johnb35 said:
Can almost guarantee its a bad hard drive. Find out what brand and model of drive it is and let us know.
Click to expand...

thanks, i will get that info when i get home,

since i posted i have been reading a bit online that it could be a virus,

how likely would that be?
 
johnb35 said:
http://www.computerforum.com/211596-list-hard-drive-diagnostic-utilities-test-your-drive.html

Follow the guide there to test the toshiba drive. Toshiba drives are highly unreliable. For some reason there are some toshiba drives that don't get detected by toshiba's software.

You may also want to try hitachi's drive fitness test. Seems some have gotten it to work with toshiba drives.
Click to expand...


thanks for the info....but how do i use this file if i cant even get the computer to boot?....im a bit confused as to what to do :confused:
 
bill of oz said:
thanks for the info....but how do i use this file if i cant even get the computer to boot?....im a bit confused as to what to do :confused:
Click to expand...

You download it on another computer and burn it to a CD. Then place the CD in the defective computer and boot to the CD.
 
You can attach the drive to a working system and use the windows version of the utility to test the drive. Or use the dos version and create a bootable cd. Another option would be to download and create a hirens boot cd. It has all the manufacturers drive diagnostic programs on it already.

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
 
johnb35 said:
You can attach the drive to a working system and use the windows version of the utility to test the drive. Or use the dos version and create a bootable cd. Another option would be to download and create a hirens boot cd. It has all the manufacturers drive diagnostic programs on it already.

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
Click to expand...

i downloaded the zip file for the hirens boot cd,

now what do i do?

do i just need to unzip the file then copy all the files onto a CD and boot with that CD?
 
When you unzip it, it will be an ISO file. Which you just can't copy the file to a cd. You must use software that will work with ISO files that will actually write the image to a cd. Then you boot to the cd. Windows 7 has the ability to do this built in. Just double click on the iso file and the process will start. Just follow the prompts. If not running windows 7 then use a program such as IMGburn to write the image to cd.

http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download
 
thanks so much for your help.....

so here is what i did.....

i unzipped the file to a USB stick, so on the USB stick all i have is the ISO file,

i plugged the USB stick into a computer with windows 7, i right clicked on the ISO file and selected "extract files", i chose the destination as a blank formatted CD,

it extracted all the files and copied them to the CD successfully,

i took the CD and put it in the broken laptop, turned it on and it will not boot from the CD, it still goes to the hard drive,

the CD is first in the boot order,

i have even disable the hard drive from the boot order and it still will not boot from the CD :(
 
You can't extract the files to a cd. You need to use burning software that will write the image to cd.
 
thanks for all the info,

my cd burner is acting up and i cant seem to use it, instead i have followed the directions in this video to make a bootable USB drive.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnRjxHKN6p4

i did what is in the video exactly and successfully,

i then went into my BIOS and made my USB drive the first in the boot order,

now when i boot the laptop from the USB drive/stick i get the following messege in the picture attached......
 

Attachments

  • lap.jpg
    lap.jpg
    39.9 KB · Views: 16
Looks like it wasn't created successfully. Can't you burn a cd on a different computer somewhere?
 
johnb35 said:
Looks like it wasn't created successfully. Can't you burn a cd on a different computer somewhere?
Click to expand...

i tried making the USB drive/stick 4 times, and all 4 times i get the exact same error messege,

i just used a friends computer to burn the hirens iso using the CDBurnerXP software which seemed to work fine,

i put the CD first in my boot order, i put the cd into the laptop and re-booted it,

i can hear the CD drive turning for about the first 60 seconds like its trying to boot (black screen), after about 60 seconds it then tries to boot from the hard drive,

i am stumped :confused:
 
johnb35 said:
Then you may have to put the laptop hard drive into another system to test it.
Click to expand...

i just tried booting my working desktop computer with the hirens CD and it wont boot either, it keeps trying to boot, then it starts over again, like every 30 seconds or so,
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top