Ok, heres the situation (since HP support couldent figure it out), I got a new HP Pavillian dv2035us Laptop with Windows XP Home Edition for my birthday in mid september for my first year of collage. it worked great for about a week at which point it had some issues with the backlight. i quickly got it replaced under store warrenty for the exact same model, but it made me sceptical of these machines none the less.
Like my first laptop, this one worked great... for about a week, when i ran into a second problem... when attempting to start up it began searching the hard drive for the OS and just stoped (the blinking bar... for about 5 minutes). i restarted my laptop and quickly got hit with the message "MBR ERROR" at this same screen. after doing some reaserch from my desktop, i learned it was the Master Boot Record that was corrupted or damaged some how, and that useing the recovery disks would solve my problem (while unfortunatly destorying all my work up to this point... oh well).
and again for another week, everything was fine. But then, every once in a while, my computer would stop (just as it did before the recovery). But rather than useing the disks again, i waited a couple hours, and somehow it booted without a problem, and from there on out, it continued to inconsistantly have boot errors (giveing me the MBR ERROR message every once in a while), it was frstrateing, but it almost seemed to have a patern (if i tried booting it early in the morning, it was more likely to boot later, and by watching the drive activity light, i could tell if it was going to load the OS or not)(also, i should note that Safe Mode for some reason has never worked on my computer).
Later the next week i contacted HP support (a phone began ringing in india) and tried to give the lady my problem and circumstances. she asked a lot of obvious questions and then performed that new "we can access your computer to solve your problem" trick that they've been advertiseing (i know, i dont like the idea either, its called a personal computer for a reason). she deleted my temperary internet files and most cookies and changed a couple settings (i probably should have been paying attention). and again, it worked for another week.
now we come to today, this morning it was going strong, no problems what so ever (i was convinced she actually fixed my problem). but then this afternoon, i go to turn it on, and it was my nightmare all over again "MBR ERROR." unlike most other times, my computer still refuses to work. (it was in hybernate, which i commonly put it in, both when it worked and when it was having the problems).
I have been told to recover it again, but i am convinced that wont help, mostly because ive already tried that with no lasting success, plus i have some important files that i havent yet had a chance to back up.
to better discribe the boot erorrs:
heres a list of posible scenarios
-freezes at HP logo
-sits at "the blinking bar"
-starts loading windows xp home edition and sits there
-goes to a prompt "safe mode or normal" (safe mode doesnt work, shows commands and freezes)(selecting normal leads to one of the others or potentialy successful loading)
-begins resumeing windows (after hybernate) but freezes at different points (never finishes)
-shows MBR ERORR
there are others, but those are the most common. All of this has been very inconsistant and completely random, sometimes starting up right away, and sometimes taking hours of trying to get it to boot successfully.
Also, when i go to the setup menu fron the HP screen and try to run Hard Drive self test (as suggested) it gives an error message that says "Diagnostics not supported" and does nothing.
ive tried everything i could think of (yes, i took the battery out and waited 10 seconds... and then an hour) and still have had no success.
I would really like some advise as to what this is and what (if anything) i can do about it. enevitably im gonna have to call HP again so they can fix this under warrenty, but i would like to ease my agony any way i can. this is driving me nuts, PLEASE HELP ME!!! (feel free to ask questions about my system configuration and potential contributing factors)
Thanks,
Matt
(sorry for any typos)
Like my first laptop, this one worked great... for about a week, when i ran into a second problem... when attempting to start up it began searching the hard drive for the OS and just stoped (the blinking bar... for about 5 minutes). i restarted my laptop and quickly got hit with the message "MBR ERROR" at this same screen. after doing some reaserch from my desktop, i learned it was the Master Boot Record that was corrupted or damaged some how, and that useing the recovery disks would solve my problem (while unfortunatly destorying all my work up to this point... oh well).
and again for another week, everything was fine. But then, every once in a while, my computer would stop (just as it did before the recovery). But rather than useing the disks again, i waited a couple hours, and somehow it booted without a problem, and from there on out, it continued to inconsistantly have boot errors (giveing me the MBR ERROR message every once in a while), it was frstrateing, but it almost seemed to have a patern (if i tried booting it early in the morning, it was more likely to boot later, and by watching the drive activity light, i could tell if it was going to load the OS or not)(also, i should note that Safe Mode for some reason has never worked on my computer).
Later the next week i contacted HP support (a phone began ringing in india) and tried to give the lady my problem and circumstances. she asked a lot of obvious questions and then performed that new "we can access your computer to solve your problem" trick that they've been advertiseing (i know, i dont like the idea either, its called a personal computer for a reason). she deleted my temperary internet files and most cookies and changed a couple settings (i probably should have been paying attention). and again, it worked for another week.
now we come to today, this morning it was going strong, no problems what so ever (i was convinced she actually fixed my problem). but then this afternoon, i go to turn it on, and it was my nightmare all over again "MBR ERROR." unlike most other times, my computer still refuses to work. (it was in hybernate, which i commonly put it in, both when it worked and when it was having the problems).
I have been told to recover it again, but i am convinced that wont help, mostly because ive already tried that with no lasting success, plus i have some important files that i havent yet had a chance to back up.
to better discribe the boot erorrs:
heres a list of posible scenarios
-freezes at HP logo
-sits at "the blinking bar"
-starts loading windows xp home edition and sits there
-goes to a prompt "safe mode or normal" (safe mode doesnt work, shows commands and freezes)(selecting normal leads to one of the others or potentialy successful loading)
-begins resumeing windows (after hybernate) but freezes at different points (never finishes)
-shows MBR ERORR
there are others, but those are the most common. All of this has been very inconsistant and completely random, sometimes starting up right away, and sometimes taking hours of trying to get it to boot successfully.
Also, when i go to the setup menu fron the HP screen and try to run Hard Drive self test (as suggested) it gives an error message that says "Diagnostics not supported" and does nothing.
ive tried everything i could think of (yes, i took the battery out and waited 10 seconds... and then an hour) and still have had no success.
I would really like some advise as to what this is and what (if anything) i can do about it. enevitably im gonna have to call HP again so they can fix this under warrenty, but i would like to ease my agony any way i can. this is driving me nuts, PLEASE HELP ME!!! (feel free to ask questions about my system configuration and potential contributing factors)
Thanks,
Matt
(sorry for any typos)
. Sorry to hear about your problems, also that's suposed to be a pretty good laptop. It might be a faulty Hard Drive
). anyway, the problem seems to occure before it even begins searching the hard drive for the OS, and the computer is completely silent, absolutely no activity... making me worry that it is the hardwear (which means lost files for sure)