What happened?

S.T.A.R.S.

S.T.A.R.S.

banned
Just do the HDD format as I explained before and then install Windows XP from the USB stick.If you dont know how to put XP on the USB stick so you can install them from it,tell me and through the Team Viewer on some other computer I can do it for you.
 
N

Novice2000

New Member
S.T.A.R.S. said:
2. On some other computer with the HP USB disk storage format tool 2.1.8 format your USB stick completely using the FAT32 file system and put the Windows 98 system files on it and click START to start the format and copying DOS files process...
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What do you mean by the Windows 98 system files? Do you mean to find a Windows 98 installation cd and copy all the files on it onto the flashdrive?

As for the usb disk storage format tool 2.1.8, do I download that off the internet somewhere? Should I google it to find it?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Novice2000 said:
He tried that, it didn't do any good. It flashed successfully, but that didn't make a difference. He even did it twice, both times successfully. Still didn't do any good.
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Then it sounds like he'll have to send it in to get repaired.

S.T.A.R.S. said:
Just do the HDD format as I explained before and then install Windows XP from the USB stick.If you dont know how to put XP on the USB stick so you can install them from it,tell me and through the Team Viewer on some other computer I can do it for you.
Click to expand...

It's not gonna matter if the bios is shot, it won't boot up later anyway.
 
N

Novice2000

New Member
S.T.A.R.S. said:
Just do the HDD format as I explained before and then install Windows XP from the USB stick.If you dont know how to put XP on the USB stick so you can install them from it,tell me and through the Team Viewer on some other computer I can do it for you.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't know how to put XP on the usb stick. Should I just open the XP installation cd and copy and paste all the files on it onto the usb?
 
N

Novice2000

New Member
johnb35 said:
Agreed. Try taking the hard drive out of the laptop and boot up and see what happens. If it goes farther than what it has, then you have a faulty hard drive. Another option would be to download the drive makers disk diagnostic utility and put the hard drive in another system to test it.
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If the hd is bad, then why won't it boot off the cd either? And why won't it go into the bios setup of bootmenu unless my flashdrive, with the bios flash file on it, is plugged into it? I wouldn't think a bad hd would have anything to do with these problems.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Well, If i had to put money on it, I would say the bios is bad. See if its possible to put the old bios back on, do you remember what version was on there? You can't downgrade the bios on some models however.
 
N

Novice2000

New Member
johnb35 said:
Well, If i had to put money on it, I would say the bios is bad. See if its possible to put the old bios back on, do you remember what version was on there? You can't downgrade the bios on some models however.
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It was a brand new computer with Vista. He was trying to put XP on it because he doesn't like Vista. Being brand new, I'm assuming that the bios he got off of HPs website to put on it was the same exact one that was already on there. I can't see a newer version coming out that fast.
 
N

Novice2000

New Member
johnb35 said:
What is the model number of the laptop? Why was the bios updated to begin with?
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Because when everything was going fine and the XP installation was formating the hd, he decided to shut down the computer in the middle of the format because he didn't want to wait for it, and wanted to start over and do a quick format. That's when it wouldn't boot, off the hd or off the cd. It wouldn't even go into the bios setup or the boot menu. That's when he knew something had to be wrong with the bios.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
All I can tell you is that any abrupt cutoff of power while the computer is on can be destructive, anything can be damaged that way.
 
N

Novice2000

New Member
You know what? There is something I forgot to mention. Flashing the bios might not of been successful. There were 3 options to flash it. Update, Restore, and I forget what the 3rd option was, I think it was Backup. We first tried the Restore option, but we kept getting an error message that said something about how the bios can't read the disk, or something, although it wasn't a disk, but rather a flashdrive. We ended up doing the Update, which we figured would also replace the old bios, but it probably didn't.
 
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