HP All-In-One passes HP Diagnostics but wiil not start

gregrocker said:

Can you arrow down to select the Legacy DVD and then HD, select enter, then drag each to the very top as the tutorial implies you can do? This may be why HD is not booting because it's attempting UEFI HD boot since that is higher in the priority list.

I've done a bad job of explaining this.... In the BIOS under boot order there are two separate sets. One is UEFI Boot Sources. The other is Legacy Boot Sources. The 'select and drag' feature is only for items within each set. I can set any of the 3 boot items (CD, Floppy or HDD) to first, second or third, but only from within that source. Apparently the computer itself determines the nature of the boot media. A 64 bit W7 disk boots as a UEFI CD/DVD. A 32 bit W7 disk boots as a Legacy CD/DVD. I can tell this by entering the BIOS while the disk is in the optical drive. There'll be an arrow in the boot order item it's currently using.

gregrocker said:

I would also disable Floppy if not remove it from the PC as this alone can cause a PC not to boot or function correctly.

I have disabled each item labeled USB Floppy/CD. I gather from you that these entries are only referring to floppies? But I am baffled by the phrase USB Floppy/CD. Why would it have the terms USB and CD if it's only a floppy? And didn't they stop putting floppy drives in computers more than 10 years ago? This All-in-one is only about 3, maybe 4 years old. I assumed that USB Floppy/CD had something to do with booting from a USB flash drive, an option that was much more in use when this computer was assembled than booting from floppies. But I dunno....

gregrocker said:

At this point I think there's still the chance you are missing a setting elsewhere in BIOS that enables/disables Legacy. But it could be as simple as a bad installer not able to boot either as UEFI or Legacy when trying both.

I have asked for more help on this. There may be others who know these older All-In-Ones and the type of hybrid early UEFI they had.

If Windows 7 x64 is installed in UEFI mode, "Windows Boot Manager " should be first boot device.

Thanks for the reply, but what exactly do I do with this vis-à-vis the information I've provided about the Startup Menu, the BIOS, etc.? To paraphrase Dylan, 'My existence led by confusion boots...'

I'm just going to create the bootable flash drive and give it a try. Of course I have no clue about the boot settings for this process...

Use the tool provided to write to stick from Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7,
then boot the stick using the HP ESC key Boot Menu under USB, Removable or HD's.

Once again I can't seem to connect the dots....
As you know from these posts I already have Windows 7 Home Premium disks. I downloaded & installed the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool and popped the 64 bit Windows 7 SP1 disk into the tray. Of course it wanted to run the disk, so I canceled that, and clicked the tool on my desktop. I got the step 1 of 4 where it wants me to browse to my iso file. I hit the browse button and navigated to my DVD RW Drive (D:), assuming that all I'd have to do would be select the drive. Instead it opens folders on the D: drive - boot, efi, sources, support and upgrade. All of those folders have folders.

What am I doing wrong, now? I thought I saw several references to being able to create this bootable flash stick by having a Windows 7 SP1 disk.

boweasel said:

Once again I can't seem to connect the dots....
As you know from these posts I already have Windows 7 Home Premium disks. I downloaded & installed the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool and popped the 64 bit Windows 7 SP1 disk into the tray. Of course it wanted to run the disk, so I canceled that, and clicked the tool on my desktop. I got the step 1 of 4 where it wants me to browse to my iso file. I hit the browse button and navigated to my DVD RW Drive (D:), assuming that all I'd have to do would be select the drive. Instead it opens folders on the D: drive - boot, efi, sources, support and upgrade. All of those folders have folders.

What am I doing wrong, now? I thought I saw several references to being able to create this bootable flash stick by having a Windows 7 SP1 disk.

You can either download an ISO from here,

Windows 7 Direct Download Links, Official Disk Images from Digital River

To continue with the windows 7 usb tool.

Or, you can try option two of this tutorial which shows how to use what's on your disc,

USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create

I genuinely thought that an existing OS DVD was an iso file. You don't extract it, you just burn it and I assumed that the burning process did not alter the file - that it was still an iso file, just burnt to a disk. Oh well...

So I'm about halfway through the download of the 64 bit version of W7HP. Will post back after the bootable USB stick is created.

Repeatedly in this thread I have suggested you try another installer, either DVD or flash stick, from Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

The very first step provides the latest official ISO file for your licensed version. The next step provides the tool to burn it to DVD or write to flash stick. I also repeatedly referred to burning or Writing it with that tool.

If you had any questions you only needed to ask. But it specfies all of this quite clearly in the tutorial.

I created a DVD from the iso file I downloaded, booted the machine. hit escape, went into the BIOS, re-enabled UEFI CD/DVD device, saved the settings and exited. Same ol', same ol'. Hits the starting windows screen and freezes.

The one thing I don't believe I've mentioned is the keyboard. The USB keyboard I'm using has an F-Lock key in the upper left corner. If I want to use any of the function keys before the system completes booting I have to press that key, which also turns on a little idiot light on the keyboard. The point is, that no matter what disk I'm booting from, a Kaspersky Rescue Disk, Bit Defender, Spotmau BootSuite to any of the W7 disks I have (including the one I just created), after it freezes the idiot light on the keyboard goes out.

I also booted from the bootable flash drive I created. Same thing. I also noticed that while it's displaying Windows is loading files, the flash stick is lit up and sometimes blinking. It remains lit until about 4 seconds after the Starting Windows screen appears. Then the flash stick goes dark. Same behavior as the lighting on the keyboard.