HP Problems

[ComputerJoe22]

I have a win 7-64bit maching that was but is not now booting. I can pull the hard drive and read it with an external USB adapter on another PC. Have run the Malwarebytes and Superantispyware against it as an external drive.

To get to what I believe to be the crux of the problem which is drivers. I boot to the win7 DVD and no operating system is found when I go to the repair option...no C drive when I go to command prompt, and no DVD (D) drive! Hell I just got done booting from the D drive but now I only have a RAM (X) drive, I went to HP to download drivers and the SATA driver thay have is a EXE file meant to install on a up and running windows. Where do I head from here to get the C drive recognized after booting from the Win7 DVD. Then I can use tools like BootSect to try and fix things but right now I'm stumped.

 

[mgp1964]

If you can read the drive then back up all your data, once you have that done try to repair the MBR, if that does not work you may have to do a fresh Windows install.

 

[ComputerJoe22]

since bootsect is not copied to the RAM disk (X) and the CD drive or the hard drive is not accessible after booting from the system DVD I might not have any options here. It seems that one could use the "load Drivers" option to gain access to the CD drive and the Hard Drive as well since they are both SATA.

I have already backed up the drive but, as you know, there is a lot of time reloading all programs and copying the data back. I really want to get my arms around the core problem here.

 

[mgp1964]

Is this a laptop or desktop machine?
Did the machine have Norton AV on it?

 

[Golden]

Hi Joe,

Can you see the volume in DISKPART? Try this:

1. Boot from the Windows installation disk as if you were going to do a fresh install.
2. At the Language and Keyboard layout screen, hold SHIFT and press F10
3. A CMD window will open with the prompt X:\Sources
4. Type diskpart and hit enter
5. Type list volume and hit enter

What is shown? can you post a screen capture of what is shown? To exit DISKPART, type exit and hit enter.

Regards,
Golden

 

[ComputerJoe22]

Hi Joe,

Can you see the volume in DISKPART? Try this:

1. Boot from the Windows installation disk as if you were going to do a fresh install.
2. At the Language and Keyboard layout screen, hold SHIFT and press F10
3. A CMD window will open with the prompt X:\Sources
4. Type diskpart and hit enter
5. Type list volume and hit enter

What is shown? can you post a screen capture of what is shown? To exit DISKPART, type exit and hit enter.

Regards,
Golden

Hmmm...didn't know that one. I still don't think diskpart is copied to (X) but I will check in the AM. The unit is a desktop don't know if Norton's was installed. Will hook it up to my secure computer and check the desktop folder out tomorrow.

Thanks

 

[Golden]

Hi Joe,

DISKPART is an executable readily available on the Windows installation disk, so you definately have access to it. Let us know how you get on with that.

Regards,
Golden

 

[ComputerJoe22]

You missed it on my OP. When done booting from my widows installation disk, at the X command prompt, I only have access to the (X) drove. The DVD (D), and hard drive (C) are not available! Even though I boot from the DVD drive, after getting to the X prompt there is no D.

I hope I made it clear.

 

[Golden]

Hi Joe,

You do not need to change drive letters in order to run diskpart.

At the X:\Source prompt, simply type diskpart and hit enter. Then follow up as per the other instructions. This will show us what volumes are available, and we can troubleshoot from there.

Regards,
Golden

 

[ComputerJoe22]

OH HELL! I'M BACK AT IT AGAIN.
This stupid 9 month old HP SUCKS!
Model p6329f (AMD)
Win7 64 bit, 8 gig RAM, Bios 5.14 for what its worth.
It only has SATA drives (DVD & HDD)

If I pull the HDD and chkdsk it on a seperate machine I can get the press ESC boot menu up and the System DVD to boot one time when I put the HDD back. But then the System Recovery Options screen shows no operating systems and even from a command prompt I can not see the C drive. Am going to try DiskPart again but if I remember right even that did not show a partition. Then HOW could I read the drive on another PC using a USB/SATA adapter? This is why I think I need a driver for the newish SATA buss on this machine.

Rebooting after this I press ESC to get boot menu on startup but "Insert boot media in selected boot device" pops up without even asking me what device I wish to boot from! Second time thru a boot I press F10 for the setup utility and it hangs for 4 minutes before showing me the CMOS. Setup dosen't show me that the DVD or Hard drive is even recognized at the hardware level. Yet I can chkdsk the dam thing in another PC! and have copied the files.

About ready to flush this toilet and remove partitions on another PC then reload the OS...I just hope it will boot to a DVD with a blank hard drive.

I AM BEGINING TO DISLIKE HP COMPUTERS!

 

[Golden]

Correct (although strictly speaking I guess its loaded to RAM, as opposed to a physical disk). Symantics aside though, run that and lets see what it finds.

Regards,
Golden

 

[theog]

Will the HD Drive show in BIOS?

 

[ComputerJoe22]

Will the HD Drive show in BIOS?

Please see my extensive edit above.

 

[ComputerJoe22]

Well, after doing a chkdsk on an other PC and then booting this HP to the CMOS setup it recognizes BOTH the DVD and harddrive. I will come back and edit this post shortly.

Gaaaahhh....
After leaving the CMOS it hung before even trying to boot. So I F10ed into the CMOS again and now it shows no HDD or DVD!

Doing another out-of-body chkdsk. I might have fibbed, the HDD LED was blinking up a storm.

 

[ComputerJoe22]

Now I've tried two other hard drives I took oot of other computers and this stupid computer will not get by it's pre boot screen, ie. the press F10 for setup, F11 for recovery, ESC for boot menu

this HP is crap...thinking a bios update...gee, how will I do that. I cant boot to a DVD RELIABLY.

Aint this fun?

 

[mgp1964]

Sounds like the MB is bad, not any thing new for a HP laptop, I guess I can't complain about HP products as they do keep me busy since I am a certified HP tech

 

[ComputerJoe22]

Sounds like the MB is bad, not any thing new for a HP laptop, I guess I can't complain about HP products as they do keep my busy since I am a certified HP tech

It's a desktop. Gonna try removing partitions on one of them and see if windows will reload. This unit is less than a year old. What is the warranty Mr HP tech?

 

[mgp1964]

1 year in home support and 24x7 phone support.
Check your warranty status here: HP Product Warranty Check - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

 

[mgp1964]

I see that you say you have a p6329f, I am not aware of this model for the US, the p6329de which I believe was sold in Germany and the p6320f would be the US version.

Have you added anything to the system since you have had it?

First thing to do is look at the MB for any leaking or buldging capacitors on the MB.
Link to pics of leaking caps: Capacitor plague - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If there are no leaking caps then remove all the ram and then power on the system (note: disconnect the AC power and hit the case power button a couple of times before removing/ installing ram to discharge the capacitors otherwise damage to the ram may occur), you should get a quick series of beeps, this will indicate the BIOs and CPU are good. Now place one stick of ram in and try booting up (try all sticks one at a time), if you can now boot up then you have either a memory module that is bad or a possible bad memory slot.

Post back with the results and we can go from there.

 

[Golden]

What did DISKPART list volume show?