Hewlett Packard - Compaq Pavilion a305w

[donaldelee]

A friend of mine has several window problems with her computer. It does not recognize the D drive. It does not shut down right, i.e., it starts to shut down, and goes back to shutting down between different screens. She said that she does not have a CD to reinstall it. That she never did have. She bought it new! She said that it never did play anything with the CD. It has a Sony CD/RW drive.
It has a Recovery in the computer. It is HP Recovery D.
1.) Is the CD recovery in the Recovery D? ? ?
2.) How would she boot into the Recovery D to have it to reinstall.
3.) It is a Windows XP home edition 2002.


Thanks!

[fonger]

i think the HP has a partition drive with it's original software.
you can always return the PC to original state.. i did it once and can't remember if it was from the bios or just from clicking the partioned drive...?
sorry.

you can just reinstall winxp from scratch if worse comes to worse
:)

[ru_knuts]

Go into the BIOS, you need to change the boot sequence to HP recovery, go to exit, when it ask, click "save settings and exit". The computer will be restored to it's virgin state. IE you lose eveything on the computer that was added after purchase. Did he/she buy the pc new? If yes, I suspect the cd rom is not plugged in (inside the case), if bought used, it probably has a dirty eye, or just plain worn out. Take the case cover off and inspect.

[santana007]

A friend of mine has several window problems with her computer. It does not recognize the D drive. It does not shut down right, i.e., it starts to shut down, and goes back to shutting down between different screens. She said that she does not have a CD to reinstall it. That she never did have. She bought it new! She said that it never did play anything with the CD. It has a Sony CD/RW drive.
It has a Recovery in the computer. It is HP Recovery D.
1.) Is the CD recovery in the Recovery D? ? ?
2.) How would she boot into the Recovery D to have it to reinstall.
3.) It is a Windows XP home edition 2002.


Thanks!

Hello Don. You haven't given up on Ubuntu, have you?:tehe:
To use the Recovery Partition (not the same as System Restore or a Restore Point) follow this link to the HP Support site:


http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph07145&tmp_task=solveCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=ca&product=362754&lang=en

Hoping you had a pleasant holiday and wishing you well in this new year.
Canada lost to the Russians 5 to 3 last night in Buffalo.:hockey::cry::comfort:

[donaldelee]

Hello Don. You haven't given up on Ubuntu, have you?:tehe:
To use the Recovery Partition (not the same as System Restore or a Restore Point) follow this link to the HP Support site:


http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph07145&tmp_task=solveCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=ca&product=362754&lang=en

Hoping you had a pleasant holiday and wishing you well in this new year.
Canada lost to the Russians 5 to 3 last night in Buffalo.:hockey::cry::comfort:

Absolutely not! I love Ubuntu! This is for a friend of mine. I have Ubuntu 10 10 10 on several of my computers [thanks to you]. We had a wonderful holiday season. Hoping you, and your family did also.
Santana, I am going to her house in a short time. I will use the information that you provided.
Thanks!

[donaldelee]

Today I spent quite awhile attempting to reinstall the Windows XP Home Edition through the Recovery. I chose to do the Destructive Recovery. This was to reinstall everything back to factory, and to reformat the hard drive. I was wanting to do this to see if the D drive would begin to work. She [my friend] said that the D drive never did work. The program indicated that it would install, and then it got to the Welcome screen, and said To Continue click NEXT. There is no NEXT that appears.
A friend said he thought it was a memory issue. The memory indicated that it was low prior to my attempting to reinstall the program through the Recovery process. I believe that it is a memory issue. I believed if I could get the program to reinstall that the memory issue would go away. She has installed about sixty games, and I removed several tool bars that she installed through the install of all the stupid games. The Windows XP Home Edition has 512 MB memory.
She just called, and said that she has found the package which include the CDs', the Windows XP Home Edition, and a Recovery disk. The CD player still does not work! I believe I will put another stick of memory in it. When it goes to the Windows screen prior to the Welcome screen the hour glass is there for several minutes??? I may have to put a CD player in it?
Thanks in advance!

[81infla]

most of problem is with the 512 mb memory. and with the installation of the 60 games, i also suspect that it is full of spyware, and possible a virus. too much stuff running in the background uses up the cpu, and its causing it to hang.

[santana007]

Today I spent quite awhile attempting to reinstall the Windows XP Home Edition through the Recovery. I chose to do the Destructive Recovery. This was to reinstall everything back to factory, and to reformat the hard drive. I was wanting to do this to see if the D drive would begin to work. She [my friend] said that the D drive never did work. The program indicated that it would install, and then it got to the Welcome screen, and said To Continue click NEXT. There is no NEXT that appears.
A friend said he thought it was a memory issue. The memory indicated that it was low prior to my attempting to reinstall the program through the Recovery process. I believe that it is a memory issue. I believed if I could get the program to reinstall that the memory issue would go away. She has installed about sixty games, and I removed several tool bars that she installed through the install of all the stupid games. The Windows XP Home Edition has 512 MB memory.
She just called, and said that she has found the package which include the CDs', the Windows XP Home Edition, and a Recovery disk. The CD player still does not work! I believe I will put another stick of memory in it. When it goes to the Windows screen prior to the Welcome screen the hour glass is there for several minutes??? I may have to put a CD player in it?
Thanks in advance!

I think your CD/DVD drive is defective. Installing more ram isn't going to help. In My Computer, your hard drive partitions should show up as C: and D:. The optical drive should show up as E: I have an older laptop and it does the same thing as you are describing.
If the CD/DVD drive is not visible in My Computer, then I would buy another drive. Pay attention to the interface. It probably is IDE. All the modern stuff is now SATA. Why not try booting with a Linux Live CD to see what happens. Make sure the BIOS is set to boot from the CD drive first.

You are, after all, an Ubuntu expert !!!:thumbsup::yeaah::dancing_peng:

[donaldelee]

No! I'm not! You are the Ubuntu expert! :yeaah:
This morning I had a brain storm! I reread [proof read] the instructions. Under the instructions: Recovering from Windows XP
2. "Disconnect all connected devices (such as the Personal Media Drive, USB drives, printer, and fax), remove media from drives, and remove any recently added internal hardware. Do not disconnect the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and power cord."

She had installed a laser mouse which installs in the back of the tower via a USB. I believe if she unplugs the USB, and plugs in an old type mouse in the old plug at the top of the tower like it came out of the factory it will go ahead, and provide a link for the mouse to click on NEXT.
Santana, you have created a baby monster! I love Ubuntu! The wife gets on my computer anymore, and always wants me to boot into Ubuntu. She is not afraid of getting all of the unwanted Malware, Spyware, and what ever.

[donaldelee]

After working again all day on my friends Hewlett Packard, and attempting to get the program to install through performing a destructive recovery, I took a Hewlett Packard mouse there, and installed it in the top with the older type plug. It began to install until it got to the second screen, the one asking if the sound was working, and after awhile the sound did begin to work. With the other type of USB plug for the mouse it did not make it to the second screen. Then, it simply would not go to the next screen to install the program.
Obviously, I am going to have to put a CD player in it to get the program to install. From day one the new Hewlett Packard would not play a CD. She did not care if her computer would play a CD or not! ! ! It is now approximately eight years old, and she has to have the CD player to install the program. Obviously, the Recovery is corrupt! It won't install!
Therefore, I have a old CD player out of an old emachine I will see if it will install in the Hewlett Packard? It is an old CD-RW Drive Model LTR-48246S Lite-on it Corp. All of the old cables are still in the old emachine [the one I'm using with Ubuntu 10 10 10]. I believe the cables in her Hewlett Packard will hook up allright?
Thanks!

[donaldelee]

Santana was right! The CD player was defective! I took an old emachine CD player down to my friends' house, and installed it, and then, after several hours, I was able to get it to install. After some time I had to delete the recovery drive, and reformat the hard drive. Then, for the longest time, I could not get the task bar to show. Finally, I had to hit the windows log, and the start menu showed up, and I downloaded the Microsoft updates, and it went ahead, and installed.
Thanks!