HP Pavilion system restore, need help

This is a very weird problem with an HP computer in my shop.

This HP is about a 2005 model, XP Media Center.

Something happened and the computer stopped booting up. I have tried to run a regular Windows XP CD for it's command line stuff. But, the computer insists that there is a corrupted file. This is on both my XP CDs I never have any problems with. "This happened on a different hard drive as well."

I can boot to DOS type utilities, and I was able to test the drive to a pass.

I cannot boot to the Ultimate Boot CD recovery console. I get a blue screen, telling me that three is a problem.

It's like the low level stuff works, but if it means booting into windows stuff, it's not going to do it.

If it were some machines, I would check the hard drive settings, and change them to "combination," but I can't find any such settings.

What on earth could have failed on the machine, if anything indeed has mechanically failed?

The restore CDs we just bought will not finish installation. It goes to a point where it says it's starting the recovery, the white bar loads, and that's it. It goes no further.

Of all the machines I've worked on, I'm not familiar with such a problem.

I don't think this thing will load Linux either. Now running CPU stress test.

Thanks folks,

Troy

I have an old HP Pavilion that BSOD'd me in the past. After many attempts to fix it, I wound up reformatting completely. If the xp discs and the ultim boot didn't work, I'd be tempted to flush it and reinstall.

I may not be of much help, but I figured I'd let you know you weren't alone. Is your an AMD? Mine is.

Remind me, was safe mode unaccessable too?

download the memtest .iso, make the cd and boot from it. test each chip(if you have more than one) separately I've seen a corrupt ram chip really screw stuff up.

MMD

Yeah, no safe mode.

But, I think I have found the problem. Failing memory!! I'm not used to being able to do anything when the memory is bad. At least one of these modules is trashed!

Troy

It seems so stupid now. I just tested the memory for the heck of it. That one stick of memory was toast.

What threw me off was the ability of the machine to load the low level stuff. It's restoring the OS now. I guess I have learned something. I could have been done, probably without having to restore the OS.

Troy

Thank you rokrep, just noticed your post.

Thanks everyone for your input. It just didn't occur to check the memory. I was thinking along the line of WTF, or some kind of proprietary mess, or something.

Troy

Check the caps on the motherboard also. If any are bulging or leaking it will very soon start having the similar symptoms.

I don't think this machine got too much use. I kind of doubt that there are any caps with problems. I do check for that kind of stuff though.

I just got off on the wrong trail on this thing. I thought it was something that it was not. The thing with my Windows XP disks getting the message that there was a corrupt file threw me off too. I mean, it loaded up to around the point where you can repair, or re-install Windows. The problem was very easy to find, I just never thought to test the memory. I could have handled the problem within a short amount of time, instead of multiple trips, and that's what frustrates me sometimes. I feel like I should have found it without wasting a lot of hours. It creates a problem as to what I'm going to charge the guy.

Thanks folks for being there to help. I appreciate it!

Troy

This thing turned into a little chore. After installing Service Pack 3, I was not happy to see the machine go into an endless boot reboot. But, that was fixed. Something with the power management, and a patch that was supposed to be applied before you install Service Pack 3. I can't figure out why the patch wasn't in Microsoft's regular updates, it was on the HP site.

Troy

Originally posted by cybertroy
I can't figure out why the patch wasn't in Microsoft's regular updates, it was on the HP site.

Troy

it's because Satan actually makes HP computers and he likes to punish HP users.
If you are old/unlucky enough to remember Packard Bell computers, then you would understand how this all happened. (Satan used to own Packard Bell, but was bought out by HP)

I am glad it was just ram. Cheap and easy to fix.