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Question

HP won't boot...stuck on blue HP start screen. Help!

by Oct 16, 2012 5:08AM PDT

Hi!
I'm having a problem with my HP Pavilion a6667c PC...Its stuck on the blue screen, won't complete booting, and the F9 and other boot menu F#'s don't do anything.
I tried a few suggestions listed here and on another site without success (removing everything else, unplugging the card readers and letting the firmware reboot, etc.) So here are my questions:

#1 Does anyone know what else this could be? How can I get it past the booting stage??? If I can get it 'ON", I'm hoping to back up my files and just wipe it clean and run the recovery program to reset to factory settings...but I really need to back up my files first! Also, I don't have a recovery CD, which brings up the next question...

#2 I have another HP Pavilon in the house...both are windows vista, but the 2nd one is a HP Pavillion Elite e9107c. Can I make a recovery disc from this one and use it on my a6667c?

#3: If I do attempt a full recovery with rescue CD's, will the CD's start up amongst the stuck boot problem? What if the recovery is on a flash drive? Unfortunately, my other disc drive needs to be replaced due to a child knocking it out of alignment while it was 'out', so I'm really hoping the flash drive will work as well. Otherwise, I could order a replacement recovery disc...but not really worth all that trouble and expense if it won't even start up because the compute is stuck in "boot" mode.

Any other ideas??

Thank you

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Clarification Request
Did you double post?
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Oct 16, 2012 5:19AM PDT
http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6122_102-393305/computer-powers-on-but-won-t-boot/?messageId=5373774&tag=rb_content;forums06#message5373774

That's OK but if you do that, pick which to use for your discussion.

TO GET YOUR FILES OUT I suggest you put the drive from that PC in some USB case or cable like this example.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=2020

The answers to your questions may be.

1. Sounds like a dead hard drive. If you pull the HDD and put it on that case or cable, you will know more.

2. Almost never. However, HP may have Vista for download.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3832291 noted this shipped with Vista and as we read http://forums.cnet.com/7726-13974_102-5325452.html?tag=posts;msg5325452 you should ask HP if you can do the same.

3. No. For today you replace the 20 buck DVDRW drive before you use the recovery media that will wipe out whatever is on the current HDD and restore it to factory condition.

Bob

PS. Just a question. If your files are important, why are there no copies?
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PS. Why I noted the DVDRW is that cheap.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Oct 16, 2012 5:25AM PDT
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Answer
Re: no boot
by Former Forum moderator Oct 16, 2012 5:19AM PDT

1. Two options: (a) reinstall on a new hard disk. Then later get your files off the old disk, or (b) use Ubuntu (see #3) to copy the files to an external hard disk.

2. Recovery disc are model specific. So it might work not, or partially, or totally.

3. Based on what you tell, nobody can say if your PC will boot from a bootable disk or not. Only trying will tell. Burn a Ubuntu disk (see www.ubuntu.com, both for the iso-file and for instructions on how to burn it, preferably to a DVD - why I tried a CD it was too small) and what happens if you try to boot from that.

Kees

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