The clue here may be the restore CD failing. With good hardware, restore CDs would just fix the machine. Either that or add-ons since the machine was new can thwart the restore process.
What's not stock?
Bob
I am running a HP Pavillion XL 753 with Windows ME ( http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/document.jhtml?reg=&plc=&lc=en&cc=us&prodId=hppavilion22688&docName=bph05966&cat=prodinfo ). I recently won a Tungsten E Palm Pilot and tried to install it. In the middle of installation, it locked up and was idle for about 10 minutes- so I decided to do an emergency shut down. When the computer started up, it ran as usual but it looked like Win 95/Win 3.11 on the desktop. The mouse, which was plugged in the USB port in back, didn't work and the sound didn't work, it said to install a sound card which obviously I already had. I then went into the system device manager (right click My Computer on desktop, selct Properties and then the Device Manager tab) and I checked manually, every device listed and they all were "running properly" - even all four to the video/audio "devices". After that, I restarted the computer hoping maybe it would work as normal, but once again, it failed to work. I tried starting up the computer a third time, but this time with the first "system restore" cd and IT did not automatically start running. after booting and once again a failure- I checked the cd drive and it read the system recovery disk fine. After more and more failed attempts, I went to the HP support site and looked up my probelm ( http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/document.jhtml?reg=&plc=&lc=en&cc=us&prodId=hppavilion22688&docName=bph07140&cat=solve#N10073 ) I followed those steps- and STILL nothing! What can I do?

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