PC won't even boot up- guestolo around?

[mickapoo]

It looks like this forum is a ghost town! Well, I'm posting anyway, hoping to find Guestolo who helped me so generously in the past. My HP notebook is not booting up. When it turns on I get only a blinking cursor. I'm at a loss what to do. Thanks guestolo if you're around!!

[guestolo]

I'm around when I can.. I won't be back home till tomorrow. Can you wait a couple days?

[mickapoo]

[quote name='guestolo' timestamp='1351127119' post='481637']
I'm around when I can.. I won't be back home till tomorrow. Can you wait a couple days?
[/quote]

Thank you so much for responding! I've been on the phone with HP and Microsoft throughout the day. They weren't able to help. We have tried booting in safe mode and then restoring to an earlier date, neither of which worked. Then they had me try to insert the Windows 7 CD and do a new install on a different partition, but that failed also. No error message, it just gets to the part where it restarts and the HP logo just keeps flashing on the screen.

If I try to just boot up, all I get is the HP logo briefly flashing and then the cursor just blinks on the black screen. It doesn't get past that point. This happened last night and I didn't install anything recently.

Any help you can give is greatly appreciated!

[guestolo]

Are you able to boot the computer with a linux distro? Have you done this before?

[mickapoo]

[quote name='guestolo' timestamp='1351206533' post='481643']
Are you able to boot the computer with a linux distro? Have you done this before?
[/quote]

No, I'm not familiar with that.

[guestolo]

Let's see if you can boot this laptop with a linux distro
Try a smaller downloadable version of Puppy linux
You can download the ISO file from this link
http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%20Latest%20Release.htm

The download links are on the page as of
Download precise-5.4.iso here or there, size = 157.5 MB

Save the .iso image to your desktop and then burn it to CD-r as an Image file
Make sure to burn as an Image file, and not just Data
Try booting the computer with it... Will it boot?

[mickapoo]

[quote name='guestolo' timestamp='1351208595' post='481645']
Let's see if you can boot this laptop with a linux distro
Try a smaller downloadable version of Puppy linux
You can download the ISO file from this link
http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%20Latest%20Release.htm

The download links are on the page as of
Download precise-5.4.iso here or there, size = 157.5 MB

Save the .iso image to your desktop and then burn it to CD-r as an Image file
Make sure to burn as an Image file, and not just Data
Try booting the computer with it... Will it boot?
[/quote]

Thank you so much, am d/l'ing the iso file right now. I'll use Free ISO Burner.

[mickapoo]

The Linux disk worked! I am on the Precise Puppy desktop and there is a Quick Set Up screen.

[guestolo]

Are you able to save any of your important documents
You will have to manually do this
If you have an External USB flashdrive you can backup important files/folders too
Plug it into your computer

Mostly everything you need to do will just involve single clicking
Open sdc1 or similiar by single clicking on it>>I assume that is your external USB drive, leave this window open

Hover over the bottom left drives, check to see which you have your files on
You can tell by the size of the disk when you hover over it
Your C: drive may be indicated by eg... sda1 or sda2
sda1 may be your recovery partition, look for your C: partition with all your files you want to backup

[mickapoo]

The strange thing is when I view the contents of my harddrive (sda3), and then I click "users", I don't see my name listed, which is where I keep all of my files. I tried opening the other folders within the Users directory, like Administrator, All Users, Default, Public, but they are all empty.

[guestolo]

Are you sure your looking in the right partition, it may be sda2

[mickapoo]

[quote name='guestolo' timestamp='1351222535' post='481651']
Are you sure your looking in the right partition, it may be sda2
[/quote]

I knew you were going to say that! http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' /> Yes, the other one has only 1 or 2 directories in it and the size is very small. That's definitely not it.

[guestolo]

Still sounds like your opening the wrong partition
Those other profiles shouldn't be empty....
When you guys tried installing another copy of Windows 7, what happened...
That seems like the copy your seeing

In Puppy, what partitions do you see?

[mickapoo]

[quote name='guestolo' timestamp='1351253080' post='481657']
Still sounds like your opening the wrong partition
Those other profiles shouldn't be empty....
When you guys tried installing another copy of Windows 7, what happened...
That seems like the copy your seeing

In Puppy, what partitions do you see?
[/quote]

Ok I made the mistake of contacting Windows support last night in an effort to get this resolved by morning and they had me do a new install of Windows. So, now I guess I have lost everything? My files are there, under "C://windows.old", which is a good thing, but all my programs are gone. Two questions- is there any way to reverse this (I'm thinking probably not), and also, how do I find out what type of wireless adapter I have? I am not able to get online and after contacting my ISP and also Linksys they said it looks like the wireless adapter driver needs to be reinstalled, but I don't know what driver to download from the HP site, as I don't know what adapter I even have.

Thanks again for your help.

[guestolo]

I was going to have you do a clean install, but only after we saved your documents,bookmarks, etc.. to external drive

I'm on my way out right now, but can you give me the Exact make/model of computer you have

[mickapoo]

[quote name='guestolo' timestamp='1351277248' post='481659']
I was going to have you do a clean install, but only after we saved your documents,bookmarks, etc.. to external drive

I'm on my way out right now, but can you give me the Exact make/model of computer you have
[/quote]

It's ok, I do have all of my documents, they are still there in the windows.old directory. Just my programs are gone. I have an HP g7-1150us.

Thank you.

[guestolo]

It's ok, I do have all of my documents, they are still there in the windows.old directory. Just my programs are gone. I have an HP g7-1150us.

Yup, forgot about that, it wouldn't be no good to save any .exe files,etc.. related to programs, they must be reinstalled anyways

You should be able to find your Wireless driver at HP site
Not sure if your operating system is 32 or 64 bit, I'll assume 64, but double check
Right click COMPUTER and select Properties should give u the info
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=4063&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=5128928

You can have HP check your system for missing and out of date drivers/software automatically on their site
There is a link in the one I posted above

Edit>>> Use a network cable to access HP site, you can use wireless after the driver is installed

[mickapoo]

[quote name='guestolo' timestamp='1351288214' post='481661']
Yup, forgot about that, it wouldn't be no good to save any .exe files,etc.. related to programs, they must be reinstalled anyways

You should be able to find your Wireless driver at HP site
Not sure if your operating system is 32 or 64 bit, I'll assume 64, but double check
Right click COMPUTER and select Properties should give u the info
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=4063&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=5128928

You can have HP check your system for missing and out of date drivers/software automatically on their site
There is a link in the one I posted above

Edit>>> Use a network cable to access HP site, you can use wireless after the driver is installed
[/quote]

Ok, thanks, was able to get the missing driver & I'm back online now.

[guestolo]

Everything back to normal then? Should I lock this topic up?

[mickapoo]

Actually I'm having two problems:

1. The option to "sleep" when I close the lid is not there under power options. How do I fix this? It only allows me to select Hibernate or Do Nothing.
2. There is some problem with my graphics card. When I try to use certain filters in Photoshop or open my video editing software I receive errors that I don't have the proper graphics card necessary to run those programs. But my graphics card hasn't changed, so... do I need to reinstall the driver? How do I know which one to install? I found the page on HP's site for my laptop but it has several drivers available for download.

Thank you!