Does a blinking cursor mean software reload?

I'm assuming that is the easiest fix, but I want to make sure nothing else could be causing the problem. Here's what I have. My son received a HP Pavilion laptop, model ze4930us, from a friend that said it wasn't working. The system has XP Home on it. Unfortunately, he didn't have the disks so that I could try reloading the system. I pretty sure that HP has the Recovery CD set. At least their web site indicates that. Any ways, is there anything that would cause this problem?

At startup, the HP logo will appear then the cursor appears. I can get into Setup Utility. I checked all the settings and nothing looks out of place. I was able to run the test on the hard drive and it passed. I'm thinking the system needs to be reloaded.

Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Mike

 

Mike, the first thing I try is my XP boot floppy. It will boot a system that has damaged bootloader files or a corrupt MBR. Good diagnostic tool to eliminate the easy stuff.

XP Boot Floppy

 

surferdude2,

No floppy drive on the laptop. I do have a DVD drive though.

Mike

 

If you have a burner, use this XP Boot iso image to create the equivalent of that boot floppy.

 

surferdude2,

Thanks. I hate to be brain dead about this, but when I try to open the file (after saving to my hard drive), I get an error message that Windows can't open that file type. What are the steps I need to do to make the disk? Sorry, but this is new territory for me.

Mike

 

Thanks Pete. As soon as I put my brain back in, I'll give it a go.

Mike

 

Mike, if you don't have burner software other than the standard XP supplied type, it won't be able to handle .iso files. You can get a freebie here:

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

That freeware is approved by MS. It allows creating and utilizing ISO files with the XP provided burner software. I think it only supports DVD burning on Vista though.

 

surferdude2,

Thanks for the link, but I do have Nero and it burned just fine.


Okay, now for the results.

When the boot disk started, I tried all the options on the first screen.
Physical Disk1 (rdisk0) Boot Partition 1: Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows Root>\System32\hal.dll
Please re-install a copy of the above file.
Physical Disk1 (rdisk0) Boot Partition 2: Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.
Physical Disk2 (rdisk1) Boot Partition 1 & 2, Physical Disk3 (rdisk2) Boot Partition 1 & 2: same message as Boot Partition 2 above.

I then went into F8 for troubleshooting and advance startup options for Windows and any option I choose would take me back to the first screen with the same error messages.

What's my next step? I check Microsoft's web site for the first message about the hal.dll file and it pertains to upgrading from Win98 or ME. Thanks.

Mike

 

Yep, I agree. That pretty well confirms that you need to reinstall the system. If I understand you correctly, your son has become the owner of this laptop. If that be true, he can't do a clean install without the proper product code to activate it with. It should be on a sticker somewhere, perhaps underneath. That particular laptop, according to HP, came with a full install CD. The manual and other info is available here.

If you can't find the product code, you can try a repair install and hope to escape the activation issue.

ps.

I hope that was a typo and you meant Physical Disk1 (rdisk0) Boot Partition 2 or else I'll have to do some editing of that iso file.

 

surferdude2,

When I attempted to open the site of your XP Boot Floppy, sirens went off and my Avast antivirus indicated that "A Trojan Horse was Found." The address given: http:s3.amazon... .com/LiveMD....cket/surferdude_1998@yah
I purposely left out some letters but you can recoginize the address. The Malware name: Win32:Swizzor-gen[Trj]. I would prefer to be wrong about this but my post is to save some unlucky person from trouble if the Trojan is there.

 

Thanks for the heads up but the files I upload are clean. I actually made them myself so there is no way they can contain any malware.

Perhaps your AV is set to alert when an executable file is set to download or run from a site.

I double checked but all is still well.

All the best

 

surferdude,

OK, thanks for checking back with me. I'll try to adjust Avast not to be so sensitive.

 

No problem derfsch,

The fact that a specific Trojan was identified may be cause for alarm with your system however.

Check it carefully for LOP infection. Perhaps post up a HJT log on the Security forum here. You can't be too careful with this sort of thing since any warning is sufficient to justify some double checking.

All the best.

 

Hello derfsch,

Just to confirm that SD's site/files are clean, I checked with both NOD and KAV (on two systems).

Doubt that Avira knows something that these two don't

Second SD's posting of a HJT suggestion.

Regards - Charles

 

Pete,

Thanks for the link. The only XP CDs that I have are recovery disks for my Dell systems. Any chance they will work? I assume not, but thought I would ask.

Yes, that was a typo on my part. I will go back and edit that. Thanks.

Mike

 

That's what I figured. I wish a friend had an XP disk that I could use. I'll just order a recovery disk from HP. I think it was only $17. That should get me going. Thanks for everyone's help.

Mike

 

Just an update. I ordered the disks from HP, for $16, and they arrived yesterday. The disk has been formatted and the software installed. Everything is working good as new. Not bad for a free laptop! Thanks again for your help and suggestions.

Mike