"R. H. Breener Jr." wrote in message ...

---FROM YOUR 10:28 MESSAGE---

How do I change it back to "normal mode?" Where would I find that choice?

We'll get into that after I have a chance to look up your machine (which I
see you provided).

Sometimes it's just a black window with a blinking - at the upper left
hand corner. No text, nothing else.

That's interesting.

I see the usual tree on the left side and on the right is listed the three
things: HP (C and under that Factory_Image (D and under that
FreeAgent (K all say "local disk. Under those are listed the different
devices and removable storage including the DVD drive (E and four
others.

Try unplugging the FreeAgent drive and see if that changes any of the
behavior.

It's a Hewlet Packard Vista 32-bit, Pavilion Home Premium, a6333w.
Graphics by N Vidia. Do you need any other information? That's all I
found on the case.

Let me look this up first.

I already ran the boot disk and did all the tests it showed, but nothing
was found. Check Disk didn't find anything and nothing was wrong with the
hardware. Could the copy of the OS on the D partition be somehow corrupt?

Could be, but it's not all that likely. Besides, though HP machines
validated the partition before using it to recover.

----FROM YOUR 11:13 MESSAGE---

The blue screen says, at the top, Hewlett Packard Invent. Under that are
several choices:

F11 = System Recovery.
F10 = Setup
Esc = Boot Menu

That's it, but no choices can be made. That window will sit there forever
or until I shut the PC off and try again.

That's a sign of something pretty messed up.

Are you using a USB keyboard? Does the machine have a plug for a PS/2
keyboard? If so, perhaps it doesn't support USB until Windows is up. Try
plugging in a PS/2 keyboard and see if you can get control. You'll need to
get control to attempt to reset BIOS to it's default settings.

What's the capacity of the disk drives, but the way.

After I shut it off just now to get the information you wanted, the blue
screen came up, then changed to the black screen that says "Windows Didn't
Load". Then the usual "startup repair" window opened saying it will fix
problems automatically that it finds. It does a system-recovery. This
happens every few times but it never fixes the problem.

In my experience, this rarely works.

I found the original Recovery disks made when I bought this PC but have
never used them. Recoveries were made from the OS on the D: drive
partition.

The recovery partition brought the machine back to factory level? That is,
formatted the C: partition, you lost all your applications and data from C:
and all that?

If so, you've got little to loose by using the disks instead. But I'd put
that off until you're sure the BIOS settings aren't fouled up.

By the way, there's no need to clutter up a news group with this. We could
take this to direct email.

- Bill

R. H. Breener Jr. wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Leary"
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 11:27 AM
Subject: Vista-32 bit OS load problem



One assumes you'll have to turn it off sometime. When you do, please
note the blue screen particulars. Or, if you can take clear picture of
it, do so and send it to me. The address here is my actual email address.


The blue screen says, at the top, Hewlett Packard Invent. Under that are
several choices:

F11 = System Recovery.
F10 = Setup
Esc = Boot Menu

You mean to say that when you press Esc the boot menu doesn't come up?


That's it, but no choices can be made. That window will sit there
forever or until I shut the PC off and try again.

After I shut it off just now to get the information you wanted, the blue
screen came up, then changed to the black screen that says "Windows
Didn't Load". Then the usual "startup repair" window opened saying it
will fix problems automatically that it finds. It does a
system-recovery. This happens every few times but it never fixes the
problem.

Usually the blue screen will just hang there or the black screen with
the blinking - until I shut the PC off and try again. This is very
frustrating.

I found the original Recovery disks made when I bought this PC but have
never used them. Recoveries were made from the OS on the D: drive
partition.

"webster72n" wrote in message ...
R. H. Breener Jr. wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Leary"
One assumes you'll have to turn it off sometime. When you do, please
note the blue screen particulars. Or, if you can take clear picture of
it, do so and send it to me. The address here is my actual email
address.

The blue screen says, at the top, Hewlett Packard Invent. Under that are
several choices:

F11 = System Recovery.
F10 = Setup
Esc = Boot Menu

You mean to say that when you press Esc the boot menu doesn't come up?

You probably missed it in the earlier messages, but his keyboard doesn't
work at this point. I looked up the machine. It has PS/w keyboard and
mouse connectors. He hasn't replied to my query yet, but I suspect he's
using a USB keyboard and the BIOS isn't set to do PS/2 emulation with a USB
keyboard.

- Bill

Bill Leary wrote:
"webster72n" wrote in message ...
R. H. Breener Jr. wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Leary"
One assumes you'll have to turn it off sometime. When you do, please
note the blue screen particulars. Or, if you can take clear picture of
it, do so and send it to me. The address here is my actual email
address.

The blue screen says, at the top, Hewlett Packard Invent. Under that are
several choices:

F11 = System Recovery.
F10 = Setup
Esc = Boot Menu

You mean to say that when you press Esc the boot menu doesn't come up?

You probably missed it in the earlier messages, but his keyboard doesn't
work at this point. I looked up the machine. It has PS/w keyboard and
mouse connectors. He hasn't replied to my query yet, but I suspect he's
using a USB keyboard and the BIOS isn't set to do PS/2 emulation with a
USB keyboard.

- Bill


Sure did, Bill, thanks, that explains the situation.

Harry.

"webster72n" wrote in message
...
R. H. Breener Jr. wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Leary"
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 11:27 AM
Subject: Vista-32 bit OS load problem



One assumes you'll have to turn it off sometime. When you do, please
note the blue screen particulars. Or, if you can take clear picture of
it, do so and send it to me. The address here is my actual email
address.


The blue screen says, at the top, Hewlett Packard Invent. Under that are
several choices:

F11 = System Recovery.
F10 = Setup
Esc = Boot Menu

You mean to say that when you press Esc the boot menu doesn't come up?

No. Nothing happens.



That's it, but no choices can be made. That window will sit there
forever or until I shut the PC off and try again.

After I shut it off just now to get the information you wanted, the blue
screen came up, then changed to the black screen that says "Windows
Didn't Load". Then the usual "startup repair" window opened saying it
will fix problems automatically that it finds. It does a
system-recovery. This happens every few times but it never fixes the
problem.

Usually the blue screen will just hang there or the black screen with
the blinking - until I shut the PC off and try again. This is very
frustrating.

I found the original Recovery disks made when I bought this PC but have
never used them. Recoveries were made from the OS on the D: drive
partition.

"Bill Leary" wrote in message
...
"webster72n" wrote in message ...
R. H. Breener Jr. wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Leary"
One assumes you'll have to turn it off sometime. When you do, please
note the blue screen particulars. Or, if you can take clear picture of
it, do so and send it to me. The address here is my actual email
address.

The blue screen says, at the top, Hewlett Packard Invent. Under that are
several choices:

F11 = System Recovery.
F10 = Setup
Esc = Boot Menu

You mean to say that when you press Esc the boot menu doesn't come up?

You probably missed it in the earlier messages, but his keyboard doesn't
work at this point. I looked up the machine. It has PS/w keyboard and
mouse connectors. He hasn't replied to my query yet, but I suspect he's
using a USB keyboard and the BIOS isn't set to do PS/2 emulation with a
USB keyboard.

- Bill



The original KB is no longer with this Vista PC. I now have a MS KB and a
cheap mouse from Walmart.

"webster72n" wrote in message
...
Bill Leary wrote:
"webster72n" wrote in message ...
R. H. Breener Jr. wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Leary"
One assumes you'll have to turn it off sometime. When you do, please
note the blue screen particulars. Or, if you can take clear picture of
it, do so and send it to me. The address here is my actual email
address.

The blue screen says, at the top, Hewlett Packard Invent. Under that
are
several choices:

F11 = System Recovery.
F10 = Setup
Esc = Boot Menu

You mean to say that when you press Esc the boot menu doesn't come up?

You probably missed it in the earlier messages, but his keyboard doesn't
work at this point. I looked up the machine. It has PS/w keyboard and
mouse connectors. He hasn't replied to my query yet, but I suspect he's
using a USB keyboard and the BIOS isn't set to do PS/2 emulation with a
USB keyboard.

- Bill


Sure did, Bill, thanks, that explains the situation.

Harry.


It still takes 2 or 3 tries before the PC will boot. Googling online I
found this is a common problem but found no solution. What can I try next?

"R. H. Breener Jr." wrote in message ...
It still takes 2 or 3 tries before the PC will boot. Googling online I
found this is a common problem but found no solution. What can
I try next?

I want to see if we can get you into the setup screens and tell the machine
to restore BIOS settings. But without a working keyboard, this is
difficult. The way to do it without a keyboard isn't that complicated, but
depending on how the machine has been customized, it could totally disable
it. And comparing what you've said about the machine and what I've found
out about it's factory setup, it's definitely been customized. So, let's
not go there just yet.

Note that this is not Windows restore we're talking about. You've done that
already. This is much lower level than that.

Open the following page, which has the technical data for your computer.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...roduct=3715498

Then scroll down until you get to the section titled "I/O PORTS" and the
subsection "BACK I/O PORTS". The port marked 1 is the PS/2 mouse connector
and the one marked 14 is PS/2 keyboard connector. From the data a but
further on it appears the machine came with a PS/2 keyboard and mouse.
Please verify, did your original keyboard and mouse plug into these
connectors?

The four connectors marked with 12 are USB ports. There are also two more
of these on the front of the machine. Do you new mouse and keyboard plug
into any of these connectors?

And while we're collecting information, is there anything else plugged into
any of those USB ports? Front or rear?

Is there anything plugged into the IEEE 1394a connector, marked 4?

Also observe the VGA connector, marked 3 on the picture. From what you've
said about video related errors, I’m pretty sure your monitor is not plugged
in here, but please just let us know for sure.

Again, from what you've said, I expect you monitor is plugged into a card in
a PCI slot, immediately to the right of the connectors marked 8, 9 and 10 on
the picture.

So, the questions a
1. Did your original keyboard and mouse plug into the PS/2 connectors 1 & 14
?
2. Do your current keyboard and mouse plug into the USB connectors marked 12
(or the similar ports on the front) ?
3. Is there anything else plugged into any of the USB connectors marked 12
(or the similar ports on the front) ?
4. Is anything plugged into the IEEE 1394a connector marked 4 ?
5. Is your monitor plugged into the VGA connector marked 3 ?
6. Is your monitor plugged into the PCI x16 slot, immediately to the right
of the audio (8, 9 & 10) connectors ?

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Oh, you say that you found that this is a common problem. Please give me
the URL of one or two of those pages you found.

- Bill

REFORMAT YOUR COMPUTERS AND INSTALL OPEN SOURCE LINUX UBUNTU 12.04 LONG TERM SUPPORT RELEASE 2 WEB! JUST FYI! THREAD CLOSED!

"Bill Leary" wrote in message
...
"R. H. Breener Jr." wrote in message
...

---FROM YOUR 10:28 MESSAGE---

How do I change it back to "normal mode?" Where would I find that
choice?

We'll get into that after I have a chance to look up your machine (which I
see you provided).

Sometimes it's just a black window with a blinking - at the upper left
hand corner. No text, nothing else.

That's interesting.

I see the usual tree on the left side and on the right is listed the
three things: HP (C and under that Factory_Image (D and under that
FreeAgent (K all say "local disk. Under those are listed the
different devices and removable storage including the DVD drive (E and
four others.

Try unplugging the FreeAgent drive and see if that changes any of the
behavior.

I tried that already and it made no difference.


It's a Hewlet Packard Vista 32-bit, Pavilion Home Premium, a6333w.
Graphics by N Vidia. Do you need any other information? That's all I
found on the case.

Let me look this up first.

OK.


I already ran the boot disk and did all the tests it showed, but nothing
was found. Check Disk didn't find anything and nothing was wrong with
the hardware. Could the copy of the OS on the D partition be somehow
corrupt?

Could be, but it's not all that likely. Besides, though HP machines
validated the partition before using it to recover.

----FROM YOUR 11:13 MESSAGE---

The blue screen says, at the top, Hewlett Packard Invent. Under that are
several choices:

F11 = System Recovery.
F10 = Setup
Esc = Boot Menu

That's it, but no choices can be made. That window will sit there
forever or until I shut the PC off and try again.

That's a sign of something pretty messed up.

I agree. Sometimes a window comes up telling me the PC didn't boot, then
does a Startup-Repair, and it suggests a system-restore. The KB and mouse
work with that window. It does a system-restore and the PC loads the OS,
but the next time I turn it on, it's the same old problem.


Are you using a USB keyboard? Does the machine have a plug for a PS/2
keyboard? If so, perhaps it doesn't support USB until Windows is up. Try
plugging in a PS/2 keyboard and see if you can get control. You'll need
to get control to attempt to reset BIOS to it's default settings.

What's the capacity of the disk drives, but the way.

The C: drive is 456 GBs. And D: drive is 9.57 GBs.


After I shut it off just now to get the information you wanted, the blue
screen came up, then changed to the black screen that says "Windows
Didn't Load". Then the usual "startup repair" window opened saying it
will fix problems automatically that it finds. It does a
system-recovery. This happens every few times but it never fixes the
problem.

In my experience, this rarely works.

I can see that. It happens almost all the time and the problem remains.


I found the original Recovery disks made when I bought this PC but have
never used them. Recoveries were made from the OS on the D: drive
partition.

The recovery partition brought the machine back to factory level? That
is, formatted the C: partition, you lost all your applications and data
from C: and all that?

I lose everything in the System-"Recovery". So yes, I assume it
reformatted the HD and reinstalled the OS. The startup problem remained.


If so, you've got little to loose by using the disks instead. But I'd put
that off until you're sure the BIOS settings aren't fouled up.

By the way, there's no need to clutter up a news group with this. We
could take this to direct email.

OK... I would like to know how to find out if the BIOS is fouled up. I
have CCed this to you and you can reply using my email address.


- Bill