R. H. Breener wrote:

"VanguardLH" wrote in message
...

So start the web browser in its safe mode to make sure ALL add-ons are
disabled, not just the ones that IE will show you.

brevity snip

Thanks for that info.

I thought I'd let you know when I tried a System Restore which failed, I
then tried a System Recovery. When I clicked to do a System Recovery the
computer failed completely. It kept telling me the disks for the Vista PC
were not authenticated (or some such) for that system. How can that be when
they came from HP and the second set were made from THAT HP computer itself?
It wouldn't go into safe mode. It said no disks could be found. The boot
disk didn't work either with an error it wasn't authenticated for that
system. WTF? The PC is sitting here totally worthless and was hardly used.
How the hell do I get it to recognize the Recovery disks or the boot disk?

Some install CDs are BIOS locked. That means you have to use the
correct media to install on that hardware. The installer locks at the
firmware signature from the BIOS to see it the hardware is within a
family of products that the software will match. So you have to use the
install media that came with the computer. If you buy some oddball
"reinstallation" CD from, say, eBay then it might not work with the
hardware that you have. All those resinstallation discs are illegal but
eBay lets the sellers get away with selling them because eBay gets their
13% commission on the sale. Those discs are for reinstalls, not for new
installs which is what they're being sold for.

So was the first set of install CDs the ones that came with the
computer? Were the 2nd ones made using the procedure specified in the
terse owner's manual that came with the computer (probably on CD)?

"not authenticated (or some such)" covers every error every reported by
anyone for anything. It's like saying "I think it's this or something"
where the "something" covers everything else. If the authentication
problem is when trying to validate the installation by entering a
product key then it could be the product key on the COA sticker doesn't
match the product being installed. The COA sticker's product key is
unique to each pre-built computer; however, the product key in the image
the OEM'er slaps onto every host has the same volume key used to
pre-validate that image (you don't have to do validation when you get
the pre-built computer with pre-installed OS and software). A clear
report of what was the actual error message would help.

Did you get this computer as a pre-built? Was the OS pre-installed?
Was the installation media what came with the pre-built computer or did
you somehow get it separately?

Isn't there a hidden recovery partition on the hard disk? If so, you're
supposed to hit some special key on bootup that tells the BIOS to load
the recovery program from the hidden partition to restore the OS
partition back to its factory-time image. Did you delete that hidden
partition to make use of its disk space for your own use?