[bactrimtab]

Hey guys

A few weeks ago work finally got me the laptop I had been winging for. I have been wanting this for months and was told to take care of it. Well it's dead...

I turn it on, and I chose 'continue without scanning' and it just sits on the booting page with the Windows picture, the slide is going along but it just sits there untill the battery dies.

So I choose 'startup repair' and it says the following. 'Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer.' ' The error can be caused by unpluging a removeable device.'

STATUS: 0xc00000e9
INFO: An unexpected I/O error has occurred

I have been having issues with my webcam and the finger print loggin system, did this kill it? I was running lots of programs (Yahoo Messenger/Explorer/work price book/work application/word/powerpoint/iTunes) while it happened. It froze so I held in the turn on button and yeah now it will not load. I've searched the web but they are all useless and speak computer jargon. Can I fix it myself or will I have to confront my bosses on Monday? It's under warrently and all (one month old) but I'm trying to fix it before biting the bullet.

It's a HP PavilionEntertainment PV 64bit Windows Ultimate Vista.

Any help would be muchly appreciated. Thanks guys...

[Irravepem]

If you have enough space on your hard drives try to install Windows on another partition. You'll be having difficulty installing XP because there aren't any official drivers for new HP laptops, so stick with Vista. Once that is up, you can try to copy your files onto the new partition and delete the old one. That's what I would do with Windows XP, however, I'm not quite sure it would work with Vista since I don't have much experience with that system. The easiest way to solve this though would be to send it back since you still have the warranty.

[rvadipoldkov]

I have had similar problems so I just send mine back but my warranty has expired recently I think, but yeah, send it back.

[nerohedfrs]

Worst case scenario: Your HDD might be dead. You'd have to send it back.
Best case scenario: Windows crashed due to some virus or unknown error. Fix it by reinstalling Vista, using a bootable kit. I presume you didn't get any recovery DVD, did you? If you did, use that to reinstall Vista, but be aware, you'll lose everything on your HDD, even if you had multiple partitions.

[bactrimtab]

A really stupid question The1, is there any way of doing it without wiping my hardrive. I have a presentation on it thats for a MASSIVE client that I gotta show on Wednesday. Guess what, I have no more copies. I'm ****ting myself, Im just gonna cut my balls of now cos if I don't do it, my bosses sure will. The freaking thing had to die now, when we are getting into a ressesion and sacking ppl!!!

Natska, I do have two hard drives (Vista is currently on C but I also have a D drive with 80GB I think? Do I just put the disc in and wait for something to load? I'm going to sneek into work tomorrow and get the box it came in...

Cheers guys, appreciate it.

[Irravepem]

@Hornbag: When you start up your Hp, you have to press F10 (as far as I remember) to get into the Bios setup, and select (again, if memory serves) the advanced tab and then boot order. There, you select your cd / dvd drive to be the fist choice to boot from. Save the changes, pop in your disc and the Windows setup should show. There, you select D: to install the partition. Like I said, I don't have much experience with Vista, so I recommend you to check the internet, which has some valuable info regarding all those things.

[nerohedfrs]

OK. First, if you have a Recovery DVD from HP (you still didn't tell me if u do), using it to reinstall Windows (basically restoring the laptop to its factory settings) everything you have on both C and D will be erased. No way out.

Second. If you use a different Vista bootable kit dvd (presumably a cracked version taken off torrents) you should set the boot order as described by Natska above from your laptop's bios, but choose C as the partition on which to install your fresh copy of Windows. You'll also need all the drivers (you either have them on a cd/dvd received with the laptop or you have to go to hp.com and download them).

Third. Where was the presentation saved? On which partition? Was it on the Desktop, in My Documents or you put it on D?

[Irravepem]

@The1: I'm not that into Vista myself, but are you sure that everything will be erased once he reinstalls Vista, be it on C or D? I thought that would only happen if you choose to format the partition in question? Again, pardon my ignorance

[bactrimtab]

I dunno if there is a DVD I'll go into work tomorrow and snoop around. It's a powerpoint and a few excel doccuments and it's saved under My Doccuments which is in C drive. If the computer is dead, then it's dead I just really want that powerpoint!!!!! I'll get the CD if it exists tomorrow.

[nerohedfrs]

Natska, I've said it 3 times: ONLY if he uses the original HP recovery VISTA dvd everything will be erased. That's how these recovery DVDs work, they erase everything and restore the laptop to the original factory settings.

If it's on C then you should install a fresh copy of Vista on partition D. Otherwise the presentation is gone. It might be inaccessible anyway, as long as Windows died, but you might still find it afterwards.

[GueseVekdet]

I'm not really a computer savvy person, anyways...



Not sure if you have considered this, but you can try asking the service center or a data recovery center to find out if they can recover the data.

Seeing that you have got important documents in the laptop, they could probably try to recover all, if not, most of the files for a fee.

On another note, purchase an External Hard Disk for backup purposes and store it somewhere safe, as you will still have access to your files if anything happens to your computer (Remember to back up files regularly though!).

TF

[ticfarentibia]

tried restarting in Safe Mode? F8 during start up.

And on topic of data recovery, even if you restore everything back to factory, it will "delete" the data, but you have to remember that data is just bunch of virtual numbers. As long as HDD itself is functional, 95% of the time you can recover everything using recovery programs. Don't bother using recovery centers, they will charge you god know how much and they will use exactly the same programs. Scanning your PC to recover data may take a full day (depending on amount of data), but in most cases it will recover data, IF hard drive is functional. I had something like that happen to me before, recovered all data without any problems.

Nothing is truly deleted on hard drive, unless you physically brake the hdd or put a powerful magnet on it.

[ziIReIGS]

Quote:

[bactrimtab]

Thanks so much for all your reply guys, means a lot to me! You all speak in English and not computer jargon so thanks. I can't find a disc for it, so Im going try some of the other solutions first to see what I can do. Cheers

[rvadipoldkov]

Quote:

[Siliespiriulk]

I love my Mac.
Best of luck with the data recovery. I did experience that frustration with my last PC.

[nerohedfrs]

This has nothing to do with Mac vs PC. I did see faulty Macs as well, after all they all have similar components from the same suppliers. Software wise I agree, Vista is a lot more prone to crash.

Ascariss, I remembered reading someone's post on NBR Sony FW thread saying he had the same error and his Hitachi HDD was actually dead. Hopefully this is not Hornbag's case as well and he'll easily reinstall VIsta or maybe even get it work directly by using Safe Mode or Last Known Good Config.


BTW, if you do get it working, Hornbag, use a Registry Cleaner program to fix errors (smth like CC Cleaner or this JV16 http://www.macecraft.com/jv16powertools2009/) and also run a full antivirus scan as well.

[bactrimtab]

If my work had programs that would work with Mac, then I'd be there. Unfortunatly all our programs are Vista/XP based, meaning I deal with the blue screen of death, constant freezing, errors all the time on my laptop. I honestly think computers hate me, all but my trusty desktop at work it's fantastic, can not fault it as it's XP!!!

I took the laptop to a computer place yesterday, after fearing the worst he just copied all the data, reformatted the computer, then put the data back on. I lost all my programs (luckily I have CD's for this) and I now onlyt have a trial Word/Outlook but at least it works. In saying that, it's bloody tempermental and still locks up (four times today). I will try your Registry Cleaner The1, hopefully it will work in fixing the locking up, hey you never know?

Work was suprisingly...good. I have my testicals, in tack. They payed the $110.00 to get it fixed so I can't complain. Thanks christ...

Thanks for all your help guys, really appreciate it

[nerohedfrs]

You're welcome! That's why we're like a big family, we're here to help each other.
It seems like the problem wasn't that bad after all, with a little guidance you could have done all that yourself I guess... doesn't matter anyway, I'm glad you didn't lose anything important and your laptop is fully functional again.

[bactrimtab]

I probably could have, as he had it just under an hour and a half and it was fixed? At least I didn't have to foot the bill. I still think the issue may come up again so I'll do a warrenty claim as well.