HP won't boot into Windows, help!

HP Compaq 6735s


I had some Malware and ran Avast to remove it. Once I was done with that I decided just to back some things up,and do a clean install.

I chose to boot from Optionla bay, I assume that is the CD/DVD drive, then put the XP disk in but nothing. It tries to boot and goes to the black screen with choices, like start in safe mode and a few others, none of them work.

I hit "esc" to just boot from HDD like normal and it still will not boot. What do I do?

 

From your description of the boot sequence, it doesn't sound like it is booting from the XP install disk but rather trying to boot from the HD.

Make sure in your BIOS you have boot from CDROM (or similar wording for your DVD drive) before boot from your HD in your boot order.

What XP disk are you using to boot from to do the clean install? Is it a retail XP disk or something you made?

When you say "none of them work" what error message or code do you get?

Off the top of my head I would say you damaged at a minimum the boot sector of your HD (software damage only) so you can't boot from it and the XP disk you are trying to use to do the clean install is not the correct disk or you are not actually accessing it do to your boot order in bios. Once you solve reading of the XP disk and the install begins all issues with your HD will be resolved (assuming it is not defective, which I doubt).

 

I have a "made" XP SP@ disk and the XP disk they sentme. Can I boot with the one they sent?

 

BTW, thanks for the help


In the bios under boot sequence, it only has "usb CDROM" I tried that and it did not work either.

The only other choices are

Hard Drive
Upgrade Bay
Floppy
SD Card
ethernet

There is a section enable or disable "UEFI Boot", whatever that means.

 

I have to make a guess here. The "Upgrade Bay" allows you to put a HD where the Optical Drive is located. I would change the boot order to make the "upgrade bay" before "Hard Drive" if it is not there already and save the changes to bios. You can always change it back later if you wish. If someone reading this knows for sure please chime in.

Have you ever tried the XP SP2 disk you made to see if you could boot from it? Try it on another computer, you can always abort.

Certainly try the XP disk HP sent you, is it just a XP OS install disk or a HP XP system restore disk? Better yet, did you ever make the "restore disks" you should have made and suggested by HP when you first turned on your new computer? If so, use those.

When you turn on your computer with the XP disk in the optical drive, does the optical drive light come on and try to read the disk?

A lot of questions I know, but one more. Is this the first time you are trying to install XP? Did your system originally come with Vista installed, not to important but I would like to know?

 

Here is a review and what I just did over the last hour or so.



1. When I turn the laptop on, it boots and the XP logo shows for 1 second, then the screen goes right to the black screen that has Safe Mode start options and options to start Windows regularly and start last known configurations.

2. I then turned it on/off again and hit F10 to get to Bios and ran the quick HDD test and the comprehensive HDD test. The Hard Disk tests both passed.

3. I also ran the start up test, it also passed

4. I then make sure the Boot options show "USB CD-ROM" first and with the XP disk, provided by HP in the drive, I restart, and still, the same problem, it boot right to that black screen.

5. I also tried to boot with "my" XP disk and nothing, same problem

6. I then changed the boot sequence to the HDD first and still, nothing, same problem.

 

Yes, it came with Vista and HP sent me an XP disk that I installed about 7 months ago.


I think what could have happened was that when my laptop detected malware, and I ran Avast, it cound a file and I chose to delete it. Once that was deleted the I restarted an error came up that something could not start and I could swear I saw the word "boot" in there, well, after another restart, wham! Here I am and now cannot boot to anything.

 

Joe, you are still not booting from the Optical Drive or the disks you are using are not bootable and are being bypassed that is why you get the Black Screen. The PC is trying to boot from the HD, not the disks. It wouldn't matter if the software on your HD is damaged, or even non existent, your PC should still boot from the disks in the optical drive.

 

OK, I think I fixed the problem and below are some important things to know for others who may have this problem.

1. Hot F10 to get to the Bios

2. I changed the settings of the SATA Device Mode to IDE.

3. I chose "Upgrade Bay" as the first boot option.

So I guess upgrade Bay means CD ROM.


make sure your Windows disk is in and when it retarts again, it takes you to the Windows install.


Again thanks to all who helped me out.

So I guess once Windows installs, just put the XP driver disk in provided by HP and re install the drivers.