RIVER BENDER - April,  2005

During evenings I sometimes use my Compaq laptop while watching TV. The other day I turned it on and it froze at the Windows XP logo display. Repeated attempts at starting were unsuccessful. What could I do? The following are a few tips I learned in repairing my laptop that may be helpful should the same thing happen to you:

The first scary thought that comes to mind when your PC fails is what personal data you might lose forever. Heaven forbid that I should lose our family genealogy or a spreadsheet containing securities or the book I’m writing. If one loses important data, it will be because they were foolish not to have some sort of backup of important stuff.

I determined that the most I would lose of importance were e-mail messages, some of which were from family members with photos attached. Why so lucky? Because I have a second PC that my personal data is mirrored in. No, I don't have a local network, but I have a USB port on both PCs that I use to transfer personal data between them using a cheap memory stick (Lexar JumpDrive). Both PCs have the same software installed and since I have the original CDs the software can be reinstalled if lost. The problem is that one doesn't want to reinstall software unless absolutely necessary because it's very time consuming, not to mention all the updates that one has to download again from the web. Fixing the problem is the first choice.

How do you troubleshoot a PC problem? Having a second PC online is extremely helpful because it enables one to search for what's wrong with the failed PC and allows communications with others for help. The following are steps I took troubleshooting my Compaq Presario laptop with Windows XP:

Troubleshooting steps for a PC that won't boot

1. Hit F8 function key when starting (booting) to get the "Advanced Options Menu." Tried (1) Booting to the last good configuration, (2) Safe mode, and (3) Safe mode with command prompt. Nothing worked. No matter which booting option I chose the laptop display froze at the Windows XP logo when starting.

2. Went to Google in my working PC and found a Compaq tech support webpage for my laptop model 2170US. Sent e-mail to Compaq (Now Hewlett Packard) describing problem and received a suggestion within an hour. This was followed by numerous e-mail exchanges. Surprisingly, HP was very prompt in replying.

3. Following HP's instructions, hit F2 function key at start and entered BIOS and set all entrees to default to assure that laptop would boot from a CD.

4. Booted laptop from my Windows XP operating system CD. At the Setup Screen selected R (repair) Windows. Received DOS prompt and ran CHKDSK, which reported errors on the hard drive. Ran CHKDSK /R to repair errors but it was unsuccessful. Also ran FIXBOOT unsuccessfully.

5. Using Google, I discovered that Microsoft offered a set of 6 diskettes for emergency booting of Windows XP containing SP2 so I downloaded the diskettes and booted them in my laptop. All went fine until an error appeared saying "Unmountable boot volume." After reporting this to HP they replied that since CHKDSK or FIXBOOT were unable to fix the problem the only option left was to reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows XP. This meant that all my data would be destroyed.

6. Four CDs came with my laptop labeled "Quick Restore System Recovery." To my surprise the CDs not only had the Windows XP operating system but all software that came loaded in my laptop when purchased. All I had to do was install my personal software such as my Eudora mail program, Office 2000, genealogy software, etc., and update Windows XP with the SP2 CD. Updating Windows XP took a long time because before SP2 could be installed, 17 other critical security updates had to be downloaded. Within two days my laptop was back running with all software installed.