++ Help needed for HP laptop ++

1

123computer123

New Member
Hi,

Hopefully someone will be able to help me find a solution to my computer issue.

On my HP Windows 7, 32 bit laptop I am not able to get it to start any longer.

It had worked absolutely fine before,
only issue was that recently I wasn't able to make an Image Back Up any longer,
but as I had an older image, that wasn't a problem, I thought.

However now, it won't start at all any longer.

When I turn it on it goes straight away onto the 'safe mode option' page,
as it wasn't properly shut down before.
(Last time it worked, it froze up and I had to pull the plug, without shutting it down 'the normal' way.
And naturally now, whenever I tried to get it started, and this was unsuccessful, again I had to switch it off, without being able to let it shut down 'the proper way'.)

But none of those 3 options on that page start the laptop.

Say when choosing the safe modes: Windows loads the files and then stays on a black screen, no matter how long I wait.

And when starting normally: the usual 'Windows gets started with the logo' appears,
and then it's stuck on that black screen once again.

I checked the start up repair but no errors were found, not in the hard drive nor in the memory.

Tried to restore laptop to a previous restore point, but unfortunately only restore points that were automatically
set when I did an image back up were shown. So I chose the one I had the image back up for,
but it didn't recognize it, thus I couldn't restore the laptop to that restore point.

Tried to restore laptop with an Image Back Up from that laptop, but it didn't find/access that
WindowsImageBackUp either, though all needed files were in it.

Tried chkdsk C:/f but no errors were detected.

Tried System Repair Disks, but none of the ones I have, start up,
though I had changed the BIOS before to start up with the disk.

Now I am out of ideas.

Is anyone able to come up with a solution to this issue?
I am really stuck now.

Many thanks.
Your advise is very much appreciated.
 
If you're able to see the Windows logo, it seems that you have a problem reading Windows files.

I don't know how you created the image. In my case, I use MaCrium Reflect for my imaging the system. I have created a Recovery Boot Device (USB) that let me boot from it.

I wonder if can create a bootable USB and change the booting order in BIOS when start up.
 
Thank you for the replies.

- ssal great advice - thanks.
Made a bootable USB now and was offered the option to install Windows.

However currently a driver is missing, so still working on that.
Would prefer to not having to install it this time around, after this current non-starting issue,
and simply use it from USB, but one seems to need at least one OS installed...

But also booted Linux and am currently testing it without having to install it.

So once again, many, many thanks for your idea (bootable USB).
As with that at least I have some options now and can still use that laptop.
 
Install W10 if you recover it to reduce further malware vectors, the last patch on 7 was over four years ago.
 
123computer123 said:
Thank you for the replies.

- ssal great advice - thanks.
Made a bootable USB now and was offered the option to install Windows.

However currently a driver is missing, so still working on that.
Would prefer to not having to install it this time around, after this current non-starting issue,
and simply use it from USB, but one seems to need at least one OS installed...

But also booted Linux and am currently testing it without having to install it.

So once again, many, many thanks for your idea (bootable USB).
As with that at least I have some options now and can still use that laptop.
Click to expand...
If you can boot from the USB, I'd recommend to back up all your data to an external drive for safe keep. Then you can go thru the re-installation of the OS and your programs.

Macrium no longer support the free Reflect but there is other free imaging software out there. In the past 10 years or so, I have relied on Macrium to image my OS, which is on a dedicated C partition making it easy to image and restored without affecting my data drives. There had been a few times that I was attacked by virus or malware and all I had to do was to re-image my OS from a backed up image.
 
Thank you for your tips ssal.

However on that laptop I just tried to start afresh now with a bootable install from USB.

(Have the backup of my files on another laptop, as the past imagebackup for that HP laptop couldn't be used,
and so I had to give up on that option.)

But managed to install Win7 professional anew on the HP Laptop 64 bit.
(it's actually not 32, I had typed that incorrectly in my initial post).

However once that was done, I couldn't connect to my internet (wifi) as the network drivers/adapters were suddenly missing.
(Read online that this is often the case when reinstalling Windows.)

But as those drivers are present and fully functional on my other laptop,
I tried to backup those from there and restore them onto the HP laptop.

But though I tried varies ways:
(tried such a lot over several hours and lost track of every single attempt) but remember that:

- used various 3rd party software for driver backups (3x) -- didn't work,

- also tried a download of Intel (R) Network Adapter Drivers - Windows 7, 64-bit*, Windows 7 family
(as once I got the error message, that they were missing, too) -- didn't work,

also

- copied the working .sys files of the working drivers from my other laptop
and copied them into the drivers' folder on the HP laptop -- didn't work.

Still - none of those drivers/adapters are showing in the device manager and I am still not able to connect to the internet.

However the .sys files for those network drivers from the other laptop are showing under:
c:\windows\system32\DRIVERS -- so I am rather confused why they are not applied to and showing in the Device Manager.

But either way, again, I am out of ideas.

Would it make a difference if I'd install Win7 premium on the HP instead?
Is that the cause of not being able to restore any saved drivers?

As the 2nd (Wifi) working laptop runs on Win7 premium, rather than professional.
Could that be the reason, why I cannot get the drivers to show/restore?
Perhaps one cannot back up drivers from premium into professional?

(I only used the ISO install for Win7 professional on the HP laptop, as I had professional on it before.)

Any ideas???

Many thanks again.

FYI: Am so stuck that I even considered and tried using Linux instead of Windows, as the bootable USB for Linux works on that laptop,
even with connecting fine to the internet. BUT in Linux I wouldn't be able to use all of my needed programs/browsers etc. and so that cannot really be an option either. But just to illustrate that I am checking various options...
 
10 would probably have had the driver bundled.

Going to need to know what wnic that is instead of blindly guessing.
 
Win10 is not an option for me.

Re: wnic, it's just the usual wireless LAN (WLAN) via a FritzBox (7490).

But as I wrote before, there is nothing wrong at that end, as it works absolutely fine
on the other laptop (ie. the one I am using right now) and also on the HP laptop in Linux.

But backing up drivers from one machine and restoring them into another, should normally work, I would have thought...
 
Fritzbox isn't your wireless NIC, you didn't specify the model other than 'the usual'.

Unsure why 10 is an option outside of your personal preference but using 7 will likely give you similar issues moving forward.
 
Both machines have to be the same with the exact same hardware in order for drivers from 1 machine to work on the other. If you can give us the exact model number of laptop then we can direct you to download the correct drivers.
 
Right, so the difference in hardware makes the difference, got it - thanks for clarifying that.

The laptop's model number is: HP 355 G2 Notebook PC
 
Thank you SO much beers, that did the trick :)
(I had actually been on that web page before already, but the browser I had used didn't show the download options.
Now I used a different browser and was able to download the driver.)

Re: the wnic - I didn't have further details at hand nor couldn't find those, that's why I didn't specify it further before.

Either way, I am now able to connect to the internet on that HP laptop, too. So thank you once again, much appreciated.


One final question, (possibly to johnb35):
as both machines had to be the same with hardware re: drivers,
does that also apply to other copying from one machine, i.e. my other laptop onto the HP laptop?
Like copying for example a profile from thunderbird from win premium onto a machine with win professional etc.?
 
123computer123 said:
One final question, (possibly to johnb35):
as both machines had to be the same with hardware re: drivers,
does that also apply to other copying from one machine, i.e. my other laptop onto the HP laptop?
Like copying for example a profile from thunderbird from win premium onto a machine with win professional etc.?
Click to expand...
Not sure what you mean by copying from one to the other. Programs really can't be trasferred to new as they would have to be reinstalled. Really only your personal files can be transferred over without breaking anything. As far as your browser profile goes, thats what logging into the browser with your account and then enable sync so when you have to replace the pc or use a different computer you can always log into your browser and have your websites, login data and other things all ready for you. As far as your email client goes, you would need to do a backup and restore(export/import) depending on the email client.
 
Thank you johnb35.

Indeed I was referring to personal files from within, say the email client.
But good to know that those won't affect the export/import procedure then, despite of Win premium to Win professional.

Thank you also for the mentioning of 'sync' which I wasn't aware of at all and will look into now.
Much appreciated. :)
 
Regarding email: If you are connecting to the email server with POP, then you would most likely need to export it (depending on what you have set the options for within the client). If you are using IMAP or Exchange, then the emails should still show up as it did since the emails are on the server and no back up is necessary.

As mentioned, browsers nowadays have a sync option with Edge (via microsoft accounts), Chrome (via Google accounts) and Firefox (Mozilla account, but seems to just be for the browser) so your passwords, history, etc will sync over.
 
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