Need Help Repairing HP Pavilion s3200n, Windows Vista

jameslieb1

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Ok, let me start of by saying that I'm not very good with computer technology, but I am the best at it in my family. So, there's this computer my family's had for several years now (the s3200n), but ever since we got a laptop, it's been collecting dust. The main reason, of course, is cause we have a laptop now, which is better in terms of software anyway. But the other reason is that it hasn't been starting up correctly. I haven't really bothered trying to fix it, but now we've decided we want to sell it, so it needs to be fixed now. I started it up, and it offered me to do the system repair (says it's recommended) or to start normally. I've tried using the system repair, but it said that the problem can't be fixed automatically. Next time I tried starting it up it went directly to a black screen with the cursor, and nothing I did had any effect, the only think I could do was move the mouse around. Tried restarting again, and it took me to a "Windows didn't shut down correctly" and it offers me to do safe mode, normally, etc., but they all lead to that same black screen. What do I do to get this to work again? I don't are about preserving any files in fact I want it to go back to out-of-the-box mode. Please help.
 
Do you have a set of Recovery/Restore discs? If so, then you can boot from the the first disc and restore the machine to factory state.

If not, well not a lot you can do. Are you certain that the machine is actually in good working order? You could download and burn a Linux Live CD (I use Ubuntu, myself); boot from that to see if the machine will run an OS.

Most Linux CDs have memtest86+ on them, so you could run that and make sure you don't have bad RAM stick in there; that would certainly cause the problems you are seeing.
 
If you are going to sell it, I'd advise WIPING the hard disk (not just deleting files, not just formatting). Ha Long in Vietnam will get you the software to do that. I'd run at least the DoD Short (3 pass) wipe, or the DoD 7-pass wipe if you think there may be financial/other sensitive files. This ensures NO ONE recovers data off the drive.

BUT...the hard drive will be BLANK when that is done. You would then need to reload the PC from scratch with the restore disks, assuming you have them.
 
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