Member Avatar for gbr2004uk

Hi - I wonder if I should be here! What happened is that I have a new (3 wk old) Compaq Presario laptop with Windows 7 and it's worked fine so far (and is working now) but a couple of times it has refused to boot up, first from Shutdown, then again today from Hibernation. Battery 100% charged and AC connection fine. Sorry, I should really write all this in a forum. I'll finish this first.

I'm not a techie, although I've been using PCs since Windows 95 days. I do a lot of digital photography and sound recording as a keen amateur - much of my desktop use is for that, as well as reading news, blogs, updating my own website etc.

Anyway I googled with this bootup problem and that led me here, but I see I'm amongst advanced users and knowledgeable Hi-Tech people so I feel like a guy who's wandered into a senior level seminar room by mistake!

But hello anyway -- the website looks very welcoming and I feel kinda at home here even if I shouldn't ...

cheers
Brian

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— brief, practical checklist for a new Compaq Presario that intermittently will not come back from Shutdown or Hibernation. The most likely categories are: a power-state/driver problem, corruption of the hibernation file or system files, or an early hardware fault. The steps below are ordered to rule out software first (non-destructive), then check hardware and firmware.

Start with logs and quick tests. Open Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System and look for power-related errors around the time it failed (Kernel-Power entries or unexpected-shutdown entries). Try a simple power-reset: shut down, remove AC, remove the removable battery if present, hold the power button 15–20 seconds, reattach and boot. That clears stuck firmware states without opening the case.

Use these Windows checks (run Command Prompt as Administrator):

sfc /scannow
chkdsk C: /f /r    (schedule if required and reboot)
powercfg -h off
powercfg -h on

A clean-boot and Safe Mode test narrow third-party causes: run msconfig, hide Microsoft services and disable the rest, disable startup items, then restart. If the machine boots reliably in Safe Mode or after a clean boot, re-enable groups of services/startup items to find the culprit. Run a full memory test (Windows Memory Diagnostic or Memtest86) and a SMART/disk test from the vendor diagnostics if available.

If the problem persists, update BIOS and chipset/power-management drivers from HP/Compaq support for that exact model (do not install random driver packs). Because the laptop is new and likely under warranty, avoid opening the case; if hardware tests fail or instability continues, contact warranty support and back up irreplaceable photos/audio first. As observed, software can mimic hardware faults, so these steps will help determine which path to follow.

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Member Avatar for gbr2004uk

Mistake -- should be since BEFORE Windows 95 days!

Member Avatar for Lusiphur

Welcome to the forums.

As for not belonging here, no such thing, there's lots of knowledge to be gained from these forums and even 'newbies' can do so.

As for the laptop issue... Periodically the one laptop in my home network (of 2 PC's a Mac and a Dell laptop) has a similar issue where it will inexplicably hibernate or freeze up and a reboot fails to properly start it up again (no screen input, no noticeable interface or reaction to keypress).

However, said laptop also had some rather unpleasant malware issues (courtesy of the fact that it is used regularly by someone who doesn't always follow safe web surfing practices) and since cleaning it up has not had this bootup issue. Part of the problem was that it had the modern day equivalent of a boot sector virus which required some additional steps to get rid of and which was causing issues on reboot of the system.

There are a number of possible causes for boot issues however and if it's a new laptop as you say it is I might recommend a few steps.

  1. Run a reliable remote anti-virus on your system (I use trend micro for this purpose)
  2. Run Windows Update (if it isn't done automatically) as many OEM installations of Windows are pitifully out of date for stability and security updates
  3. Have your dealer that you purchased the laptop from check it for hardware issues

I would do them in the order presented above but keep in mind it could be a myriad of possible causes and the above steps only adress about half of them.

Hope this helps :) And welcome again to DaniWeb

Member Avatar for gbr2004uk

Many thanks Lusiphur -- for the welcome and the suggestions re the laptop. I take the point about *remote* antivirus but had never thougt of that -- I have Norton and also use Spybot regularly. The Windows update has also been pretty active (to the point of nuisance to be honest! but let that pass ...)

The only thing Spybot showed up a couple of days ago were a few harmless tracking cookies. On my desktop I have something called Spyware Doctor (!) and also PCMatic (I've been told I'm doing overkill with all this stuff!!)

For some reason a lot of people don't like Norton, but it came with the laptop (it also came with my Desktop with two licences so I figured why should I fork out again for something else ... What do you think? Norton IS clunky!!)

It's late here in the UK so I wont write more ... I shall certainly do the trend micro which is totally new to me. You're right -- you learn something new every day and I just have! thanks

Cheers
Brian

Member Avatar for Lusiphur

Norton's ok, I'm just not a fan of theirs.

I've seen some negative information regarding Spyware Doctor.

Again all of what I said was merely 'preventative' steps to ensure that the problem is not related to malware or virus :)

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