Wont start up windows xp or turn off

[amrice]

Hi,

I have, today tried to start up my husbands hp pavilion 461.uk and it refuses to start up windows xp, I attempted to shut it down with ctrl, alt and del which did not work and it refused to power down even when i pushed the power button. Can anyone help ? and just for interest how old is this machine ?

 

[Freakykiwi]

Hi,

I have, today tried to start up my husbands hp pavilion 461.uk and it refuses to start up windows xp, I attempted to shut it down with ctrl, alt and del which did not work and it refused to power down even when i pushed the power button. Can anyone help ? and just for interest how old is this machine ?

If the machine is powering up but not loading Windows it is possible that your hard drive is failing but it could be one of any number of things.
This machine was released in 2004 which makes it a very old machine and prone to component failure.

 

[GhislainG]

To shut it down, you have to hold down the power button for several seconds. Once powered off, disconnect the laptop from the power outlet and also remove the battery. Then reinstall the battery and try it again. If that doesn't help, then please explain what happens when you power it up. Does it display anything at POST? Does it even try to load XP?

 

[amrice]

To shut it down, you have to hold down the power button for several seconds. Once powered off, disconnect the laptop from the power outlet and also remove the battery. Then reinstall the battery and try it again. If that doesn't help, then please explain what happens when you power it up. Does it display anything at POST? Does it even try to load XP?

HI,

Many thanks but it's not a laptop, I have held the power button down for many seconds to no avail. All it displays is loading xp and nothing more.

 

[amrice]

If the machine is powering up but not loading Windows it is possible that your hard drive is failing but it could be one of any number of things.
This machine was released in 2004 which makes it a very old machine and prone to component failure.

Sounds like I'll have to take it to the computer shop for repairs. The unit isn't used that much , when I first used it 4 years ago it was extremely slow and a friend of the family took the unit and input more memory however it still appears sluggish and is very temperamental with regards to dropping out of the internet and loading pages really slowly.

All it is currently displaying is the loading windows xp screen but norhing happens.

 

[GhislainG]

It's up to you, but I probably wouldn't spend money on such an old and sluggish system.

 

[amrice]

is there anyway a shop can retrieve pictures/photos on the hard drive ? I've decided to buy a new machine due to the age of this one but it had some sentimentl pictures on... Do i take it that they're lost ??

 

[GhislainG]

They're not lost if the drive can still be read. A shop will have to connect it to a system that has an IDE interface. Any reason why you didn't burn those sentimental pictures to CDs as backups? Your old system has a CD burner and the required software.

You could certainly ask the place where you'll buy the new system to extract your pictures as an incentive to buy a new system.

 

[amrice]

many thanks, that's really useful. I burn all my photos to a cd from my laptop however my husband is not au fait with computers at all. He bought the pc to keep his son occupied and his son downloaded the pictures but never backed them up. My husband does not know how to do this unfortunately. Your comments are much appreciated.. We'll wait for the january sales