Have sick HP Pavillion, need advice

[mechanic58]

Ok, here we go again. Hopefully someone can help. So far, this forum has been a great help to me.

My lady friend has recently purchased an HP Pavillion 7319 (I think, not exactly sure on the model#) that was in "needs repair" condition. She picked it up from the local trader from some woman that obviously had NO business owning a computer, much less being connected to the internet. The initial indication was that it would take it nearly 15 mins to boot to the desktop. (Windows XP Home) Once it got there, it was so tangled up in other tasks, it wouldn't respond to any commands....at least not within a reasonable time frame. Turns out, it was loaded down with all sorts of IM programs...and spyware detectors, you name it...ALL set to start up when windows starts. It also had hundreds of errors in the registry. Anyway, she was able to get all that crap off there and get it to where it would boot within a reasonable amount of time, but it's still very slow to respond to commands and freezes up most times. When you bring up the resource meter, it shows the CPU usage at 100% almost all the time. Any ideas? Doesn't "appear" to be any obvious viruses on it....could the processor have suffered some heat damage as a result of being previously over-taxed all the time? I have an older Compaq, which has been like a rock for me...but has recently started having sorta the same problem, only not nearly as severe. Do the processors actually go bad over time...with heat cycles? Any suggestions would be great.

P.S. This HP also won't respond to any attempts to format C or reinstall the operating system.

[mechanic58]

Yeah, I think I was way off on that model number....the machine is about 2 years old. It's a 1.3ghz with 128mb of ram and a 80gb hard drive. That's about all I know about it.

[Panama Red]

Increase the memory to at least 512, shut down all the unnecessary programs in Start Up, install and scan with Adaware, Spybot, and AVG 7.5. Plus do an online scan at Ewido.net and remove all the crap that Ewido finds too.

[newbuilder14]

Well, I would first suspect an overloaded system. How much memory is being used in Task Manager? If it is freezing, may want to try each stick of RAM separately to rule out a bad stick.

Also, just for kicks, have you made sure nothing is blocking the heat passage/fan vent? You never know...

[mechanic58]

All good suggestions, unfortunately, I don't have the machine here with me. I will have to relay all this info to her and have her do it. I agree, I'd like to know what task manager says is running. And as far as memory goes, I dunno how much is being used. She says not much, if any at all...what's alarming is the processor usage (according to her).

[Panama Red]

After following my suggestions, run Hijack This! and post a log here for review. That will reveal any remaining cpu power sucker.

[mechanic58]

Oh, and the whole point of her buying this particular machine in first place was budget. So doing things like adding ram and whatnot are probably going to be out of the question...certainly for troubleshooting purposes anyway. I think she only paid $40 for the entire system...monitor included.

[jamesrpm]

Can she do a full system restore ? either from the disks if she got them with it or there may be a partition with a restore on it. Better off to start clean then build on it from there. She may be able to get the Cd's from HP.

I've got a similar system , friend gave to me because it was to overloaded with adware/spyware/ viruses. I got the Cd's too and it made a great little box after wiped clean and reloaded.

[mechanic58]

Yeah, that's the problem...didn't get any of the original restore disks with it.

[Panama Red]

You can contact HP and get restore disks for about $20. Or you can do a fresh install with any XP SP2 disk. Just use the original Product Key and be prepared to call MS to complete the reactivation.

[glc]

There may be a recovery partition.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...cname=bph07145

128mb ram is WAY too light for XP.

[TimPoet]

Yeah, she'll never get any satisfactory performance out of that rig with only 128 MB of RAM, she needs at least 512 MB.

That and a wipe of the HD should do the trick.

[mechanic58]

Yeah. She sent it to me today. I'll have it in a day or two. Then I can find out what's really wrong with it. She could be wrong about the 128k ram. I thought it sounded odd also, for a box that CAME with XP on it.

[TimPoet]

Well, a friend of mine's kids have a Dell laptop with only 128 MBs of RAM. I was using it and kept wondering why it was so slow and then I looked it up and was like- what!? I didn't think they made them with that much RAM....

[Marke522]

I worked on a Dell for a friend a few months ago that only had 128mb's. I put in another 256 and it worked like a brand new computer.

I've had to contact Compaq/HP before for restore cd's. Even if you didn't have to, I would recommend it anyway. There might be stuff from the previous owner that she didn't mean for you to have. More of a thing of respect for someone's privacy rather than performance. But it seems it would be the easiest way out rather than spending hours/days trying to clean the install.

[glc]

If it has a recovery partition it's even easier.

[jamesrpm]

Originally Posted by glc If it has a recovery partition it's even easier.

How does one check to see if there is one ? I've had no experiance with one.

[newbuilder14]

Oh wow, I'm afraid I suspect the issue to be the 128mb of memory myself...

My aunt's old laptop, before it was replaced with a Dell Inspiron E1505, was an old Compaq that ran Windows ME with 128mb of memory. I put XP on her computer so she could use iTunes, and it ran very sluggish - so sluggish that it took forever to boot up and was not pleasant to use.

[mechanic58]

Ok, finally got the skinny on the exact model of this machine...here it is. It does indeed only have 128mb of ram...and it CAME with XP on it. I still don't have the machine yet though. Will have it on Monday.

[mechanic58]

Actually, I've found conflicting reports now of how much ram it actually came with. Some sites say 128 and some say 256. So who knows.

[Marke522]

I guess you'll just have to wait until it gets there.

Even 256 is kinda low.

I'd recommend adding the ram first, 512, and then if it's still bad, perhaps recovery to factory settings.

If you have one on a partition, most likely D, there will be an option to boot to the other device before windows loads. It will be about 5 or 6 Gb's of space that you cannot access.

[glc]

My post #11 has a link to a HP article that tells you how to to a system recovery. You guys gotta start reading my links, it's a lot easier for me to post links than type a book.

Yes, the machine probably does need more ram, but if you do a nuke and pave it should at least run and then you can look to improving things if necessary.

[Dodge7]

I've run XP on 256, it is not too bad. If you just add a second 128 or preferably 256, you should be all right. And it is not too expensive.

Personally I think iit would best to wipe the HD and do a clean install, it fixes so many things. And it sounds like this computer can really use it. You could try running plain old DOS off a floppy and doing a format that way, the XP CD should be able to take it from there and install NTFS and XP.

Have your tried the optoins on the XP disk to do a repair and then try both FIXBOOT and also FIXMBR. That should allow you to format and install XP.

In cases you may have to do a bit level format if viruses got into the boot sector. Try one of these untilities: http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/l...el-format.html They run off floppy driver and do a low level format.

[glc]

Hey guys - most HP's that shipped with XP have a recovery partition and you don't need a XP CD.............you might want to read my link?

[TimPoet]

Medical doctor's #1 complaint about their patients?

Non-compliance to their suggestions.

[Dodge7]

So sorry, I didn't ... pretty cool about the HD recovery. I wondered why they hadn't thought of that, since everyone loses their install CD

[glc]

HP's dont COME with a reinstall CD - you have to make one using the HP utility if you want one or buy one from HP. Most big OEM's do this now. Dell has a very similar procedure for doing an OS recovery. That annoying extra partition really does have a vital function. This is why the FIRST thing you should do when you fire up a new name brand machine is make the recovery CD's if a utility is provided for doing so.

[Marke522]

It would be better to make recovery DVD's if the option is available. I made some for a Pavilion, it was only 2 DVD's. Made some CD's for a Presario, it took 7 or 8. Much easier to lose one of those when you have so many, also it takes a bit longer to install from 7 or 8 cd's because you have to keep switching them out.

[mechanic58]

OK...you guys are just havin too much fun with MY thread here. lol. I finally took delivery of this POS today. How do I gain access to the bios setting on this machine during boot up?

[mechanic58]

Ok...I think I see now what is wrong with this machine. It only has one stick of 128mb RAM in it. It is acting exactly like a machine that is working on limited RAM.