Recovery discs crashes their system.

[demolitiondeb]

We sent an almost brand new HP Media Centre, (250 GB, 1gb DDR SDRAM, with SATA HDD and an ATI Radeon VCard, loaded with a 'legitimate' XP Professional Suite) to our daughter when her old one suddenly died. Problems started the first week. They had this newer one looked at and the expert told them that it was the different IPService in their area that was causing problems, he wiped out some programs to reset it.

Most of the XP programs Word, Excel etc are unfindable, although they find hints that they are still there when they attempted to load a cheaper similar program from someone else.

So I told them to try the Recovery discs, but the discs crashed it, she sez. I told them to try a Restore point, no luck. So I told them just to reload XP from the website with the Product key. They can't find it.

Any ideas out there??? Is the prod key in their machine somewhere???

 

[rajinisback]

Hi demolitiondeb
Welcome to the forums.

Does she only need a product key? Or does she need to install XP and use the same product key? I guess Vista is not being used here?

Also, Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint is a different package than Windows. Lots of people think its suppose to come with Windows.
Raj

 

[demolitiondeb]

Thanks for the welcome
OS is there, just not Word etc. I have my Vista Product key in with my information but they can't find theirs in XP and I can't remember how. I asked in Vista cuz I am going to try to remote assist them.

 

[rajinisback]

Hi demolitiondeb
OK Good. Here is a link to a little program that they need to run on their XP and it will tell them what thier XP Product key is:

RJL Software - Software - Utility - Windows Product Key Viewer

Raj

 

[demolitiondeb]

Thank u for your time and link, and I do wish good Karma for u. If it doesn't work, there will be plenty of bad karma for me.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Also, Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint is a different package than Windows. Lots of people think its suppose to come with Windows.
Raj

Hello demolitiondeb, welcome to Vista forums!

As Rajin has said re-installing XP will not bring back "Word" and any other programs
they may of had previously, as they are not a part of the OS.

The best option would be a "Factory Recovery" from the HP recovery center.
It will bring the machine back to when it first came out of the box, just follow the
instructions below.

HP Recovery Center

The "HP Recovery Center" will give you the option to send to backup anything you
don't want to lose, so have backup media available to use if you choose this option.

With the machine off press the power button, as soon as you do that start tapping the F11 key.
That should take you to the HP Recovery Center. When there just follow the prompts.
It is pretty much self explanatory. From the time you boot into F11 (not counting
any backups you choose to make) you should be back on a working desktop in about
30 minutes. After it restarts just follow the prompts again to finish the process.

If your first option is system restore select no, which should take you to system recovery.
You want to try system recovery not system restore, unless you have good restore points!

Keep us informed!


Later Ted

 

[demolitiondeb]

Glad I came back tonight, more great advice! I remember hearing about that F11 technique a while back but never had to use it. Will pass on to my daughter and get back tomorrow, (which is already today.) Worked late. Thanks Ted

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello again Deb, you're welcome.

Yes, please post back and let us know how it works out!









Later Ted

 

[demolitiondeb]

Daughter working days, me - working nights. Saying Hi at 04:48 edst

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Daughter working days, me - working nights. Saying Hi at 04:48 edst

Hello again Deb, saying hello at 4:53 EDST getting ready to go to work myself!

Keep us informed!






Later Ted

 

[roy69]

The product key will be on a label on the back of the machine. Failing that it will be on the documentation.
Open office is a free open source program that is compatable with word,exec etc.
www: OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite