Why can't I contact someone directly at HP?

[zoomack]

I purchased this touchscreen a few years back when our local Office Depot closed.  It was running perfect (for the first 30 days or so) until I did the free Windows 10 upgrade.  Things started locking up...it basically stopped functioning.  I was in the middle of a project at the time and ran to grab a chromebook just to type up my reports.  Anyway, there sat the beautiful touchscreen collecting dust.  I would randomly attempt updates, try fixes, etc., nothing worked.  I did a full restore as I had nothing worth saving stored in the short time I used it.  Nothing.  I downloaded something from either HP or microsoft to help fix this.  I plugged in my ubs drive and with every reboot something different comes up.  At one point it asked for my windows number.  I figure if I can give HP my serial number they can give me the original windows license number, however there doesn't seem to be a way to contact a human.  Some further tests show it could be a hard-drive failure.  That stinks, but not the end of the world...I'm ok with replacing a hard drive...again, I'd like that windows number so I don't have to buy a license.  

While I'm here I will also say that I have been a die-hard HP customer forever and it seems I'm always getting burned....even today with their chromebook, it seldom wakes up.  It's so annoying.  How have they not addressed that issue yet?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

There is really no point in trying to contact HP for two reasons:

1.  They won't help you since your PC is long out of warranty.  They will charge you to even talk to them once they determine your PC is out of warranty.

2. The Windows product key is in your PC's BIOS, so you don't need to buy a new license to reinstall Windows, and HP has no records of any product keys used in the PC's they sell.

The product specs for your PC indicate that it originally came with W8 from HP.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03801226

Since whatever you are doing is asking for a Windows product key, here is what I recommend....

Clean install W8.1 by using the W8 product key in your PC's BIOS.  W8 is not available for download.

Install W8.1 by creating the Microsoft installation media, using another Windows PC, if yours is not working...You want W8.1 64 bit.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8ISO

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, use this generic key.

This is the generic key for W8.1 'Standard.'

334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT

When you get to the screen that asks 'Where do you want to install Windows,' delete every partition on the hard drive, leaving just one partition of unallocated space. Click Next, and W8.1 should begin to install.

If you had to enter the generic key, manually change the generic product key to the W8 key in your PC's BIOS in the PC settings menu.

After you get W8.1 installed, and you had to manually enter the W8.1 generic product key, you will need to run the free utility I zipped up and attached below, that will show you show the W8 product key in your PC's BIOS.

I have also zipped up and attached below, the Microsoft tool which hopefully will transfer the ISO file to a DVD or USB flash drive so it is bootable, or you can use a different free utility such as Rufus or burn the ISO file to a DVD with another DVD burning program.

Then you can install the available drivers and software from your PC's support page.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-Pavilion-23-All-in-One-Desktop-PC-series/5359021...

If you get everything running and you want to try upgrading back to W10, just click on the blue Update Now button at the link below.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you are asked to enter a product key during the W10 upgrade process, select the 'I don't have a product key' option.