Solved: Re: Endless Automatic Repair Loop Upon Startup (cont.) - HP Support Community

ADonMartini_790 · ‎05-28-2023

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Boot-and-Lockup/Endless-Automatic-Repair-Loop-Upon-Startup/m-...

{alternate link: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Boot-and-Lockup/HP-Pavilion-Laptop-Going-Into-Automatic-Repai...}

Unfortunately, my original thread has been locked for inactivity, so I am reposting the question with the original link.

Any relevant updates will be posted beneath this message.

ADonMartini_790

ADonMartini_790 · ‎01-31-2024

Hello again, HP Community.

First and foremost, I want to take the time to thank everyone who spared some of their time in order to help me out with this issue between this topic and the previous ones ([1], [2], [3]), both on this forum and others, over the past thirteen-and-a-half months. Granted, I would have liked to have seen more consistent mobility from other users here and elsewhere so that I wouldn't have needed to join so many forums and create so many topics to resolve the problem, but to whomever that did engage to help out, thank you. The effort was truly appreciated. Each of you tried to help me navigate my way through every frustrating twist and turn of the repair effort, whether it was backing up the hard drive, opening the laptop, or most recently, attempts in creating the external rescue media; the whole process was driving me bonkers, so I also thank you all for your patience and empathy wherever given. A thousand times over, thanks for everything.

Which brings me to why I've returned: in the past few weeks, I finally broke down and managed to pull together the funds to sign up for the HP SmartFriend Service, albeit begrudgingly. Working with one of the HP SmartFriend technicians via teleconference (as well as a Staples technician prior to that -- thank you for your help, Steven), it was determined that the hard drive was clear in another series of diagnostic scans, and through HP SmartFriend, I ended up purchasing the installation media through them. Several days later (about a week ago now), another SmartFriend teleconference led me through the reinstallation attempt, only to receive a series of error messages each time; from the results, the technician determined that the errors pointed to a more fundamental problem that never rested in the software. Apparently, the root cause of the "Automatic Repair" reboot loop was a malfunction in the laptop's motherboard all along; as such, it was never feasible to correct the matter at home on my own, with or without professional guidance. Based on that, the only options to truly fix the matter are to either surrender it to a professional for repairs, or simply invest in a new laptop altogether -- whichever may come first.

So, yes, I got that bad news fairly recently. Facts are stubborn and depressing things sometimes; while I can accept the answer as to why the problem occurred, it sucks that it took more than a year to get that answer in the first place. Since I don't currently have the estimated $300-$400 available to pay HP to fix the defective motherboard, I'll just close the topic with this reply serving as the "answer" to the question.

Sorry I couldn't solve the problem in a way that helped other users; at best, anyone else with this "Automatic Repair" reboot loop might want to learn from my experience and consider that it may be a hardware issue rather than a software problem.

Best of luck.

View solution in original post

ADonMartini_790 · ‎05-28-2023

I'd hoped that my thread wouldn't be locked by the time I got everything ready, but regardless, I'm back because I need some further help with the issue.

I've recently gotten hold of the key elements I needed, according to past posts from Ub6424 in my original thread.

Crucial MX500 SATA 6Gb/s 2.5-inch SSD (I wasn't able to find the precise make/model internal drive that came with my laptop, but I was assured that any such drive would work)
Inland 2.5" SATA HDD Adapter
a 64GB Micro Center USB3.1 (for the operating system reinstall)

After some mechanical issues both during and after opening the casing to the device, the real work begins; turns out the complication I mentioned in my last unanswered post has given me some pause in performing the data backup that should precede the OS reinstall. Since the computer can't boot properly, I wanted to know what strategy may work best to do a data backup with the equipment I have available. According to the manual for the new hard drive, I will need to download new software to the affected computer to undergo a backup, which may be a problem if the laptop can't boot. This link I am including is a PDF file from the company website on the install/backup process for the hard drive; to look over their instructions, please click here to see the manual.

Any helpful advice is welcome.

Thanks in advance

ADonMartini_790

Rainbow23 · ‎05-30-2023

Hi @ADonMartini_790,

Welcome to HP Support Community.

I suggest that you contact HP Service Center in your location from this weblink: https://support.hp.com/us-en/help/service-center
Note: Select your country from the dropdown, enter the city or postal code, select the product, change the radius, and click on search to locate the nearest HP Service center near your location.

Hope this helps.
Take care and have a good day.

Please click “Accepted Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Rainbow23 - HP Support.

ADonMartini_790 · ‎06-03-2023

Hello @Rainbow23

I recently purchased the components from one of the locations listed on the HP Service Center link you've sent; may I ask if what you are recommending is that I bring my affected laptop to said location, and allow them to perform the needed fix? Please feel free to reply.

For everyone else, I have another issue I need to report: I've been trying to install the software for the backup hard drive I mentioned (the disk cloning program is "Acronis True Image For Crucial"), but unfortunately, the operating system on the other computer I am using, Windows 10 In S Mode, won't allow me to run the program; only Microsoft-verified programs are allowed to be installed, and I can't figure out how to get around this other than to irreversibly switch licenses to get out of S Mode, which I am trying to avoid. Would anyone have any idea how to circumvent this, or might have some alternate means to do a drive backup/clone other than what I've been trying to do so far?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

ADonMartini_790

sandytechy20 · ‎06-05-2023

@ADonMartini_790

Yes, you can contact the HP support phone support or you can even check with the local service center to fix this issue.

Here is the link to find the local service center:- Click here

Cheers.

Sandytechy20
I am an HP Employee

ADonMartini_790 · ‎06-05-2023

@Sandytechy20 -- thank you for the clarification; I'll have to keep that in mind moving forward.

I would still like to see if I can make use of the strategy in @Ub6424's earlier post to correct the problem myself in the meantime, as I've already committed to gathering the recommended components to attempt it; if anyone else here could recommend a way to get around the security issue I mentioned before in doing a drive backup, or might refer me to a similar program that would be compatible to the S-mode Windows 10 operating system's security standards, feel free to send a reply, and I'll get to it as soon as I am able.

Thanks in advance

ADonMartini_790

ADonMartini_790 · ‎06-06-2023

Just one quick update...finally got an E-mail response from customer service at Crucial (the hard drive manufacturer) about the issue over Acronis not being allowed for download in Windows 10 In S Mode, and they've sent a short list of suggested third-party disk cloning programs that might work instead:

Clonezilla
Macruim reflect free
Drive ImageXML
SuperDuper

Has anyone here had to use any of these programs before, or might have any other recommendations? Feel free to leave a reply.

ADonMartini_790

ADonMartini_790 · ‎06-30-2023

Nothing new to report; just leaving a quick message to keep the topic from being locked.

I could still use some help, so please feel free to leave a message if you may have some advice to move things along.

Thanks in advance

ADonMartini_790 · ‎07-05-2023

Sorry to see there hasn't been any new activity since my last post here...

Nonetheless, I did an online search about the problem and it led me to this tutorial video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-UFVN9JEdI

I may give this a try, unless anyone might have a reason it wouldn't work with my computer or operating system, or may have some other suggestion that may be more in line with my issue. Either way, my door is always open, and I'll try to provide a later update with whatever I end up doing.

As always, thanks in advance for any helpful replies.

ADonMartini_790 · ‎07-15-2023

OK -- had a chance to attempt the "administrator permission" fix in the YouTube video in my previous post, but it didn't seem to correct the problem. I followed the steps exactly as they were given in the tutorial; other than the curious change in that it looked as though the copy-and-paste was going to complete properly, the computer gave me the same error prompt and refused to duplicate the files, even after selecting the "Continue" button.

I would really appreciate some help here.

Thanks in advance,

ADonMartini_790

Endless Automatic Repair Loop Upon Startup (cont.)

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