Laptop stuck in boot loop

[thinkdifferent]

I've brought our work laptop home for my daughter to do her home learning on. The other day Chrome was having issue so I rebooted in the hope that it would clear it. The laptop would not reboot. I'm a Mac man so problem solving PC's is a little out my knowledge base.

It goes through a diagnosis screen for a while then ends up on a blue screen saying "Automatic repair couldn't repair your PC".

I have tried each of the boot options and none work so can't even get it to boot in safe mode.
I tried /rebuildbcd which said 0 installations found. After a few other commands to solve this it fount 1 installation.
I then did /fixmbr, which went through and then /fix boot which errored with Access Denied.
I tried to restore to a couple of safe points (can't remember the exact terminology) but they both failed.

I've been told I just need to re-install Windows, which is fine. The laptop is running Win10Pro but it looks like it originally came with Win7Pro (the laptop was purchase used, no install media).

I tried to download Win7 from MS but they say "The product key you've entered appears to be for software which was pre-installed by the device manufacturer."

Whilst on the HP site looking for answers I leant about HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI tool. When I run this it says:

Smart Check: Pass
Short DST: Fail
ID: UE00Q4-8S3A3P-XD6V7G-60VM03

I'm just doing a Long DST test now to see if it will give any more detail answers.

So my questions:
Does this mean the HD is dead?
If so, once I replace HD how would to I reinstall Win7 and get it back up to Win10?

Other info:

I only have access to Macs to create a USB install disk, although I do have WinXP running in Parallels on the Mac.

The PC only has various browsers and email clients for website and html email testing - which all can be reinstalled. There is no other data on it that needs to be kept.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Yes, the code means the hard drive needs to be replaced.

You may want to consider replacing it with a better performing, normally more reliable 2.5" solid state drive.

You can reinstall W10 Pro for free, but since you don't have a Windows PC with W7 or newer on it, you can't use the media creation tool to create the bootable installation media.

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

See if you can have someone make the media for you with a supported Windows PC.

When you get to the part of the installation that asks for a product key, select the 'I don't have a product key' option, and W10 will install and automatically activate once you are connected to the internet.

If you know how to make a bootable USB flash drive with a Mac PC, I have attached the link to the latest W10 Home/Pro English International, 64 bit ISO file at the link below.  The download will be good for 24 hours from the time I post this reply.

https://software-download.microsoft.com/pr/Win10_1909_EnglishInternational_x64.iso?t=de4d5e27-bcf7-4...

[thinkdifferent]

Thanks for the quick response.

Not fussed about the HD performance, it's only a test rig for websites and html email creation, so speed is not really an issue. Cost will be the deciding factor there. I'm currently at 75% on the Long DST test, but yes - it's probably dead.

My father is the only other person I know with a PC, but in the current climate as he is over 80 probably best not visit him.

I can make a bootable USB flash drive (https://twocanoes.com/create-a-windows-10-bootable-usb-flash-drive-on-a-mac), so have downloaded the ISO, thanks.

Just need to source a new drive now.

Thanks for the help, keep well.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

May you and yours stay safe and well too!

[thinkdifferent]

Hi again

I ending up getting a 256 SSD as it was actually cheaper than a HHD.

Drive installed.

Create a boot flash drive (using https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/01/18/tips-how-to-make-windows-10-install-media-on-macos-high-s...)

change the boot options to boot from the flash drive (it is listed by brand name in the list), but after I click it, it says "Initializing and establishing link" it then say:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable

PXE-M0F: Exiting intel boot agent.

and the "BootDevice not found"

Now is the way I created the flash drive not making it a bootable device? or is am I doing something wrong?

Any help would be really appreciated.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to help you with why the notebook isn't booting from the flash drive you made.

You may have to use a Windows PC from someplace to make the bootable media.

[thinkdifferent]

Ok, thanks anyway.

Ironically I can boot the Mac with the Windows install disk no problem, move through all the steps until I hit the "Windows can't be installed to a USB attached disk" message. For some reason you can only do this with Windows Enterprise edition - so that route is a dead end.

So it must be on the laptop side, some setting in BIOS or something. I wish it was as simple as holding down Alt when booting to change your boot drive - like you do on the Mac.

I'll create a new thread with a new question about this.