"windows failed to start a recent hardware or software change might be the cause"

[Woodwood]

Pavilion dm4-1050ea upgraded to 8GB RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium (when it boots)

Gives status 0xc000000f

Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccesible

Problem occurred after a mains power failure to the house - power cut - for longer than the battery life

I had been using an external monitor (HDMI) and USB mouse (wired and keyboard (wireless)

I started as DavidPK suggested, and the diagnostics.  HD diagnostic passed.  When the HD diagnostic finished it said 'Hard Disk' passed'.  Memory diagnostic passed.  No errors in any hardware or anyrhing were detected.

I tried a hard reset - remove all power from computer, drain residual power by pressing on button for more than 15s.  On power up (no battery) no keyboard lights flashed or came on except the wierless network LED which was red.  I don't know if there was any fan sound

I also set BIOS to default

What now ?

Woodwood

23.February.2017

[Chimney_83]

Greetings @Woodwood,

Thanks for the post. 

I understand that you are facing an issue with your computer not booting and is giving you a 0xc000000f error. Don't worry, I will be glad to help. 

Kudos to you for trying to troubleshoot the issue on your own.

Have you created a recovery kit on your computer?

The issue you are facing could be with the hard drive or the operating system on your computer. 

As you have already ran a test on your computer and it has passed. 

The issue is more likely to be an issue with the operating system. 

Have you tried to boot the computer to the recovery manager by tapping F11 on startup? 

Recommend you to try to boot the computer to Recovery Manager. 

If the recovery manager comes up, you can use it repair the operating system. Refer to this article for assistance. Follow the procedure under "Steps to follow for Recovery from the startup screen (during system boot) OR when unable to boot to login in screen"

If the computer is not booting to the recovery manager. 

Please use the recovery kit to reinstall the operating system on your computer. 

If you have not created a recovery kit, please contact our phone support for the availability and the shipping options. 

Let me know if this helped. 

If the information I've provided was helpful,

Please give us some reinforcement by clicking the "Accepted Solution" and "Kudos" buttons,

That’ll help us and others see that we’ve got the answers!

Good Luck.

[Woodwood]

Thank you Chimney

I was beginning to think I would have to open a new thread for this.

An annoying thing is that it tells me 'a piece of hardware is inaccessible' but it doesn't tell you which piece of hardware it is.  When the power cut happened I unplugged the HDMI cable from the external monitor, thinking it was the power cord, discovered the power cord was still connected after power had been restored, but still haven't reconnected the external monitor (HDMI cable).  But I don't suppose this has anything to with the problem.

Yes, yesterday I read about F11 for recovery, but haven't tried it.

No, I haven't explicitly created a recovery kit on my computer, a Pavilion dm4-1050ea "notebook", W7 Home Premium.

But I don't want to recover the OS and lose all my programs but preserve my data, but this is better than restoring the system to factory state where I would lose everything except then I would have a pristine OS.

But I have a new plan

First, create an image of my disk so that I can at least get back to where I am now, simultaneously creating a back-up of my data and programs, so that I can at least get back the free ones like Seatools - but I currently have a hold-up on this.

Second create a new installation disk. This is not as simple as downloading the W7 iso from the microsoft download centre as the iso down loaded refers to the retail version, not the preinstalled one, and so your licence key will not be found.  MS do however have a download for the HP preinstalled version.

And then I would be in a position to insert the  installation disk at the prompt when the "notebook" fails to boot.

Woodwood

24.February.2017

[Woodwood]

Update:

I have tried to 'insert your original installation disc and reboot' using the disk I burned from the iso MS were good enough to send.

The result of rebooting, both as the computer was, and after changing the boot device order to put DVD first, was the same:  the original message persisted, as if the DVD had not been inserted.  The DVD is read properly in a dm4-1164nr with W7 Pro, showing four files and five folders in the root.  Maybe my DVD player has gone wrong, and that is the hardware that is inaccessible ?  In that case what should I do ?  But I don't think the DVD player has gone wrong because I needed to boot from it to make the backup (clone) of the HDD which was inside, after this problem  showed up.

Has anyone any useful advice on how to proceed from this point ?  i.e. original installation disc just takes me back to the original problem ?  Am I doing anything wrong ?

I have contacted HP  support regarding obtaining  a 'recovery kit' for this computer, with no useful result as yet

Woodwood

8.March.2017

[Woodwood · Accepted solution]

 A note with a full description of how this problem seems to have been solved.

First a comment about HP recovery solutions.  HP recovery solutions will, at the very least, result in your progams being lost (unless you have made a back-up), and you will need to re-load and re-install them when you get up & running again, with updates including those from microsoft.  So none of the three options offered by HP were for me.  I think the 'HP Recovery Kit' comprises nothing more than the factory restore discs which I should have made a long time ago (but were not suitable in this case), and will  result in the loss of your data and programs unless you back them up.

Second there is the MS repair disc which is very easy to make, but which I did not try (I did not have one at the time).

So Microsoft were good enough to send me a link to an appropriate Windows 7 OEM download, an iso file which I burned to DVD to get an 'original installation disc' as per the on screen error instructions.  This is not available through their website download, where the product key of a retail copy can be entered to obtain a download of the iso of the retail  version.

I had to try a number of times, almost giving up, before I got this to work.  It turned out that I was not making my choices quickly enough, and the software was proceeding with the defaults, which are to to take you back to where you started.  For example, at one point where I was instructed to '...and press any key to proceed.',  I was still digesting the information that I had been given previously, to avoid utterly destroying my data, when the computer went back a step and displayed the screen after the first error screen if I continued with that process, something about booting from EMS RAM.  I discovered that needed to press any key quite quickly to boot from the installation DVD.

After that, it was just a matter of (carefully) following the instructions (like selecting 'Repair' and NOT 'Install'), which was made more difficult because this laptop, a Pavilion dm4, had the broken screen hinges problem common in this type of HP "notebook", and couldn't really be moved and was in an awkward place.  On reboot, it repaired some files, including the boot manager and some replaced some drivers. I started with booting into safe mode, that seemed ok, so I restarted and the computer booted up apparently as 'normal', although it did seem a bit slower.

Can I give Microsoft and myself Kudos for this solution ?

Woodwood

19.March.2017