Can you please advise if Best Buy's Geek Squad can get my Pavilion notebook running again?

[drella15]

Purchased Jan 2011 for $775. Has an Intel i5-460M processor. 1st gen i5. 2 cores. 4 threads. 64-bit. Runs via wireless LAN off a desktop with 100Mbps cable.  It turns on. Windows 7 & HP Advisor load. Chrome loads. But I can't go anywhere from there although the machine seems to be trying hard. Laptop now tells me: Intel Rapid Storage Technology is not running. Neither is Norton. Can't open either icon. Also, some warning from the Windows Security Center. Also, maybe it's my imagination but I used to hear a "fan" running when the unit was on; I no longer hear that. The laptop had been running slower & slower over the past couple years. Froze up late at night on 8/5/18. Was able to shut down, restart and resume reading an online article. Froze again. Ironic, since the unit has occasionally run "hot" for the past several years. Meaning that after 4-5 hours (via direct power) of online reading (mostly Wikipedia & news or magazine sites), a mild red flesh mark would appear on my chest. Spent part of 8/6/18 trying various things a computer idiot like me has learned, mostly via that black & white screen with Open Windows Normally. Or in Safe Mode/Safe Mode with Networking/Safe Mode with Command Prompt.  Is the unit fan cooled? I've also read something online about heat pads. I have dropped the unit 4-5 times in the past 7 years but it's never fallen more than 14 inches! It's sometimes fallen into the wooden office trash can whereupon it sits or 14 inches onto a piece of wood whereupon the mouse sits, over padded carpet. Don't recall a fall around 8/5/18. My 2007 desktop (Gateway CPU with crappy Vista) finally went kaput on 3/29/18. Hired a local, honest tech to buy/set up a new Dell 3668 desktop with an i5-7400. While transferring files, etc., he ran some automatic cleanup program on both the old Vista and the HP laptop. The program found and fixed 7 "things" on the Vista desktop but 32 "things" on the laptop. When he returned the laptop, it still had some warnings in the Computer Performance screen. But with him trying to show me the new desktop, time didn't permit us to go through the laptop warnings. He charges a very reasonable rate but I'm not rich. Also, he's not into rescuing old equipment. But I'd like to try Geek Squad to rescue this laptop. Finally, on 8/6/18 I was shutting down the laptop in normal mode. Got that not unusual "To close the program that is preventing Windows from shutting down" message. There was an icon below it that I've never seen before. Looked like a spy icon. 

[CherylG]

@drella15

My guess would be that you have an aging/failing hard drive that needs to be replaced-usually about $50. That would require installing Windows 7 on a new drive. Did you make Recovery Disks for the laptop when you first set it up? Often you will get a popup telling you to create Backup Media.

If you don't have Recovery Media you could download a Windows 7 ISO and create a bootable USB flash drive using Rufus. That method would depend on whether the 25 character Windows 7 license key is still legible on the COA label attached to bottom of laptop.

Would BB geeks know any of this- you may need to explain it. 😊

Maintenance and Service Guide shows how to change the drive:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-dm4-1200-entertainment-notebook-pc-series/4346357/m...

[drella15]

Sincere thanks for your help, CherylG.

[drella15]

A belated, sincere thanks again, CherylG. With all respect, passing on some info that might also help others. Best Buy seemed competent (they always do to me). Estimated 40-100 for new hard drive. Probably 40. **But what I didn't think of beforehand was having to transfer my data from the dying drive to the new one.** I am incapable of that, or changing the drive out myself, or virtually anything when it comes to fixing a computer. BB charges 100 for data transfer. Then there was an estimate of 40 for the possibility (possibility only) of having to replace something else based upon the symptoms I explained. 40 for new drive + 100 for data transfer + 40 for the "something else" possibility = 180. And that's only if the new drive came in on the low end. So they advised signing up for the 1-yr protection at 199. Which would not include the cost of the new hard drive. I wound up buying a new lap for 499. That data transfer cost, for which I think they were being reasonable, was the deal breaker. But many thanks & praises, again, for your help.

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

@drella15

In my opinion $100 for data transfer is expensive. Of course it depends on whether you are capable of doing it yourself. I bought a SATA to USB adapter for $15 years ago that I use to plug a failing drive into usb port of my laptop and copy files over-takes about 10 minutes. Of course BB has overhead and employees to pay. 😊