HP 15 fails to recover using HP Recovery Media

[Ronin149]

The Product Number is: LOT33UA#ABA   The Model Number is: 15-f233wm

Unknown third parties used social engineering to trick a user of this computer into allowing a Remote Desktop Connection.  Some rather nasty malware was installed.  My attempts to remove it have failed.  Moreover, attmpts to execute a recovery also failed.  At that point, HP Recovery Media was purchased. 

The recovery media also fails.  The Recovery Manager presented this message: "The recovery attempt has failed.  Select one of the following buttons."  The buttons are: Save Log, Details, and Retry.  Retry has been tried multiple times, and always ends up back here.  I have saved the log.  Details presented the following document: CTOERROR.FLG

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[21:00:20.87] ------------------------------------------------------------
[21:00:20.87] [Sat 03/23/2019]
[21:00:20.87] Windows has detected critical error and has triggered ErrorHandler.cmd.
[21:00:20.88]
[21:00:20.88] Possible cause[s]:
[21:00:20.88] - got critical error during Specialize-Pass.
[21:00:20.88] Check [C:\Windows\Panther\setupact.log] for this case.
[21:00:20.90] - got critical error during Audit-Pass.
[21:00:20.90] Check [C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC\setupact.log] for this case.
[21:00:20.90] Check [C:\SYSTEM.SAV\Util\Install.log] for this case.
[21:00:20.90] - got critical error during SysPrep.
[21:00:20.92] Check [C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Panther\setupact.log] for this case.
[21:00:20.92]
[21:00:20.92] ------------------------------------------------------------
[21:00:20.92]
[21:00:20.93] No Memory dump found....

[21:00:21.12] NOT found [C:\Windows\System32\SysPrep\Sysprep_succeeded.tag] file.
[21:00:21.12] image might fail at SysPrep...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
LastBootSucceeded REG_DWORD 0x1

[21:00:21.18] Bootup normally...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
LastBootShutdown REG_DWORD 0x1

[21:00:21.38] Previous Shutdown normally...
[21:00:21.47]
[21:00:21.47]
[21:00:21.49]
[21:00:21.49] ------------------------------------------------------------
[21:00:21.50]
[21:00:21.50] [C:\SYSTEM.SAV\Result.ini]
[Results]
Version=1.00
ErrorNumber=957
MESSAGE=Started_BBVClean_phase_in_PASS2
[OSChanger]
Version=OSChanger64.exe [Version 1.0.4.3]
[21:00:21.52] ------------------------------------------------------------
[21:00:21.61] [PANIC.cmd] has been called at non-WinPE environment.
[21:00:21.61] [PANIC.cmd] activate BP and reboot into WinPE environment at first...
[21:00:24.36] [PANIC.cmd] going to reboot Windows...

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This document does not change between attempts at recovery.  I still have the logs, but do not know what to do with them.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

If the HP recovery media isn't working, you should be able to reinstall W10 as follows...

You can make a W10 USB flash drive installer with the Microsoft Media Creation Tool, using an 8 GB flash drive using another Windows PC, if your PC is not working.

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

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, select the 'I don't have a product key' option, and W10 will install and automatically activate once you are connected to the internet.

Here are the steps to create the W10 USB flash drive installer...

Select Download tool now, and select Run.

If you agree to the license terms, select Accept.

On the What do you want to do? page, select Create installation media for another PC, and then select Next.

Select the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10. You want 64 bit.

Select which media you want to use:

USB flash drive. Plug in a blank USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space. Any content on the flash drive will be deleted.

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

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-15-Notebook-PC-series/7527799/model/8857447

[Ronin149]

Thank you for your reply!

My first attempt failed.

The tool made it as far as writing to the USB drive.

The reply:

Windows 10 Setup

There was a problem running this tool

We're not sure what happened, but we're unable to run this tool on your PC.  ...  Error code: 0x80042405 - 0xA001A

The error code led me to this website.  

Solution 1 and Solution 2 helped me to get a succesful burn, at least as far as the tool was concerned.  The drive was fat32.  This was unexpected.

The second attempt failed.  The laptop will not boot to the USB, instead always returning to the same fail screen as earlier.  I tried every USB port. 

I tried to get into the BIOS settings, but I cannot.  I tried <ESC>, F9, & F10; with and without <Fn>.  

I tried Solution 3 from the above website.  All this does is wipe my drive.  I needed to use Manage to reallocate the partition before I could retry.

I am rebuilding the USB drive now.  I am going to try to boot to it by selecting <Retry> from the fail menu I keep coming back to.  I doubt that this will work, but the only other thing I can think of is to pull the drive to see if that helps with getting into the BIOS settings.  Pulling this drive is more complicated than it should be.

UPDATE: Trying to trick the system into booting to the Win10 install USB did not work.

Moreover, the logs are not changing.  I do not think that it is actually booting to the recovery media, even when the recovery media is the only USB drive inserted.  It seems to be stuck in a loop where it does not even try.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

Sometimes that Microsoft W10 USB installer does not work as planned.

Download the ISO file instead, and use Rufus to create a bootable USB flash drive.

Watch this video...Ignore the beginning regarding how to get W10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=psPWQy3-5B0

[Ronin149]

Thanks again for your responses.

I finally got into the BIOS!
I had to furiously pound on the <ESC> key, but I got in.
The Post Hotkey Delay was set to zero seconds.
Even though Boot to USB was enabled, the OS Boot Manager had highest priority. So, as long as the HDD was present and functioning, I was not going to be able to boot to USB.
I gave the OS Boot Manager lowest priority, and the machine booted to USB on the first try.

The settings I used for Rufus (the default settings after selecting the image file:)
Rufus 3.5.1497
Boot selection: Windows.iso
Image option: Standard Windows installation
Partition scheme: GPT
Target system: UEFI (non CSM)
File system: FAT32 (Default)
Cluster size: 8192 bytes (Default)

The link to the HP site with the drivers was also very helpful in swapping out the Windows default drivers.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad that you have your notebook back up and running again.