Stuck on HP recovery screen and can't boot windows

[TheSecretLight]

HP Pavillion 
Model: 17 – 1215dx

If you need the Serial number or the PN just ask. I just didn't want to post too much sensitive information.

It originally had windows 10 64 bit… but it now has Windows 8.1 64 bit
i5 processor 8gig RAM

Literally just shut the lid and opened it back up and it wouldn’t boot windows. It’s stuck at the HP screen saying it’s diagnosing my problem. Tried a soft reset and a hard reset where you remove the battery and put it back in while it’s unplugged. Didn’t help. I can’t boot in safe mode. I tried doing a recovery which was successful but when it restarts it says “There was a problem restarting your PC”. I got frustrated and did a factory reset and that did the same thing the factory reset was successful and was when it reverted back to 8.1 as that is the OS I bought it with but then it still wouldn’t let me into windows. I was going to try and do startup repair but had I known it would require an administrator I would have never done the factory reset. I know I was rash but I just wanted to get it working. But yeah I have no idea what’s wrong. I don’t feel like it’s a hardware issue just something is keep windows from working. Should I attempt a repair disk? Would this help?

[TheSecretLight]

Bump still need help please

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

The SecretLight

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

I read your post about needing to Recover your laptop and wanted to help -- but need more information.

You said your laptop originally came with Win10, but then later, you said you tried to revert that back to Win8.1, which you then said was the original OS.

So which was the original -- Win8.1 or Win10?

Asking because if it came with Win8.1, and you UPGRADED it to Win10, while Microsoft tells you that there is no risk in the Win10 Upgrade, because they let you believe that you can always revert back to your original OS and setup within 30 days, the ugly faction of the matter is that the Win10 GoBack function has proven to be unreliable -- and when it fails, it can leave machines in a corrupted state -- which doesn't always happen, but it does happen often enough to be a problem and you won't get any warning in advance that it is going to trash your PC!

The Win10 Upgrade is know, in some cases, to corrupt the Recovery partition stored there by the OEM that built the original machine.  This pretty much guarantees that no HP Recovery is going to work.

What will work is restoring your machine to its original factory condition using HP Recovery Media. This is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities. In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks.  You have to order these from HP; they can not be downloaded.

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click "Update".  If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the "+" symbol to expand that entty and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Service:

If you live in the US or Canada, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/phone-assist.html#section1

If you live elsewhere, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-contact-us.html

NOTE: After you get through, stay on the line until you are finally able to talk to some one -- it can take a while!

Good Luck
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[TheSecretLight]

Thank you for your reply it's much appreciated. I had upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 was the original Operating System. I did the factory reset through the HP recovery not the windows 10 recovery. I did contact HP tech support but the warranty was expired by 9 days. Just my luck. And I have no money... I really need this to work because I need it for school though. 😕

[TheSecretLight]

Just an update. I contacted Windows they said they're going to fix it for free. So I brought it to a windows store. They're keeping it and they're going to work on it. Thank you so much for helping me pin point the problem!