Unable to access any recovery options. Boot options menu also not working, Please Please Help!!

[thebgb]

I am begging for help as this problem is driving me insane!

To start the story Windows 10 asked me to upgrade last year, and God I wish I didn't. I had nothing but problems with the OS, mainly down to it being unsupported for my notebook by HP.

I Decided to roll back to Windows 8 and during the rollback, the notebook has failed catastrophically! 'Luckily' the recovery option kicked in, but this also failed and crashed mid recovery. 

I am now left with the boot failing immediatley and showing a BCD error 0x0000034. (press esc for UEFI). Once in UEFI the only option that doesnt bring the same BCD error is the HP System Test. This works ok and the system passes all tests (including hard drive which though a lot of searching online is often the root cause of the above error)

I want to enter the BIOS settings and set it to boot from USB in order to use my windows recovery USB, but pressing F11 or F10 goes straight to the Blue screen of death with the same error above!

I am fairly proficient with computers and managed quite a few repairs etc, but this loop of blue screen with no conceivable boot option is driving me insane!

Someone please help!

Thanks in advance, Thebgb! 

[WAWood]

thebgb

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

Sorry, but I don't have very good news for you ...

The Win10 Upgrade is know 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: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Video-Display-and-Touch/HP-Recovery-Manager-Blocked-After-Windo...

This means that RESET no longer works on your laptop due to your doing the Win10 Upgrade.

To actually restore your PC to its original condition, you need something known as HP Recovery Media.

HP Recovery Media 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 entry 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!

If you have trouble finding a phone number, then try: 1 (800) 474-6836

If HP no longer provides Recovery Media for your model, a couple of other sites you can check are: http://www.computersurgeons.com/ and http://www.restoredisks.com/

Also, try pressing Esc or F2 to get into the BIOS options.

Good Luck

[thebgb]

Thanks for your quick response!

I have thought about the HP Recovery Disk, however if I am unable to access the BIOS due to the BCD fail, no matter how i try and access it,  how would the HP Recovery stand a chance of working? Surely it wont boot from the USB automatically? If that were the case surely my windows USB boot I have would auto-boot also?

[WAWood]

You SAID you only pressed F11 and F10 -- and F11 won't work because of the Win10 Upgrade.

Have you tried the other keys?

I have found pressing Esc to work on every HP PC I have tried.

You have to keep pressing the key, once or twice a second, repeatedly, until the HP utilities menu appears on screen.

Good Luck

[thebgb]

Sorry WAWood, I am new to these forums and probably wasn't clear enough!

I can access the black startup menu that gives me the F10 / F11 options and trying to enter either (F10 = BIOS, F11 = recovery) reverts to the BSOD!

I can try and quick enter into boot order (F9) within the first second of startup and that attempts to start for a flash of the screen then back to the same error, or F10 (which is the BIOS, same as startup) and that does the same as the boot order option. Esc brings me to the initial startup menu.

Hence why I am a little stumped. Can you think of anything to force a boot from USB without accessing BIOS? its almost as if its 100% dead! 😞

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

Sorry, but F9 is the key that presents the one-time boot screen,

Have you tried the USB stick in a different PC to confirm it boots OK there?

[thebgb]

Thanks for your help.

As you said with the Function keys, they were initaily not responding, however I realised if I let the computer turn itself off via a timeout with the BSOD showing, I was able to boot from USB and after a couple of shakey attempts it has sprung into life! That was a lot of time wasted!

Thanks again!