Recovery Keeps Failing/Freezing, even with Recovery USB - Bad Video Card?

[scullman40]

I am helping someone with their laptop that recently crashed on them.  The laptop is completely stock, with no modifcations to the hardware, and was used primarly for browsing or word processing.  *Sorry for the long post*

They said they attempted to reset the laptop to factory settings several times prior to handing it over to me.  I read that this can mess up the recovery partition (since it is over 500 GB).  I still attempted a recovery, and it failed at the same spot when installing HP software/drivers every time.  It would lock up, say it couldn't finish the recovery process (provide no error number).  I was able to install get into a clean version of Windows 10 on this laptop and ran some virus scans, came up with nothing.  However, when I went to install another program the Windows 10 UAC triggered, the screen got black boxes everywhere and it shutdown.  I was unable to re-boot to Windows 10 or repair it.

I ordered a recovery USB drive, and tried to a factory reset using that.  That fails at the same spot as well.  I reset the BIOS to default settings, set the date back (read in this forums there is an issue with the BIOS and sometimes setting the date back to 2012 or so will help the recovery).  In doing that, the recovery USB got passed the part where it normally fails; however, the screen got several small black boxes (about 1/4" in size) all over and the random areas of pixelated boxes appeared.  It froze when a windows popped up saying "This computer may reset several times," that is all I was able to read before the computer reset and failed to resume the recovery process or boot to windows.  I was able to view a log that stated, "There might be unexpected reboot during [windows setup]. The process will cause CTO panic beaucse the image might not be normal now..."  After reboot, I got a BSOD with "System Service Exception -- What Failed: rdyboost.sys."  Windows 10 never booted, and still would not boot (assuming since the recovery never finished).

I ran tests on the hard drive and memory, and all came back normal.  I am thinking this is an issue with the video card; however, I am not sure a video card would cause Windows to completely crash and fail to load.  I kept the laptop on a laptop fan to keep it cool, in case over-heating was the issue.  The laptop is less than a year old, has not been dropped, nor has it gotten wet.  My next step would be to use Ubuntu Live and run some tests and maybe a virus scan to see if I can come up with anything.  However, before I spend anymore time figured I would check on here to see if anyone has an idea what could be going on with it.  Thank you for your time.

[scullman40]

Hardware Specs:

Product number

W2L17UA

Product name

HP Pavilion x360 m3-u001dx (ENERGY STAR)

Microprocessor

Intel® Core™ i3-6100U with Intel® HD Graphics 520 (2.3 GHz, 3 MB cache, 2 cores)

Memory, standard

6 GB DDR4-1866 SDRAM (1 x 2 GB, 1 x 4 GB)

Video graphics

Intel® HD Graphics 520

Hard drive

500 GB 5400 rpm SATA

Display

13.3" diagonal HD IPS UWVA WLED-backlit multitouch-enabled edge-to-edge glass (1366 x 768)

Webcam

HP TrueVision HD Webcam (front-facing) with integrated dual array digital microphone

Audio features

B&O PLAY with 2 speakers

[Chimney_83]

Greetings @scullman40, 

Welcome to HP Forums and Thanks for the post. 

I understand that you are facing an issue with your computer not booting up after installing Windows 10 using the recovery kit ordered from HP. Don't worry, I will be glad to help you. 

Kudos to you for trying a lot of troubleshooting issues. 

Have you tried to boot the computer to recovery manager?

Wanted to know if the issue occurs during bootup or after a few minutes after you login?

Recommend you to keep tapping F11 or ESC repeatedly during startup. This should boot the computer to a Startup Menu or to Recovery manager directly. 

If the computer boots to recovery manager, please select troubleshoot and reset the PC without backup. Refer to this HP Article for assistance. Follow the procedure under "Recovery when Windows 10 does not start correctly"

If the computer does not boot to recovery manager, please contact our phone support for any service options. 

Step 1. Open link:  www.hp.com/contacthp/

Step 2. Enter Product number or select to auto detect

Step 3. Scroll down to "Still need help? Complete the form to select your contact options"

Step 4. Scroll down and click on HP contact options - click on Get phone number

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.

[scullman40]

I have attempted the recovery using the HP Recovery Manager, and that too fails every time it is ran.  I ran through a recovery again, this time I kept the "Windows Setup" window open that I accessed through the "FBI Debug" window that appears.  The process fails at the start of the "BBV2.pi to BBV2 - Installing Softwares - 1" step.  A screen kept appearing the "Command Script Failed" and after about a dozen of those pop-ups appeared, the laptop reset and failed to resume the recovery process.  After a couple of restarts, the a Recovery Manager popup appears telling me the recovery attempt failed and provides me an option to view the details.  I click on that and all it displays is: "There might be unexpected reboot during [windows setup].  The prcess will cause CTO panic because the image might not be normal now..."  It does not allow me to access the recovery manager at this point, because I get error 0xc0000098 (probably because the install did not complete and setup the BCD).

[mdklassen]

As a first experiment, I would try installing to a different disk-drive, just to rule-out the possibility of a "bad" (though seemingly reported as "good") disk-drive.

As a second experiment, I would take the USB "System Recovery" device, and the computer's disk-drive, to another computer, and start the installation onto the disk-drive.  When the installer gets to the point where it is necessary to reboot for the first time, force the computer to power-off.  Remove the disk-drive, and put it back into the original computer, and boot from "semi-installed" disk-drive.  Do NOT connect the USB memory-stick to the original computer -- the files on the hard-drive should be sufficient to complete the installation.

Have fun!