It only took me 4 hours of trying to turn on my computer. I FINALLY DID IT.

This morning I turn it on (I have this power button in front of the tower that STICKS, so sometimes it gives me trouble but if I'm gentle and push it fast enough, I have no trouble). This morning, I press the power button (I have a HP MEDIA COMPUTER 5 years old, XP, all bells and whistles, etc.).

so when I see a blank screen and up on top it says "Boot disc error, insert system disc", I said to myself: "uh oh, I don't have a system disc"

So I kept trying to turn it off by pressing the power button and holding it in for 7 seconds (this always worked), and this time, not only did it not work, but the blue screen came up saying HP, and it was blurry, then the whole screen started to do SOMETHING, but it went blank.

So I went to the back of the computer tower, unplugged thepower cord, waited, replugged it back in, and waited then turned it on again. Same thing happened. Then Alan woke up, came over and we tried this and that, then we pressed Setup, F10 (or something like that),

We saw on top Main, advanced, boot, exit, so I said 'move the right arrow over to Boot. We did this.

In the Boot menu, it said "Boot (can't remember all the words), but it was DISABLED. We enabled it. Then we shut it off again (by using the power cord in the back of the computer).

We then waited, holding our breath and praying. I gently turned on the computer. AND VOILA!!!! I am here writing this post.

So I have NO IDEA IF THIS WILL CONTINUE TO HAPPEN, so be advised, if you don't here from me, I am getting this darn thing fixed.

I told Alan: "We can't shut this computer off again, we can put it in sleep mode (how do we do this?) but I am afraid to shut it off.

Any advice?

thanks much

Melody

sorry Mel i missed this until now.

yes those buttons are not the best design - plastic junk LOL.

I don't like to leave things running all night so I shut down and let the BIOS start it up automatically every morning. I rarely have to use my on/off button at all, you can set auto start up in the BIOS section.

I don't know if you have ever gone into that part before.
It's accessed while the machine is in booting up stage - usually you have to hit delete or one of the F keys to get to it.

Might be best to read about it on the HP site or Google it - before trying it.

something like "HP BIOS settings" or
"setting automatic boot up on HP computer"
http://www.google.com/search?q=setti...ient=firefox-a
Some people do leave there's on full time, but I would disable, unplug or lock down the internet connection if you do leave it on full time.

Your anti virus program might have a setting to do this if it is a internet suite program.

Or if you have the connection icon on the task bar at the bottom - you should be able to right click and disconnect from the internet that way at night.
then reconnect same way in the morning when you want to use the computer /internet.

Jo, I have NO IDEA how to do this BIOS thing or autostart thing that you are referencing.
Isn't there a SLEEP mode in which I can press a button, and when I want it to COME ALIVE AGAIN, all I have to do is tap the keyboard. I used to have a computer (years ago), where I could do this.

Can't I do this on my HP Pavillion?

Thanks, Melody

Oh yes I'm sure you can- you can find those settings in the Windows Control Panel under Power Options.

[ To enable "hibernate," simply go to your Control

Panel, click on "power options," and set your PC to "hibernate" after a specified time (most recommend 30 minutes).

If you are away from your PC a lot during the work day, you may want to set it to "hibernate" after 45 minutes to an hour, and set it to "standby" to 15 minutes. Under "standby," you'll be conserving power but you won't be saving your computer memory onto your hard disk, as you will with "hibernate." "Standby" is meant for shorter absences. ] page 4
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusine...urnoffcomputer

Jo:

I went to Control Panel, there is no option called Power Options. I have Windows XP by the way. Alan goes to sleep at around 6 a.m. and I get up and I'm ready to check my email at about 10 a.m. so I gather I would use the standby mode, right. So when I figure out how to do Standby, what happens?

I go over to the computer, and press any button, and the computer WAKES UP, is this what happens?

Thanks much
Melody

P.S. UPDATE UPDATE.

STUPID ME, I FINALLY FOUND POWER OPTIONS. It gives me a choice of hibernate and standby. Which do I choose? Thanks

[Alan goes to sleep at around 6 a.m. and I get up and I'm ready to check my email at about 10 a.m.]

If it is only about 4 hrs of "off" time ??
Then you might as well leave it on full time and use the standby setting.

usually you hit a key or jiggle the mouse to wake it up.

Mel - not to alarm you, but when something similar happened to my Dell, it crashed not too long after that.

BACK UP your pc asap.

My laptop was getting a boot error, asking for a cd to boot. The boot sequence switched itself and the only way I could boot it up was to go in and reset it back to *boot from hard drive*. Worked for a while, but still got an error msg - I forget just what that said.

Got blue screens, all kinds of stuff. DS did save all my stuff. I got a new hard drive and put it in, ds put my files on it for me, no probs since.

I have no idea how to back up anything. All I need a pc for is to go on the internet. I would really like to buy a laptop but my husband is on this thing day and night and I don't think a laptop can be used DAY AND NIGHT, can it. I would replace my desktop with a laptop and plug it in exactly where my desktop is now plugged in. It wouldn't be moved around, it would stay on the computer table. But wouldn't it burn out or something. I wouldn't need to recharge it because it would be plugged in the same way my HP is now plugged in.


Can a person replace a desktop with a laptop and continually use it?

Just curious.

I really never get near this. My husband practically lives on this thing. He says "it makes me forget my neuropathy pain".

So if it does do that, who am I to tell him "get off".

He wouldn't listen anyway.

Melody

Lots of people use only a laptop full time.
I think the main concern is make sure it has plenty of cooling room under the fan area, they can over heat.

The main difference is that with a tower - if you need to replace an internal part it's pretty simple, lots of room to work in those big boxes.

With a laptop it's a much tighter fit and maybe generic parts won't fit.
I think if the main board dies then it is sometimes toast.
But I've never taken mine apart and don't plan to until it does croak. LOL

But the manufacturers do rebuild & refurbish them, so it is possible.

But I've seen replacement parts online for laptops so I know it's do able.. keypads, screens , memory , hard drives etc..

So we'll laptop next time.

Oh, I have a good question for you. About hyperlinks inside emails.

In the past, if someone sent me an email, and they included a blue hyperlink in the email (say for example), this thread, in the past, if I got a response, the url for this thread would be in blue and I could just click on it, and WHOOSH, I'd be transported directly to this thread.

Well, Alan must have done SOMETHING to the settings, because every time there is a web address, instead of it showing up as a blue hyperlink, it's no longer blue, and it's no longer a hyperlink. It's just plain text. I have to copy and paste it to my browser to get where i want to go.

So do you know any way that I can fix this. I get lots of emails with names of url's in the email and it would be MUCH more convenient to just click on the hyperlink.

I wonder what happened.

Thanks Much

Melody