HP ze4805us problem

Meatballsub · 05-14-2007, 12:32 PM

A friend of mine came to me for some help. He said windows wouldn't load on his laptop (hp ze4800 series). I had a look at it, tried to boot it, and said ntoskrnl couldnt be found. I figured a virus or trojan might have corrupted the file.

I bought an ATA-6 to IDE adapter, so I could hook the laptop HD up to my desktop. Found 14 trojans and 1 virus, several HD errors, and other problems. I tried to rewrite ntoskrnl every way I could, and none of the work I did above helped the problem. I decided to format the drive.

Good, now we're getting somewhere. I pop in a Windows XP Home install cd.....setup program is loading files....computer freezes up. Nothing on the keyboard works. I restart, try again, same thing. Basically, it begins to initialize startup files on XP cd and just hangs. I tried cleaning the disk, swapping the RAM module in another slot, nothing.

New memory didn't work, and it is Corsair brand new module. It is the same speed/interface as the original memory, and I tried it in both slots. Made no difference.

Now, i'm trying to decide whether the memory slots are faulty or there's a motherboard problem of some sort....

Any ideas?

dai · 05-14-2007, 01:12 PM

which computer is the drive in for the install,does it have a restore partition on the drive that can be used to restore the operating system to when it was first delivered
most laptops do

Meatballsub · 05-14-2007, 01:17 PM

The restore partition was corrupt, it had to go too. I deleted it when I deleted the main partition. I have no recovery CDs, and even if I did, I doubt it would stay "unlocked" enough for it to do any good.

dai · 05-14-2007, 01:25 PM

clear the disk with killdisk and then format again and try the reinstall
the inicial loading goes into ram and on the first reboot it hands over to the h/drive
if this is where the problem occurs it is usually because it cannot find the h/drive
so check it is being seen by the bios
http://www.download.com/3000-2092-10188745.html

Meatballsub · 05-14-2007, 01:35 PM

The BIOS does recognize the hard drive. Should I still do the other step you mentioned?

dai · 05-14-2007, 01:56 PM

yes clear the disk and then try the format and install

Meatballsub · 05-14-2007, 02:15 PM

Okay I will work on that tonight. In the meantime, why would this HD erasing program work any better in my situation that just deleting the partitions?

dai · 05-14-2007, 02:18 PM

it erases the drive completely,formatting and deleting does'nt
so make sure you run it on the correct drive

05-14-2007, 12:32 PM	#1 (permalink)
Meatballsub Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 4 OS: XP Home	HP ze4805us problem A friend of mine came to me for some help. He said windows wouldn't load on his laptop (hp ze4800 series). I had a look at it, tried to boot it, and said ntoskrnl couldnt be found. I figured a virus or trojan might have corrupted the file. I bought an ATA-6 to IDE adapter, so I could hook the laptop HD up to my desktop. Found 14 trojans and 1 virus, several HD errors, and other problems. I tried to rewrite ntoskrnl every way I could, and none of the work I did above helped the problem. I decided to format the drive. Good, now we're getting somewhere. I pop in a Windows XP Home install cd.....setup program is loading files....computer freezes up. Nothing on the keyboard works. I restart, try again, same thing. Basically, it begins to initialize startup files on XP cd and just hangs. I tried cleaning the disk, swapping the RAM module in another slot, nothing. New memory didn't work, and it is Corsair brand new module. It is the same speed/interface as the original memory, and I tried it in both slots. Made no difference. Now, i'm trying to decide whether the memory slots are faulty or there's a motherboard problem of some sort.... Any ideas?

05-14-2007, 01:12 PM	#2 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,765 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: HP ze4805us problem which computer is the drive in for the install,does it have a restore partition on the drive that can be used to restore the operating system to when it was first delivered most laptops do __________________

05-14-2007, 01:17 PM	#3 (permalink)
Meatballsub Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 4 OS: XP Home	Re: HP ze4805us problem The restore partition was corrupt, it had to go too. I deleted it when I deleted the main partition. I have no recovery CDs, and even if I did, I doubt it would stay "unlocked" enough for it to do any good.

05-14-2007, 01:25 PM	#4 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,765 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: HP ze4805us problem clear the disk with killdisk and then format again and try the reinstall the inicial loading goes into ram and on the first reboot it hands over to the h/drive if this is where the problem occurs it is usually because it cannot find the h/drive so check it is being seen by the bios http://www.download.com/3000-2092-10188745.html __________________

05-14-2007, 01:35 PM	#5 (permalink)
Meatballsub Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 4 OS: XP Home	Re: HP ze4805us problem The BIOS does recognize the hard drive. Should I still do the other step you mentioned?

05-14-2007, 01:56 PM	#6 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,765 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: HP ze4805us problem yes clear the disk and then try the format and install __________________

05-14-2007, 02:15 PM	#7 (permalink)
Meatballsub Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 4 OS: XP Home	Re: HP ze4805us problem Okay I will work on that tonight. In the meantime, why would this HD erasing program work any better in my situation that just deleting the partitions?

05-14-2007, 02:18 PM	#8 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,765 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: HP ze4805us problem it erases the drive completely,formatting and deleting does'nt so make sure you run it on the correct drive __________________