Hi,

My son has an HP Pavilion 512n, and he apparently started having
problems with it awhile ago (from what I can tell, it sounds like the
problems may have been spyware or virus-related). Anyway, for some
reason, instead of bringing the PC to me, he or his wife asked one of
their friends to try to fix the problem, and they said that person
apparently ended up wiping out the original Windows XP, but then the
computer wouldn't work.

He finally got around to telling me about the problem yesterday, and
dropped the machine off tonight.

I checked the system, and it looks like their "friend" wiped all
partitions, including the original HP recovery partition, off of the
hard drive .

So, I started checking at HP's website, and it looks like the "recovery
kit" for the 512n is no longer available. I did a chat with HP's
support, and they weren't able to help me.

Since all partitions appear to have been wiped off the system, I figured
I would try an XP install, using the product key on the side of the
machine, but as I suspected, the XP installation wouldn't accept the
product key (from my research, sometimes product keys are bound to
certain OEM distributions).

My first preference would be to see if I can find a set of the recovery
CDs, since I gather there are some HP-specific drivers and utilities for
the machine.

Can anyone here suggest where I might be able to find these, or does
anyone have any suggestions as to how I can recover this machine?

Thanks in advance,
Jim

It won't work with the Windows XP Upgrade disc but mine worked with the
non-upgrade version Windows XP disc.

"ohaya" <ohaya@cox.net> wrote in message news:433F64D0.23E1576A@cox.net...

Hi,

I tried installs with an XP upgrade CD and a "full" XP-SP2 CD that I got
off of my MSDN account. Neither worked so far, but I think that one of
my other sons might have an "OEM DSP" CD, so I'll try that (my Googling
seemed to indicate that this SOMETIMES works). I'm still hoping that
someone here might know where I can find a recovery cd ...

Thanks,
Jim



Daibidh wrote:

P.S. I'll see if anyone I know has a retail, non-upgrade CD also!


ohaya wrote:

Here's some discussion on one of the "support" web sites:


Apparently the recovery set is eight (sic) disks. Since XP fits on one
CD, and any proprietary drivers are insignificant in size, it's obvious
there's tons of junkware included, very little of which is useful. They
get paid a few pennies per machine to include trial programs, adware,
and other assorted garbage.

I'd never re-install this much junk on a computer (or buy one that
had it installed). Go for the clean XP (or better yet W2K) install,
and deal with any missing drivers. Usually by identifying the hardware,
and doing a web search. You might be able to identify the motherboard
maker, and get a support package from them.

Computer will run faster and be more stable if you leave out the junk.

Good luck, you'll need it.
-Dave

David Kinsell wrote:


Dave,

Thanks for the comments, and I'll take a look at that link.

I know that there's a lot of junk on the original CDs, but aren't there
some utilities (e.g., I think the CD burner utilities) that are HP
specific?

At this point, I would do an XP re-installation, if I could, but as
indicated in my earlier posts, I can't find an installation CD that will
take the HP product key .

I just checked with my other son, and he only has a full retail XP Pro
CD (i.e., I can't find an OEM DSP or full retail XP Home in the house).

BTW, I just checked again, and it appears that HP MAY have the recovery
kit for a "513n", which from what I can tell looks the same as the
"512n" but with more memory and a faster CPU. Just my luck that they
have that, but not the one I need . I'm going to try to call them
tomorrow and see if they know if that would work.

Thanks again,
Jim

Hp has a set of about 8 restoration CDs. I have the pavilion 523n. Hp never
included these cds with the computer. If you asked them for them within i
year of purchase of the computer they mailed them to you at no charge. After
1 year they charged you $10.00 They then got sued for this practice, and the
case settled about five or six months ago. Under the settlement if you filed
a claim they are at sometime supposed to send them to you free. You may want
to call hp and raise hell. At any rate you can get the CDs for your computer
from hp. They will set the machine up the same way it originally came,
operating system and all.
rather than waiting I bought and installed Windows Xp Home . Everything
worked fine except for the sound. The sound drivers were different. I did
not try to get the drivers from Hp on line. I had an Creative sound card
from another computer which I installed together with a pair of speakers I
had. Everything works ok. But to save the expense and minor aggravation, I
recommend you call the sobs at hp and raise hell.

mike
"ohaya" <ohaya@cox.net> wrote in message news:433F64D0.23E1576A@cox.net...

ohaya wrote:

Likely there is. First thing I'd do is rip out the burner and put
in a decent one, assuming it fits in the case. You can get excellent
burners for 30 bucks that include a version of Nero typically, which
works with the new unit. They don't make coasters all the time like
the HP ones do. Look for the keywords "burn-proof" or "buffer underrun
protection" in the ads.



Did you check on eBay? That kind of stuff shows up there. I'd go for
an original set, rather than eight disks that somebody burned on their
machine. The odds of all eight being readable isn't that good.

-Dave

mwos,

Aargh! I just found this page:

http://www.computersettlement.com/

And it looks like the deadline for claims was 9/9/05 !!

Jim



mwos wrote:

ohaya wrote:


Hi,

Just for the record, and in case anyone ever tries to track this (or
similar) situation down, my search for a "Recovery kit" for the 512n has
proved futile. I chatted with HP support, who suggested that HP's "Part
surfer" might be able to provide the kit. That website yielded none,
and so I called the 800 number for HP part surfer this morning. They
referred me to ambry.com, and indicated that I should be able to get it
from there, so I submitted a request for a quote. I just got a response
to them, which says (DOH) it's not available.

I am now in the process of installing a "regular", non-HP XP Home CD
...

Jim