----- Original Message -----
From: "A&C Thompson"
Subject: [PCSOFT] XP Crash and Burn

> A friend's brand new HP system has crashed, there is NO boot disk, and I know nothing about Windows XP. He
> says he had just turned his Athlon 1.3ghz on, and after bootup Windows update downloaded something, then
> restarted his pc. Now the system is reporting the following errors:
>SNIPPED FOR BREVITY
-----------------------------

A great big thanks to Fred, Jeffrey, and Bradley for your invaluable suggestions. I printed your messages and
gave them to my friend. After reading through them all, he rebooted (several times) and pressed a different F
key each time. Although he's uncertain which one did the trick, (trigger happy - I see we'll likely be helping
him again real soon!) he was finally able to gain access to HP's recovery program and it (he "thinks")
reformatted his drive and reinstalled XP. (He didn't mention the recovery cd, so I assume the cab files
contained everything. As this was a brand new system only 2-3 weeks ago, he figures he lost very little other
than his personal Windows settings (and I suspect some bonus software he's unaware was even present.). I'd say
this was probably a good experience for him, as he's a real beginner who's never seen or used anything other
than XP. (Although, there is something to be said for the knowledge one gains recovering from the dreaded
BSOD!). Once again, human ingenuity proves the machine will never replace the cumulative power of the human
brain - regardless of Moore's Law and his predictions!
Thanks again, guys...

Al Thompson
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