Shift key and F10 may get you to a command prompt.



"mcmcom" <mcmcom@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:56EEDEA7-1F02-43F5-A8D4-C0AAE63834BB@microsoft.com...[color=blue]
> hi all,
> i have an HP Compaq 8710p laptop that is about 10 months old. For no
> apparent reason yesterday it just froze up and when i re-started it it
> took
> me directly into Startup Repair. Since then all it will do is boot up
> into
> startup repair and fix the same issue, then re-start itself and go back
> into
> startup repair, fixing the same issue over and over with no change.
>
> For some reason i am unable to press F8 to bring up boot options screen
> during load. And this is easily the most annoying part about the whole
> situation. there is absolutely NO WAY to interrupt the boot options and
> get
> a "selectable" list of boot options, for some reason it ONLY goes to
> Startup
> repair.
>
> Startup Repair never lasts too long at all only about 20 seconds each
> time.
> The diagnostic code in the details is as follows: (this is the only
> problem
> it detects)
>
> Root cause found:
> Boot Manager failed to find OS loader.
> Repair action : File Repair
> Result : Completed Successfully. Error code 0x0
> Time taken = 13400 ms
>
> So it states that it has fixed it but every time i restart it i get the
> same
> issue. I cant boot from cd because of course HP in its infinite wisdom
> decided to make this a "diskless" restore. Using their own branded
> software
> to restore your computer - of course there are no restore points (as i
> couldn't make them some software issue) so now im forced to restore this
> back
> to factory settings (which i really dont want to do)
>
> If anyone has any idea or had a similar problem like this please offer any
> suggestions. FYI i am a seasoned MS Programmer with about 2 decades of
> experience and in my lifetime i have never had such a hard time trying to
> fix
> a computer. I mean comon, give me a command prompt or something. I find
> it
> ridicolous that i cannot interrupt startup at any time!
>
> tia,
> mcm[/color]