Do you know how to restore to factory compaq laptops? help please!

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › Do you know how to restore to factory compaq laptops? help please!

GamerOC

439 posts

Ultimate Geek

#97208 13-Feb-2012 22:29

Hi and thank you for reading this post. I would like to request some help with my compaq laptop that i purchased second hand and is quite slow despite dual core cpu. i would like to make a factory settings restore to this laptop. I used to have an acer laptop and was very easy to do but this one despite having a separated partition label the recovery partition it does not have an exe file and I dont know what key's to press to trigger the factory settings.

If any one know could you please let me know,

thank you so much,

andy

CYaBro

4582 posts

Uber Geek

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#581147 13-Feb-2012 23:00

You usually have to press a function key at boot up, before the operating system starts to load.
It should say on screen which function key to press but try F12 first.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

garbonzai

315 posts

Ultimate Geek

#581156 13-Feb-2012 23:34

Hi

If your Compaq is 2 or 3 years old it should have Vista and resetting it back to factory default is easy (as long as the recovery image is ok), you can do it from within windows with HP recovery program or from power on with f11 or f10 (can't remember) read the bottom left of the screen at startup and it will tell you (if you press 'pause/break' key during startup it will stop everything and you can read the screen to see which function key to press)

If your laptop has Win7 installed from factory, should be pretty much the same, BUT if someone has installed Win7 after, it will loose the links to recovery and the recovery partition and won't work, you will need a dvd copy to install Vista or Win7.

Or you could have a cleanup and delete and uninstall stuff you don't want and download and install CCleaner (it's free) run it and it will clean up your reqistry and you can also disable startup programs you don't need.

Here's a link to how to use HP Recover for Vista (if link won't work just copy and paste into your browser)->

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00809678&tmp_task=useCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lang=en&lc=en&product=3645602

Good luck

jpwise

590 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#584026 20-Feb-2012 16:50

Probably a bit late to the party on this one - but yes, either F11 per the HP link posted above, or use the Recovery Manager to create a recovery set (worthwhile if your hdd packs up later down the line), and then re-image from Disc.

If you can't create a recovery set because it says the set has already been created (HP's often limit you to making 1 set), then try the F11 option, and once it's complete you 'should' then be able to create another set again. Either way it's worthwhile having a DVD set around if it all turns to custard and you need to re-install on a new harddrive from scratch.

Working for Service Plus - www.serviceplus.co.nz

Authorised Service Agent for Apple, BenQ, Sony, and Toshiba - warranty & non-warranty repairs.

GamerOC

439 posts

Ultimate Geek

#584183 20-Feb-2012 21:17

thank you guys so much as I managed to sort the problem by reseting laptop to factory without any issues thanks to you guys and yes I made a copy of the recover in dvd for the future in case the hd lifespam expires.

thanks again,

Andy