Factory Restoring a laptop without access to settings?(w8)

My laptop has thrown up a conundrum.

It's sitting idle since the battery died but need it occasionally.
While it was always poor performing its a nuisance now so decided to wipe it yesterday.

However I cant access PC Settings, or any tiles.

When you click then to expand it open for a split second then minimizes again, it doesn't crash with a notice or anything, just minimizes to the taskbar and each press only shows the initial picture before launch so its not running the app per se.

I'm no tech expert but I know more than the average person so i exhausted a few avenues last night.

I've tried it in safe mode.
I've tried to restore to a previous point(only goes to June and I noticed this problem with another app\tile months back)
I've tried updating but that doesn't work either, lingers on 0% a while then fails.
I removed anti virus and also anything downloaded in the last few months.

Is there an alternative way to factory restore without getting into PC settings?.

Seems ridicules that I cant get this myself, spent ages at it last night.

Ant695

If you have the windows key then you could just do a fresh install by mounting the windows 8 iso on a usb and then booting from said usb to install it. During the installation process select to format the drive and it will wipe and reinstall the os.

Ant695

Ant695 wrote: »

If you have the windows key then you could just do a fresh install by mounting the windows 8 iso on a usb and then booting from said usb to install it. During the installation process select to format the drive and it will wipe and reinstall the os.

No key as it came preinstalled unless you get access to a virtual key that's hidden somewhere?.

I could dl a copy or w7 or 8 (by other means) if that's going to be my only recourse.

Ant695

There should be a sticker on the bottom of the laptop with the key on it. And you can download the copy of windows direct from microsoft just need the key to activate it.

Ant695

Ant695 wrote: »

There should be a sticker on the bottom of the laptop with the key on it. And you can download the copy of windows direct from microsoft just need the key to activate it.

I know the one you're on about but there was none stuck on, may have came separate and got lost somewhere.

I'll just dl a copy later and I have a USB. So there's no alternative to that?.

I actually never thought of downloading/reinstalling it so at least I got a new option to try.

Ant695

gilberto_eire wrote: »

I know the one you're on about but there was none stuck on, may have came separate and got lost somewhere.

I'll just dl a copy later and I have a USB. So there's no alternative to that?.

I actually never thought of downloading/reinstalling it so at least I got a new option to try.

It's the simplest way I can think of in the situation. You will need a product key to reactivate windows though so I wouldn't do it until you have one. If you can't find the other one you can get them on reddit for about €20.

bonzodog2

Some Win7 keys are on a sticker under the battery. You can still find W7 ISOs, but not from digitalriver anymore

edit:oops, just noticed w8 in thread title...

riclad

see
http://www.howtogeek.com/186775/how-to-download-windows-7-8-and-8.1-installation-media-legally/


or Maybe download windows 10, beta ,windows 10 is free to windows 7 users for the next 12 months.
https://insider.windows.com/

you can use a linix cd mint free .to access any files on a laptop .
try mint version 7 ,its fits on 1 cdr , about 640 meg file .
boot from the cd,into mint ,
click on drive c ,browse copy the files to a usb drive.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualboximage/files/Linux%20Mint/Linux%20Mint%207%20i386/

mp22

What brand of laptop is it

mp22

mp22 wrote: »

What brand of laptop is it

HP Pavillion with an AMD A4... Piece of garbage due to the processor.
It's even worse now with browsers crashing etc.

mp22

Have a read here http://support.hp.com/ie-en/document/c03546603

johnnybmac

mp22 wrote: »

Have a read here http://support.hp.com/ie-en/document/c03546603

+1

As far as I know, you don't get the product key on a sticker on your computer with windows 8 (I haven't seen one yet anyway)...

mp22

mp22 wrote: »

Have a read here http://support.hp.com/ie-en/document/c03546603

Wouldn't work.

Gave an error about missing files yada yada.

Tried the upgrade to W10 preview, seems to install but it didn't wipe the computer or seem to change anything so either it didn't work or it offered little change.

My only option now really is a download of w7/8 and hope I can load it onto a USB and do it that way.

Got it sorted.

The reset search provided an error which I was able to google and find a specific solution for fixing PC settings using cmd prompt.

Thanks for the pointers, it provided the means to the error which provided the solution.

mrtom

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Got it sorted.

The reset search provided an error which I was able to google and find a specific solution for fixing PC settings using cmd prompt.

Thanks for the pointers, it provided the means to the error which provided the solution.

What was the error and the cmd line ?

ressem

The command line to directly bring up the reset dialog is

systemreset

I cant remember what the error was.
The cmd entries were pretty long had to copy and paste three different lines of information, got them from a tech forum.