My friend has an HP Pavilion dv2000 laptop and it was running abysmally slow. Somebody had installed a variety of free antivirus and firewall programs for them but it seemed that there was still a virus somewhere and the scans turned up nothing. We decided that a fresh install would be the best bet. I used my external HD to backup any files that they wanted to keep and we used the recovery DVD (we had to order one from hp since the burned set couldn't be located) to reinstall Vista. At first it didn't start as I expected it to (didn't ask the administrator's name or time zone or anything like that but I figure that's because it's a 'recovery' and not a new install) and the start menu and task bar were set to classic mode (not a huge issue but I thought the default was aero). Now the OS only lasts about 5 minutes before it restarts! We tried disabling automatic restart on system failure but that didn't seem to make a difference. I have a feeling that the virus survived the 'recovery' process but I'm not sure. Safe mode appears to be stable. Any suggestions?

Leonard Ortega, November 2008

The reason it's restarting is its trying to reinstall all of the HP drivers that run your hardware such as graphics, touchpad, etc. Its hasn't installed these yet, this is why windows looks like its in default mode. Ordinarily I would say leave it overnight so that it can install all of these (thats normally what I do), but my buddy's dv2000 is having the same problem--it never installs everything and asks for your info. If you just want to stop it from restarting, press the start button, and type defender into the search bar at the bottom of the start menu. At the top, a "windows defender" icon should appear. Click it, and at the top of the windows defender screen click the tools tab. Then click the software explorer icon in the lower left. Scroll down on the left side of the page to the bottom of the list of start up programs and disable "soft thinks launcher". This will stop your computer from restarting. I would try going to hp.com and downloading all of the drivers, I think they have an application that includes them all. If that doesn't work, and your warranty is still active, just call HP for some technical support. They are awesome!

Lucky, May 2009

Hi. I am not sure how to tried to do your reinstall. I would try if you haven't already a destructive format, you know back up and fully format the system a virus won't survive that, none what I have seen anyway. If that fails check your power supply and make sure the heatsink is very of dust and hair, the system maybe overheating and shutting down. Just a couple of things to think about. Good Luck

Chris, December 2008