HP Lap Top will not load.

Joebedford writes “I've been updating automatically via wireless for many years at home but I turn updates OFF when travelling.”


Simply put, “Wireless” WiFi radio connections continually monitor the signal strength of the connection.. If signal drops too far the radio card can and will AUTOMATICALLY negotiate the connection speed DOWN until it reaches an acceptable speed for the signal strength.

Therefore WiFi connections are HIGHLY DYNAMIC, the speed changes are supposed to be “seamless” but in the real world WiFi connections can and do get interrupted.

Interruptions of the Wifi connection while surfing the internet or viewing email are typically harmless and often not noticeable other than perhaps a delay in web pages updating..

BUT when dealing with MISSION CRITICAL FILES like as with your OS updates, changes in the connection speed, lost connections or RFI (interference) of that connection can and will corrupt the downloading files..

READ HERE ABOUT WIFI AUTONEGOTIATION

Text from above link..

“Question: Why Do Wi-Fi Connection Speeds Keep Changing?

Wi-Fi networks support certain maximum connection speeds (data rates) depending on their configuration. However, the maximum speed of a Wi-Fi connection can automatically change over time.

Answer: This behavior is called dynamic rate scaling, a design feature of Wi-Fi networks. When a device initially connects to a network via Wi-Fi, its rated

speed is calculated according to the current signal quality of the connection. The rated connection speed then automatically changes over time if necessary to maintain a reliable link between the devices. Wi-Fi dynamic rate scaling extends the range at which wireless devices can connect to each other in return for lower network performance at the longer distances.
802.11b/g/n Dynamic Rate Scaling
An 802.11g Wi-Fi device in close proximity to a network router will often connect at 54 Mbps. This maximum data rate is displayed the device's wireless configuration screens. Other 802.11g devices located further away from the router, or with obstructions in between, may connect at lower rates. As these devices move further away from the router, their rated connection speeds eventually get reduced by the scaling algorithm, while devices that move closer can have speed ratings increased (up to the maximum of 54 Mbps.

Wi-Fi devices have their rates scaled in pre-defined increments. For 802.11g, the

defined ratings are (from highest to lowest)

54 Mbps
48 Mbps
36 Mbps
24 Mbps
18 Mbps
12 Mbps
9 Mbps
6 Mbps

Similarly, old 802.11b devices supported the following ratings

11 Mbps
5.5 Mbps
2 Mbps
1 Mbps

Controlling Dynamic Rate Scaling
Factors that determine which data rate is dynamically chosen for a Wi-Fi device at any given time are:

distance between the device and other Wi-Fi communication endpoints
radio interference in the path of the Wi-Fi device
physical obstructions in the path of the Wi-Fi device, that also interfere with signal quality
the power of the device's Wi-Fi radio transmitter/receiver

Wi-Fi home network equipment always utilizes rate scaling; a home network administrator cannot disable this feature.”

Distance from the router/AP, radio interference (RFI), walls/objects can cause your WiFi to shift speeds..

Distance and RFI are the two main causes of speed changes..

To be very clear, most WiFi connections DEFAULT to the 2.4ghz frequency band.. That band is “shared” by MANY other devices like MICROWAVE OVENS, portable cordless land line phones, BLUETOOTH DEVICES and many more.. Not to mention OTHER peoples own Wifi APs which may also be on the same "channel" as yours..

Wired network connections pretty much are immune to RFI and will stay a constant speed which was negotiated when the PC was booted onto the wired network..

Not to mention that a wired 100 Mbps network connection IS considerably FASTER than a 54Mbps WiFi connection and if you have 1Gbps network connection (Aka Gigabit) it is lightning fast when compared to WiFi. The faster the update files get transferred to your PC the LESS chance of corruption!

Granted there are 108Mbps WiFi connections but more often than not that connection will be substantially slower than 108Mbps and not to mention unless you have the newest latest greatest 108Mbps radio card AND router/AP on both ends you will only get 54Mbps or the top speed of the lowest device (108Mbps radio card connecting to a 54Mbps router/AP will give you a max of 54Mbps).

Just because you have WiFi “available” it doesn’t mean it is the "best" to use all the time..

I prefer to default to a WIRED connection as much as possible for best results (IE speed AND reliability).

I have had problems with my HP laptop booting when I have external USB drive connected. The drive has its own power cord, but something stops the boot when it is connected. I did not see any indication you have anything else connected to laptop, but if you do, try disconnecting them. If you can get into setup, check the BIOS settings.

joebedford wrote:
I've been updating automatically via wireless for many years at home but I turn updates OFF when travelling.

me, too...then started having major problems this winter....6 months on the road with Jetpack. Finally, saw the UPDATE logo lit up, did an update (gee..only 68!!!) and VOILA...all my problems have stopped!!!!

Quite frankly, OPer...if you can't get the lap top to open up, you can't do the things everyone is saying to do....right? or am I reading wrong. Sounds like trip to repairman. :(

I've been updating automatically via wireless for many years at home but I turn updates OFF when travelling.

If you are configured for auto updates you could be a victim of a bad update by Microsoft. Update #3033929 has caused may computers to go into a reboot loop. Check here for how to fix.
Fix reboot loop
I hope that's all it is. Good luck!

Sounds like a typical corrupted update failure..

I doubt you are going to get back even through safe mode (forcefully shutting down PC most likely made the issue worse)..

You may need to FOLLOW the manufacturers instructions on starting a "repair" or complete reload by using the HP recovery process..

Not exactly sure but I think you will need to watch the HP "splash screen" from a cold boot for the correct key sequence in order to get into the HP recovery partition.

The other possibility is the HD went bad and in that case only a new drive and complete reload will fix the problem..

Couple of very wise suggestions for future updates..

TURN OFF the AUTOMATIC DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL.. Instead set it to NOTIFY when new updates are available.

Second, do not allow the PC to pull the updates via WIRELESS only allow updates to download when PHYSICALLY WIRED TO the internet through the network card, this is a very important step since wireless connections can and often FAIL and any failures, slowdown or interruption of the data can and will corrupt the update files.. (ran into this with a failing DSL modem that would happen to fail at the exact moment the Windows update was downloading)..

Once Windows starts installing the updates it can be rather hard to fix the problem update.. Sometimes it results in a harmless but annoying failed update message each time you boot to as bad as a completely corrupted OS that is unbootable.

I manually restarted after several hours.

By "manually restarting" do you men you pressed the power button yourself? If so you most likely circumvented the update process which needs to do it's work during the shutdown and boot up phases. Try booting to safe mode and do a system restore.