Windows 7 computer repeatedly reverts to factory settings

[Guest Mike8134]

Several times now, my wife's HP laptop has reverted to what appears to be the original Windows 7 install, including the factory wallpaper, which is how we know that today is not going to be a good one for computing in our household..

 

 

Her files are all there, in the right places, but when I try to run any office program, the computer acts as though I'm installing Office for the first time. Nor does it recognize other programs she uses, such as iTunes. The first time this happened I called HP support but wound up in Bangalore with a script reader who kept telling me to reformat the hard drive, which would have resulted in everything being lost. I've been using computers for 30 years, and I knew everything was there. and the computer was booting normally from a hardware standpoint. I assumed there was a problem with the registry or user profile, but HP would not put me in touch with a real technician -- someone who knew more than how to read a script. So I backed up everything, reformatted and reinstalled.

 

 

Now the same thing has happened twice more. I finally wised up and got things back to their previous settings with system restore points, but this is not a good way to operate on a permanent basis. The computer isn't that old. The Windows 7 installation is original (with regular updates), and we haven't made any hardware changes to the machine. Microsoft's automatic overnight updates now seem to be triggering new onsets of the problem. It doesn't occur on our other machines.

 

 

Is there anything I can do to keep this from happening? Or is this one of those gremlins that no one knows how to get rid of? I'm willing to buy a new computer, because frankly, it isn't worth the hassle of continuously restoring hers, but I'd rather not, since this was a nice machine with a keyboard that she's used to.

 

 

Any help appreciated.

 

Continue reading...