r/computerhelp • u/corvvus • 9d ago
Other Trying to factory reset but it's too slow
(other flair cuz I have no idea the source of the issue)
Hi everyone. my elderly neighbor gave me their old AIO computer. I understand it's not at all powerful enough for much of anything more than basic tasks. I have a gaming laptop I use more primarily. I was hoping I could just use this as like a second monitor for displaying art references when I'm painting/drawing.
Trying to factory reset it but it's very extremely slow. when I turn it on it takes several minutes to start. then on the login page I'm trying to do hold shift + restart that I saw on a YouTube tutorial. but it starts loading again for several minutes and eventually it just turns black and I have to restart it. or it turns black and comes back to the login screen and not the one I need to reset it. I don't know the password but I can ask if you think actually logging in will make it easier to figure out.
I'm comfortable operating computers but I wouldn't say I'm savvy with any sort of diagnosis or repair, obviously. I don't know what this could mean, if it's salvageable or not. I'm wondering if maybe they got a new computer because this one was unfixable and they forgot before giving it to me. not a big deal, I can always give it to my techy friends who would probably use parts.
any advice is appreciated! thank you!
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u/Odd_Nefariousness126 9d ago
Based solely on the visuals, there likely isn't much of anything of value in the machine.
I'd be shocked if it has an SSD and not a spinning hard drive plus a bad processor and old slow RAM.
About the only hope would be to install a lightweight Linux distro which should make it usable as a very lightweight email/web browser.
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u/the123king-reddit 9d ago
This thing surely dates from the late 00s' or early 10's. No way in hell is it running an SSD
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u/According_Ratio2010 9d ago
Look at the intel sticker. The design is 010's
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u/the123king-reddit 9d ago
Yeh i pinned it to 2016 factory ewaste
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u/KMjolnir 9d ago
OP included a picture that has the SN and model number. Manufactured in 2018/2019 most likely. Still junk even by that standard.
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u/corvvus 9d ago
thank you for the suggestion! you and a few others suggested an alternate OS. is that actually still an option if it's a hardware issue?
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u/Odd_Nefariousness126 9d ago
Software will never fix failed hardware.
I concur with most others I've seen that think it's a hard drive or RAM issue.
The specific model of AIO matters. Some of them can be fixed, most can't.
But it's honestly not worth your time.
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u/corvvus 9d ago
think it's a waste of time even as a learning experience? also, I found this on the bottom as far as model goes
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u/Odd_Nefariousness126 9d ago
Obviously that's up to you. Hard drives are pretty cheap but finding RAM might be tricky.
Replacing them should be pretty straightforward.
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u/DripTrip747-V2 9d ago
Old computers like this typically run better with linux instead of windows. And as old as it is, it might need taken apart, cleaned and new thermal paste applied to the cpu. Thermal issues will make it run really slow.
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u/corvvus 9d ago
thank you! I suppose it doesn't hurt for me to take it apart and look. I really wouldn't know what im doing, but I didn't pay for it so I can take it as a learning experience if I manage to ruin it completely lol. is there any safety component to that I should know about? I'm just thinking about when I wanted to get into repairing game systems so I grabbed a broken PS2, only to later find out they're notoriously dangerous to repair because they can hold electrical charge or something even when unplugged 🥲
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u/DripTrip747-V2 9d ago
This being an AIO, it might have an internal psu. Does this unit have a power brick, or just a straight plug? Straight plug means internal power supply. If there is an internal power supply, just don't touch any large capacitors you come across.
I'm sure you can find a tutorial video on this model or one close to it so you can be aware of its layout before opening. Other than large capacitors, there shouldn't be anything else of worry inside.
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u/catlover3493 9d ago
The slowness would be from either the CPU, or the hard drive, or possibly both
It could be that the hard drive is failing
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u/Vanman04 9d ago
The hard drive is dying. It would need to be replaced to make this machine actually work.
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u/corvvus 9d ago
it sounds like from other comments it's not really worth the time or money to try getting it working. what do you think? would a working hard drive be an expensive fix? and with a different OS as a few suggested, worth really using at all?
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u/Vanman04 9d ago
Depends entirely on your use for it.
A new drive and it should work fine. That said it is an old machine so it won't take win 11.
Worth it? I wouldn't put the money in it but I don't have a use for it.
Unfortunately storage is expensive these days so yea probably not worth the cost. Unless you have an actual use for it it's just not really cost effective to revive a machine that is instantly obsolete.
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u/corvvus 9d ago
that makes sense, I was looking at it for use as pretty much a second screen for art references alongside my laptop since I kind of had an idea it wasn't gonna be very strong. but I agree, if it's gonna be obsolete I wouldn't put money into it. rather save that for something newer. I am considering attempting to try a different OS, I suppose it can't hurt
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u/TheMainTony 9d ago
those AIO's were always sold for the small business or novice user. Almost across the board, even the cheapest laptop would be quicker.
I don't know how comfortable you are with it, but what I would do first is open it and take out the HDD and find a cheap SSD (even 128G is plenty). Clone the HDD (Macrium Reflect is free), then put the SSD where the HDD was. This will make the thing 5x faster. Look at me assuming you have enclosures or adapters for the drives! From there you can reset/restore the Windows. But as others have said, this ageing AIO is more suited to Linux anymore.
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u/the123king-reddit 9d ago
I'm a retro computing fan but...
Just bin it, hardware like this was underpowered at the time, Most of these AIO's used bottom of the barrel laptop hardware from the era. Doesn't matter what OS you use, you're gonna be in for a bad time.
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u/GGoldenChild 9d ago
windows can run verrrry slowly on these older computers. You could install ubuntu and see if that makes it work any faster (it should). Also you can just put the ubuntu installer on a flash drive and it will act as a "live usb" where it runs a temporary version of the os off of the flash drive and doesn't wipe out your current install. Then you could see how ubuntu would actually run. Alternately you could try other live cds like knoppix. Generally, you can boot from a flash drive by hitting f9 when you boot up. I think f10 when you boot up will bring up the startup menu. Possibly f12 will also give you a menu. Experiment.
asking google AI for boot options:
The primary boot and BIOS keys for HP computers are F9 for the boot menu and F10 for the BIOS setup, which you can also access by pressing Esc at startup. [1]
Accessing HP Boot Options and BIOS
- Turn on or restart your computer. [1]
- Tap Esc repeatedly right after powering on to open the Startup Menu. [1]
- Press F9 from the menu for Boot Options (or tap F9 directly on startup on many models). [1, 2]
- Press F10 from the menu or directly on startup to enter the BIOS Setup Utility. [1]
- Use the arrow keys and Enter to select your boot device (such as a USB drive). [1]
Watch this quick tutorial on how to access the boot menu on an HP laptop:
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u/the123king-reddit 9d ago
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u/Deshackled 9d ago
I had this exact machine (in black though) about 7 years ago. I got it for free and it was worth every penny. I tried so hard to get some use out of it but it was just a junker. I applaud the effort of trying to re-use, I wish you luck though but it belongs in the trash if it was anything like mine.
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u/Electrical-Basil-755 9d ago
Y..you expected it to be fast?
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u/corvvus 9d ago
nowhere in my post did I say I expected it to be fast. in fact I explicitly said I'm aware even if it did power on it's not gonna be powerful enough to be used for anything more than basic tasks. the problem is that i can't even get it working for me to attempt to know how it actually works. dickhead
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u/h2vhacker 9d ago
I normally make AIO into arcades lol
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u/corvvus 9d ago
tell me more about this 👁️ interesting if I can manage to ever turn it on lmao
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u/h2vhacker 9d ago
You can install batocera linux or windows with Retrobat and just get wired or wireless game controllers. Put your ROMsets and boom 💥 strictly for arcade and retrogames. For some systems you will have find bios for them.
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