HP Laptop Problem

[Dodger666]

My wife recently inherited a HP530 Laptop from our grandson after he replaced it with a new one.

Most of the time the HP laptop works OK but occasionally, on start up, the normal 15.6" widescreen appears with a 2.5" black void on the right of the screen and a 1/2" black void at the bottom. The remaining display looks proportional with everything displayed, just smaller than usual.

The start button in the bottom left corner has a blue tail going downwards and if you drag the mouse down it creates a white stripe in the void. If you move the mouse to the right it goes as far as the edge of of the display but doesn't go into the void.

Has anyone any ideas what's causing this problem?

Any advice would be welcome.

[vivandorron]

:-)

Ron.☺☺☺

[Dodger666]

Chuck, If the grandson ever finds the recovery discs, assuming he even looks for them, I will consider restoring to factory settings. If only to remove all the junk still on the hard drive we don't know about.

Ron. The laptop already has MSE installed and yes, I did install the free version of Malwarebytes. It also has Avast installed, does it need MSE as well. Which is considered the best?

[ChuckFickens]

Look in start > all programs > HP backup & recovery and you should find the HP backup and recovery manager. From there you can run a full recovery back to factory settings, you shouldn't need any disks as the recovery is done from a hidden partition on the hard drive.

You should also be able to create a set of recovery disks using the same tool.

[Dodger666]

Thanks Chuck I'll try that.

[vivandorron]

Hi Dodger.....Take the advice given by Chuck and feel free to ignore any of my comments. Chuck is a top-notch IT Consultant, whereas I only pass-on information; most of which I have established from the real Techies in AB.

You asked which is better....Avast or MSE. Personally, I would opt for MSE.
However, you should not have more than one Virus Protection programme installed because they will conflict with each other and could cause serious problems. Anyway, if you do take your computer back to factory settings, you will have to reload a VPP.; which will not be difficult. If, however, you do not go back to square one, it is important to get shot of one of your VPP's.

I look forward to hearing how things progress.

Best wishes.....Ron.

[Dodger666]

Chuck

I can't find HP Back-up & Recovery in the All Programs list, only back up and restore. Opening this up only appears to give access to back up or restore files.

I have looked at the online HP 530 Mtce and Service guide which tells you to make the recovery discs when the Laptop is new. If this was done, which the grandson said he did, should the software still be on the laptop?