Windows Vista Failed to Start

I have a HP a6400f computer running Windows Vista. It is not connected to the internet and was used 3 or 4 times this year. It was running fine 3 months ago when I turned it off.

Today I turned it on and it would not boot up to Windows. It appeared to be disk-related because I could see garbage on the screen.

I restarted the computer and held F9 down to run diagnostics. The diagnostic app is powered by PC Doctor along with the HP logo. The CPU, memory, hard drives, and the boot path all passed.
When I then let the computer restart, Windows came up fine and ran for several hours when I shut it down.

The last time this happened was in late 2022. I found an intermittent connection in the hard drive cabling between the power supply and the disk. I replaced the cable and the computer has been running fine until today.

What might be the cause of the problem?

I have a HP a6400f computer running Windows Vista. It is not connected to the internet and was used 3 or 4 times this year. It was running fine 3 months ago when I turned it off.

 

Today I turned it on and it would not boot up to Windows. It appeared to be disk-related because I could see garbage on the screen.

I restarted the computer and held F9 down to run diagnostics. The diagnostic app is powered by PC Doctor along with the HP logo. The CPU, memory, hard drives, and the boot path all passed.
When I then let the computer restart, Windows came up fine and ran for several hours when I shut it down.

 

The last time this happened was in late 2022. I found an intermittent connection in the hard drive cabling between the power supply and the disk. I replaced the cable and the computer has been running fine until today.

 

What might be the cause of the problem?

 

 

I remember HP computer,... and certainly W. Vista is now an 'old' operating system.  

I also remember much earlier having a laptop (different company brand)  computer with XP which eventually died; but I got a new computer before the old XP laptop died.

This time is now for you to purchase a new computer with either Windows 10 or Windows 11.  You will find something which will make you happy, comfortable, and productive.

(The Hewlett-Packard products I used did not last as long as would have like.)

Hi skuddle:

Did you check the Events Viewer to see if any errors were logged on 02-Aug-2023 when your system failed to boot up?  Are there any errors logged in the summary of your Administrative Events or at Custom Views | Administrative Events that might point to a recurring problem?

If you're only booting up this Vista machine once every 3 months (your post signature indicates you also own a Win 10 machine) and the boot problem is intermittent it's going to be very hard to diagnose if one of your old hardware components (e.g., RAM, hard drive, etc.) is about to fail without running some stress tests.  I'm not a hardware expert but Step 5 of the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions - Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 & Vista that is pinned at the top of the Windows Crashes and Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Help and Support board of this forum has instructions on how to run memory and hard drive diagnostics.

I'd have to agree with cafejose that your Vista computer is likely on its last legs, but if you want to get to the bottom of your boot problem you might want to post in that Windows Crashes and Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Help and Support board and request assistance there.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1.2522-1.0.365
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, 256 GB Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS SATA HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3208 * Firefox v116.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23050.9-1.1.23060.1005 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.34.275-1.0.2089
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

Realize in regard to post #2 and#3, if you decide to look for/buy a new computer,  NOW is the time of the year when some excellent deals happen, because of "Back to School" time.