Compaq Presario F730 Laptop Computer Setup Tips

The black screen of death is every computer user's worst nightmare.

Within a day of buying my Compaq Presario F730 Notebook Computer, the black screen of death appeared.

I wondered whether my Compaq Presario F730 Notebook was worth the money and if it was a lemon ...

Turns out that everything is okay with the new laptop and, by following a few simple tips, you can also keep your Compaq Presario F730 Notebook operating at its best.

First, my issues with my Compaq Presario F730 Notebook came when starting up the computer. The computer prompted me to "repair" certain programs, and since I trusted the F730 to tell me what it needs, I allowed the computer to "repair" the programs. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but the F730 decided that it didn't like the repairs and the Presario completely froze.

This wasn't completely horrible, though. I called the Compaq customer service line and was pleasantly surprised by the helpful staff (even on a Saturday). When I talked to the IT specialist, he advised me that the HP Total Care Advisor was probably the cause of the problem. The customer service specialist then walked me through the solution step-by-step.

First, he told me to hit F11 continuously until I received a screen prompting me to initialize the system. This would wipe out all of the Microsoft Word files that I had added to my desktop, but I was willing to do anything to get my Compaq Presario F730 Notebook working again. Once this process was completed, the F730 would have to reinitialize - all of the startup procedures I had completed before would be for naught.

The Compaq customer service specialist recommended that I create a restore point so that I wouldn't encounter reinstalling files again. Microsoft Vista enables users to easily find files, so he advised me to type "restore" at the Start Search prompt, and sure enough, you can easily create a restore point from here. Of course, he also advised me to backup my F730 files externally in case of another internal issue.