[gui-talk] Hosed System?

[Mike Freeman]

Hello, all.

I'm running a HP DVD7 laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium (I think) and JAWS 13. Day before yesterday, I was listening to a MLB GameDay Audio game and doing other work when I encountered the situation that I couldn't get to the window to close it. Thinking to start over, I held down the ON/OFF button to force a shutdown. When I restarted the machine, I got to the login prompt (I have two accounts) and arrowed to "Owner" and hit the spacebar to log in. I then got the message: "Result 0x8007fff Windows Security" and an OK button. Pressing this brought me back to the login screen. This happened to me a few months ago and when I took the machine to the Geek Squad to fix (since I had bought the computer at Best Buy) they tried a few things and then told me my system was hosed and I had to have everything reloaded. They were able to save my data so I didn't lose much. But it still cost me money. I'm in the same boat now.

I have periodically backed the system image up to disk using Windows Backup. I also built a Recovery Disk — at least I think I did — on a data CD. But the CD must not have an autorun.inf file as when I put this in the drive, nothing happens. I still get Windows coming up (sounds and all) and end at the login prompt and when I attempt to log in, the same error message comes out.

Am I gonna have to pay $200 again beget the thing reloaded or at least take the system and my external HD in to have things reloaded? My wife is sighted so eyes aren't a problem.

Any enlightenment is appreciated. The Geek Squad guys thought a Windows update might have messed me up the last time this happened. I wonder if this isn't a subtle problem with JAWS?

As I say, ideas are welcome.

TIA!

Mike Freeman