No Longer Boots to Windows - No Restore Media

[pcook911]

A friend's girlfriend's HP Split 13 x2 stopped working so it was given to me to fix. I have no experience with Windows 8.1 as I went from 7 to 10. I was told by her that she has no discs or restore/recovery media or Product Key for that matter.


Situation as it exists now

1. Boot brings this message - HP logo with "Preparing Automatic Repair"
2. Next screen brings this message - Diagnosing Your PC
3. Next screen brings this message - Automatic Repair: Your PC did not start correctly, Press "Restart... You can also press "Advanced options... - Restart and Advanced Repair buttons
4. Restart just brings me back to the sequence above so I try Advanced Options
5. Next screen brings these options - Continue, Use a device, Troubleshoot, Turn off your PC
6. Ran Troubleshoot option>Recovery Manager>Windows System Restore does not complete successfully

Is the Product Key saved in the hardware? Can I just do a clean install? If so where can I download a Windows 8.1 ISO? Is there one on MS website somewhere? I can't seem to find anything on the HP support site.

TIA,

Paul

P.S.

I have received so much help from sevenforums.com and tenforums.com and especially love the tutorials!

 

[Osprey]

Can I just do a clean install?

Yes.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/

The Windows 8.1 setup will auto detect the product key from the firmware chip and automatically enter it.