HP Recovery Discs restored XP with the Recovery Partition. Silly me deleted the whole Recovery Partition and made an X: without checking the MBR. I simply clicked “Yes, I want to restart my computer”.

So in the end I got the blinking “-” like many others, unable to boot Windows XP again. I was too lazy to recover again (man, it takes ages for that HP thing to work compared to installing Vista).

But before I screwed XP I manged to play around with the Quick Launch thing. Asif, tell me what your settings are to boot QP Direct? As in there’s a “Browse…”-like button to select an app that you want right? What is the app for QP Direct?

Thanks lots, I’m too lazy to try anymore I guess (reinstalling is a pain when not using Ghost or TrueImage, maybe I should). Looking around, many other laptops are getting this feature (Toshiba, Dell and many more). Maybe I really should get something else in future. This laptop already went to Service Center thrice since I got it Dec 06. -.-

Regards, Jay

Thanks for your research. I have no clue what those guys are doing on the forum there, because it’s a rather wishy washy kind of a discussion. However, every other place I have researched, including the HP site, it seems like the QLB utility in Windows Vista is not configurable, at least not on most notebooks. Now the QLB driver for each model may differ slightly, and the notebook used there is an NX series, so it may have something different from what we do.

Whether or not you can get QP Direct if you revert back to XP…it’s highly likely that you can, because I believe that you can configure the buttons, in fact, I configured my buttons when I was using my HP Laptop with XP. What notebook do you have? If you have a dv series hp notebook, you won’t have a problem. It may be slightly more challenging with a Compaq v3000.

The QuickPlay boot restore thing or SP34444. This is a small patch, less than 1 MB in size (I believe). It simply partitions the HDD, I believe, but it doesn’t install QuickPlay Direct. For that to happen, it would have to contain ALL the drivers for ALL the laptops that are QPD compatible. Not gonna happen, because let’s be honest, hp is not that good a corporate player.

No luck on my part yet.

However now I have some things to ask/bring up:

1. Programmable Buttons on Vista

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1130820&admit=-682735245+1182165273048+28353475

Someone seems to have managed to get Quick Launch or something in Vista which I DO NOT have. MSCONFIG says the Quick Launch is loaded but nothing appears in the system tray. Weird. Asif and Ibrahim do you get the Quick Launch (Rocket Icon, I suppose) in the tray?

2. QP Direct in XP

Asif, from what I gather, I should be able to get my QP Direct working if I return to XP? Page 153-154 on this pdf [http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00569409.pdf] says I probably can assign some shortcuts in XP but is it really possible to have QP Direct listed? I might try later if I completely screw up Vista. (:

3. SP34444

I feel really ripped off by HP/Compaq. My laptop did not come with QuickPlay Direct initially when I bought it so I was just giving it a shot. I am NOT recovering anything, just trying to see if I could get it on my laptop to get my money’s worth. After all this function was so hyped you really feel cheated not having it.

However, there’s this HP fix SP34444 that RESTORES the function. Does nothing for me, but it could help people like Ibrahim if his came with QPD initially. Ibrahim give it a shot!

[http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-46803-1&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3255665&dlc=en&lang=en]

Not sure if Compaq website uses sessions, if the link doesn’t work just search it.

NB: I just realized this is for XP. Hmmmmm.

Okay, end of post and more things to consider. Thanks again Asif, let’s keep trying. BTW HP adverts on TV clearly state that their latest Vista laptops CAN run QP Direct. So either they’re lying again or they really have a fix this time.

Regards, Jay

I still get a message taht key has expired….can you help…

thanks

zeljvo

Did your laptop come pre-installed with QuickPlay for Windows or QuickPlay Direct?

The no recovery CD is a cheap stunt from hp, and I think they’ll either change that or pay heavily for it in the long run. That doesn’t change the fact that we got screwed. Mine is going back to the US next week for warranty fixes.

THere’s got to be a utility that allows you to assign to QLBs in Vista. If not, someone needs to write one!

My Quickplay came pre-installed with the laptop. I did not have to use any cd’s or anything. They did not provide any cd’s with the laptop anyway… stupid of them.

I’m going to try and figure out a way to fix this. If any of you have come up with a solution, please do post!

oh and thanks Asif for creating this site! I sure hope there is a way to solve this.

Thanks

zeljvo