PCI System Error on Bus/Device/Function 0000h

[Rottin]

I need assistance if possible with an issue with my daughters HP Laptop running Vista. When the Laptop is booted, I get the HP screen to allow boot sequence changes, then the following error:
PCI System Error on Bus/Device/Function 0000h.

I cannot seem to get past this error. Here is what I have tried thus far:

1) I have restored an image from this laptop to a new note book drive (purchased believing it might be a hard drive issue exactly the same as the original driveSamsung 160 Gbit) and when I boot the Laptop the same error occurs:
PCI System Error on Bus/Device/Function 0000h.

2) Next I tried replacing the above drive with the drive from my other daughters machine which functions normally (identical unit HP DV2418ca Vista Samsung 160Gbit drive) and the suspect laptop boots properly all the way up to Windows and functions 100% normally.

3)Next I restored the image from this good PC(item 2 above) onto the new hard drive (item 1 above) and the laptop boots into full service functionality with no errors.

3) Restored image from the original PC back onto the new hard drive used in item 1 & 3) and I now get the same error back:
PCI System Error on Bus/Device/Function 0000h

I am at a loss as what to do next. It seems I have proven it to be "software" by what I have completed thus far. The suspect system works fine with other drive and other image from the working system, but never with an image from the suspect PC or the original suspect PC drive. I have also flashed the BIOS to the most current from the HP website to no avail. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[mpilchfamily]

Considering you swapped the HDDs and it worked fine its not pointing at a software issue. It sounds as if you have a bad HDD that needs to be replaced. If it was a software issue then an image restore would have fixed that problem.

You may just need to run a scan on the HDD for errors. I suggest going online and looking up UBCD (Ultamate Boot CD). This is a bootable disk you create that will give you some good software tools for troubleshooting a system. It should have its own check disk application that can scan the drive. Its likly the drive in question has a bad sector in it that is causing the problems. If that doesn't work then you could purchase a great program called Spinrite that should take care of the issue for you. But since that costs $90 your better off getting a new drive.

 

[Rottin]

Thank you for the reply, I perhaps was not clear enough in the description of my actions so far. In the problem laptop, I have restored the image to a brand new new drive already..same issue as the original drive has. If I put in a drive from my other daughters PC it works fine..as does the new drive if I format it and restore the image from the 2nd lap top on the new drive..works fine.
Whatever drive has the image of the suspect laptop on it, I get this error, which seems to point to software. I have tried scans repeatedly and no problems with any of the drives..I have also tried bootable Windows DVD's (Power Suite 2009-Boot Care) and ran their recovery programs, scans etc. to no avail. I know if I format and re-install windows it will clear up my issues, but I really don't want to do this as I have no Vista DVD software, since it was not provided with the HP laptops when purchased. The recovery DVD's created at the time of purchase have not helped either so here I am at this point.
Thanks for the suggestions I may have to buy more "fixes" and hope that they rectify the issue at some point.