windows 8 blue screen of death on start up and wont repair

How to use the new refresh and reset features in Windows 8
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57391104-285/how-to-use-the-new-refresh-and-reset-features-in-windows-8/
Also: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/01/04/refresh-and-reset-your-pc.aspx

Windows 8 - How to Refresh your PC
http://www.pagestart.com/win8refresh03011301.html
If you are unable to load Windows or if your PC isn't performing as well as it once did, and you don't know why, you can refresh your PC without deleting any of your personal files or changing your settings.

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Refresh
"The Refresh option reinstalls Windows, but keeps personalized settings and files. It does, however, reset PC settings to their defaults, but keeps apps downloaded from the Microsoft App Store and places a list of removed apps onto your desktop. A refresh does not require the Windows product key to be re-entered. Refresh is a good way to recover system performance, while keeping your data intact."

Note: "Only Metro style apps when customers refresh their PCs, and require desktop apps that do not come with the PC to be reinstalled manually. We do this for two reasons. First, in many cases there is a single desktop app that is causing the problems that lead to a need to perform this sort of maintenance, but identifying this root cause is not usually possible. And second, we do not want to inadvertently reinstall “bad” apps that were installed unintentionally or that hitched a ride on something good but left no trace of how they were installed.

Refreshing your PC goes like this:

    The PC boots into Windows RE.
    Windows RE scans the hard drive for your data, settings, and apps, and puts them aside (on the same drive).
    Windows RE installs a fresh copy of Windows.
    Windows RE restores the data, settings, and apps it has set aside into the newly installed copy of Windows.
    The PC restarts into the newly installed copy of Windows."

How to create a system image to refresh your Windows 8 PC
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2748351?wa=wsignin1.0

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RESET PC in Windows 8
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/4677/p/19473500/20216831.aspx

Activation State
The only element of your configuration preserved by a Refresh is the Windows activation state. This is to help provide a better post-Reset experience. In most cases Windows should be activated automatically at the end of Reset without user action. One exception to this is on a PC where you used the Add features to install the Pro Pack or Media Pack to upgrade your Windows Edition.

Push-Button Reset Overview:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj126997.aspx

Push-button reset features attempt to preserve the activation status and store, and migrate these settings in both a refresh and reset. If the migration succeeds, the system will remain in an activated state after the refresh operation.

The activation status may not be able to be migrated for a few reasons:

    For both the refresh and reset scenarios, if no activation store or activation status information is available, or if the activation store is unreadable, the activation status will not be preserved. The user will have to activate again once the operation completes.

    In the reset scenario only, if the user has upgraded the edition using the Windows Anytime Upgrade, none of the activation data is migrated. The user will be reset back to the edition included in the OEM image after the reset operation. The user will then have to activate, and go through the Windows Anytime Upgrade process again to get back to the upgraded edition.

Reset your PC to start over
"Reset, reinstalls Windows and blows out everything, even allowing you to securely wipe your data, so you can donate or sell your machine. At the end of a Reset, you'll need to re-enter your Windows product key."

"In some cases, you might just want to remove everything and start from scratch manually. But in other cases, you’re removing your data from a PC because you’re about to recycle or decommission it. For both of these situations, you can easily reset your Windows 8 PC and put the software back into the same condition as it was when you started it for the very first time (such as when you purchased the PC).

Resetting your Windows 8 PC goes like this:

    The PC boots into the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE).
    Windows RE erases and formats the hard drive partitions on which Windows and personal data reside.
    Windows RE installs a fresh copy of Windows.
    The PC restarts into the newly installed copy of Windows."

RESET PC in Windows 8
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/4677/p/19473500/20216831.aspx

Activation State
The only element of your configuration preserved by a Refresh is the Windows activation state. This is to help provide a better post-Reset experience. In most cases Windows should be activated automatically at the end of Reset without user action. One exception to this is on a PC where you used the Add features to install the Pro Pack or Media Pack to upgrade your Windows Edition.

======================================================

Push-Button Reset Overview:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj126997.aspx

Push-button reset features attempt to preserve the activation status and store, and migrate these settings in both a refresh and reset. If the migration succeeds, the system will remain in an activated state after the refresh operation.

The activation status may not be able to be migrated for a few reasons:

    For both the refresh and reset scenarios, if no activation store or activation status information is available, or if the activation store is unreadable, the activation status will not be preserved. The user will have to activate again once the operation completes.

    In the reset scenario only, if the user has upgraded the edition using the Windows Anytime Upgrade, none of the activation data is migrated. The user will be reset back to the edition included in the OEM image after the reset operation. The user will then have to activate, and go through the Windows Anytime Upgrade process again to get back to the upgraded edition.

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Failing the above solutions you can re-install Windows 8 and activate by phone.

How to contact a Microsoft Product Activation Center by telephone
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950929

Windows activation: (888) 571-2048

J W Stuart: http://www.pagestart.com

Have you tried accesing the "Recovery Partition" on the hard drive to re-install Windows. Most computers use press an F key during the initial boot / power on sequence (F1, F8, F10, F11, Etc) to start the recovery process.

Which OS was originally installed (XP, Vista or 7) or did it come with Windows 8 pre-installed?

If Windows 8 was pre-installed then using the recovery partition will re-install Windows 8.

J W Stuart: http://www.pagestart.com

most of the time only escape works and enter and f8 only make the screen flash and when f8 does work it comes up with a list of 8 options but non to recover or sort it out

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Recovery/cannot-get-recovery-disk-to-work-on-CQ58/td-p/2326133

Looks like Esc is the magic key for that machine.    So what is the list of options?   Also, do you have W8 bootable media?   I'm not sure what you could with W7 bootable media, perhaps inspect the BCD?  Use diskpart?  Get more diagnostics from the failing partition?  Etc.

BTW some claim that Shift-F8 is supposed to do something but so far it seems to be a myth.  You could also try Shift-F10 since that is supposed to be how Win/PE provides a Command line but presumably it would be disabled normally.

It may help to describe in more detail what happens (e.g. what you see and hear) if you just try booting normally.   ; )

 
Good luck

 
Robert Aldwinckle
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What is the specific make and model of your PC?

J W Stuart: http://www.pagestart.com