figured it out. Rather buggy software from HP. Their fingerprint reader/protection software doesn't work and leaves the machine with this error. I have spoken with HP and they say that you require to purchase the recovery CD's if you want it to work. It seems a bit annoying that you have to re-purchase what you had as they made undocumented tweaks to windows to get it to work. OH well, guess I have to live without the fingerprint reader to log in.