Vaio won't boot past BIOS

[Mitternacht]

MY sister's Vaio is really ****ed up since it froze while upgrading to XP Pro. Now it won't even get past the BIOS, let me into Setup, or boot from a CD. It constantly either says Sony, or "entering setup..."

...and nothing happens. I need some advice.

[Mitternacht]

Guys, I really need a solution. Can anyone help?

[SgtM]

Is it still under warranty? If so, I would go to Sony first. Although voiding warranties on small parts is pretty cool, this might not be one you want to void.

[xRyokenx]

If it's still under warranty I'd recommend sending it in. If it won't let you do anything at all, then it's most likely really screwed up. Pull out all the batteries that you can find, the main one, and the watch battery so that it will reset the BIOS settings to default, which may help, but if it's under warranty still, don't open the case, I believe it'll void your warranty. Hope this helps.

[Commando]

My dad had this problem. This is why I will never buy a Sony.

Sony has some proprietary stuff in the BIOS that keeps you from messing with it. This is bad news for guys like us that can usually fix this kinda stuff pretty easily. Send it in to Sony if it's under warranty if not start googling Sony bios workarounds. I hope this helps.

[Mitternacht]

Sorry, I should of mentioned it's made in 2000.

I actually have been working on it internally. I'll give a report on it and what I've done tomorrow; gotta go to bed now for school tomorrow.

[Zephik]

I had a problem similar to this. I think I just bought a new hard drive and reinstalled windows. But its hard to say for sure, weird things happen alot to me. lol

Maybe reflash the bios or get a new hard drive? Check all of the connection too. Sometimes, its just a loose connection.

[Mitternacht]

K, I'm typing on my labtop from my bed; my parents don't know lol. They did want me to goto bed for the night.

Anywho, after realizing it failing, I got the idea to tear it down, an get to the motherboard; perhaps removing my CMOS battery will set the BIOS back to normal, which is the same idea xRyokenx had.

I got that removed, and I have a story:

A while ago my sister wanted another hdd for more space; the vaio came with 20 gig internal hdd. I had her buy a 100 GB that I thought slid into the expansion slots; I was wrong, I had her buy an internal 100. I thought it was the removable kind. She kept it, and since opening the Vaio, I can see the hdd; it's underneath the keyboard, with clear and easy access. Same goes for the CMOS battery. So this solution will be testing SnowFire's theory. I will install the 100GB and throw on XP Pro SP2. I'm really hoping that powering on the comp w/ no battery will reset something, just so I can boot from a CD again. I haven't the time to power it on yet to test it. I'll be trying that Wednesday; tomorrow I'm going to the Penguins game.

[xRyokenx]

Sounds like a good plan to me. Let's hope it all goes well, good luck. We'll find out the results then on Wednesday. So on Sony's the HDD is under the keyboard? How odd, on Dells they just slide out the side, which of course is why my mom's laptop is messed up. My stupid younger brother pulled the HDD out the side, while the laptop was on and running.

EDIT: What are the specs of the laptop? It should have at least 256mb, but preferably 512mb of RAM,and a 1ghz CPU to run XP good. Sorry if that's a little high, but my old PC running at 704mhz and 128mb RAM didn't run it as well as it could've, it ran it though, I guess that's a plus...

[Mitternacht]

1 Ghz Athlon 4 CPU
256MB RAM (didn't check to see if it was DDR or not; labtop came with XP Home.
CD-ROM
Floppy
Li-ion Battery

I found an identical labtop like this on eBay that's being sold for parts; $25. My sister's screen doesn't work; backlight. This other labtop has a working screen. I'm gonna see if she wants to get it. She paid $180 for a 17" flatscreeen LCD Monitor, just so it would work. And oddly, it duplicates the screen; it doesn't do the double-wide resolution.

[Bucko]

to do the double wide, go into your display properties, click the settings tab, highlight the second screen and tick the box that says "Extend my windows desktop onto this screen".

Once you get it running of course...

[Mitternacht]

to do the double wide, go into your display properties, click the settings tab, highlight the second screen and tick the box that says "Extend my windows desktop onto this screen".

Once you get it running of course...

I know how to make it dual-wide. I just found it odd that it makes a duplicate screen. That, I'd like to know how to do.

[Airbozo]

........................
I'll be trying that Wednesday; tomorrow I'm going to the Penguins game.

Ah another hockey fan! I am Soooo glad the penguins are staying put instead of relocating to Lost Wages...

[Bucko]

I know how to make it dual-wide. I just found it odd that it makes a duplicate screen. That, I'd like to know how to do.

You want to know how to make it a duplicate screen?
Doesn't it already do that?
Well, it's the opposite of what I said above. Uncheck the tick on "Extend my Windows to this desk top."
If I'm wrong I'll double check when I get home.

[CanaBalistic]

Isnt a laptop impratical for XP pro?

To clear the cmos, remove the battery for 30 minutes. This lets the power drain from the capacitors. I dont know if it would screw anything up by turning the power on with the battery removed but i'd advise against it.

"it doesn't do the double-wide resolution."

Most, if not all laptops with simmilar specs do not have the graphic power to run in extended desktop mode. I would imagine that the laptop has intergrated grafix with shared ram.