Working on my daughter's Sony. A couple months ago the CD/DVD drive stopped working,probably due to physical damage or bumping while open etc.
Now a couple of days ago when trying to start a screen came up about winload.exe, an unexpected i/o error--OXC0000e9 etc. Tried the option to boot into safe mode but nothing happened,computer just shut down after a while.
Today I tried the Vaio recovery disc using an external DVD usb drive,(I enabled the boot option in the bios). It says "loading Windows files" for about 5 seconds then goes to a small Microsoft logo for a few minutes and then shuts down.
I have Acronis True Image installed on another computer so I tried the emergency boot disc I had made. It brings up the Acronis program,reading it from the CD I guess. I tried the Startup recovery manager option but an error window came up "no hard disc recognized"
Now when trying to load normally without the DVD hooked up it says "Error loading operating system"
1. Is it possible to boot from an external drive connected via e-SATA or USB? I work as a developer and sometimes need to test the software on different operating systems. I often use Virtual-pC but sometimes I need a non-virtual environment.
2. Is it very hard to replace the internal hard drive (for same reason as in 1)? Currently I use a Dell Latitude where it is very easy to swap hard drives, just loosen two screews and slide the hard drive bay.
I have sent a mail to Vaio support here in Sweden but I haven't got any answer
When you boot your Vaio you will hear a special chime, this is one of Sony Vaio's feature. I know that some people do not like this sound and disable it in the boot menu. On the contrary, I quite like this chime. I want to use it in my mobile phone as a ringtone or a message sound. I try to find it in my Vaio S36 but couldn't find it. Can anyone please help me find the boot sound file or tell me where it is located in hard drive?
Trying to install OS with external CD/DVD drive to no avail. Have done everything possible including:
-tried 3 different externals drives
-attempted BIOS BOOT ORDER: BOOT FROM CD/DVD and tried REMOVABLE DEVICE setting
-attemped 'esc' one time BOOT ORDER at startup...attempted both CD/DVD and REMOVABLE DEVICE
System doesnt recognize EXTERNAL CD/DVD in BIOS....only in WINDOWS..after machine fully starts up. Looked for any kind of UPDATE for DRIVERS OR BIOS on SONY SUPPORT for this model...there is none.
I just recieved my Sony Vaio FW490 today. After uninstalling the trial version of Office 2007 (student version), windows refuses to boot normally. I tried several system resores without success.
Although it said that the restore worked properly, I kept rebooting to repair windows or vaio restore center or something like that. I finally called Sony tech support, and they walked me through restoring the C drive to its original state option
Trying to get rid of these questionably useful programs -- but I don't see entries for them in add/remove programs in the control panel (or for any of the other useless VAIO software packages that come on OEM machines sans "fresh start")
I have just been given a VAIO PCG8A2M (GRX316MP) , i was told "it's broken but if you can fix it yo can have it" so having a quick look at it there's no sign of life on the display but the lights come on and i can here the HDD heads moving about.
Looking a little more i found that all the ram is missing , so now im not sure if its worth buying some ram to see if it works or not ? The lack of ram would prob explain the lack of display but i wonder if i should be getting POST beeps at least, which im not.
So my question is if a VAIO had no ram should (if all else was working) it be getting POST beeps ?
Just performed a successful XP downgrade on my Vaio Z520, but have noticed that on this copy of the Vaio Silver Desktop Theme/Appearance doesn't exist.
I had it on my SZ and loved it over the XP Blue. Is there a way to get it back? I still have the restore discs from the SZ.
I don't know whats the diference (besides the price), between VAIO TZ295N & VAIO TZ395N. Specs in all the websites I've checked say they have exactly the same components: Intel coreduo 1.33Ghz 2GB RAM DVD-RW and 64GB SSD Hardrive. I was wonder if the diference might be in the hard drive interface, with the TZ295N being PATA and TZ395N being SATA.
I'm wondering if the Blu-ray optical drive (Panasonic UJ-232A) of the (old) VAIO Z series will be able to fit into the (new) VAIO Z series? I would really appreciate it if anyone is able to answer my question.
The reason I'm asking is because I'm seriously thinking of selling my VAIO Z690 & just buying the base Sony VAIO Z (VPCZ112GX/S). I may just be able to afford that base model & the icing on the cake will definitely be the UJ-232A drive being able to fit into the (new) VAIO Z series & work.
Am planning to get a sony laptop for me. The design simply rocks I am getting mixed reviews about cw and E series. But i made up my mind to get one.
My budget is aroung 40000rupees. Thats around 800$. So suggest me a better one between these two for occasional moderate and less(mosltly) demanding games. I dont care whether its 14 or 15 inch.
Am looking at lower end versions of both the models.
Only difference is CW uses Nvidia Geforce 310 and the E series uses some Radeon 5000 series one. CW has 14 inch screen whereas E series has a 15.5 inch screen. In the models which i am looking at both have matte finish and both has WXGA:1366 x 768 VAIO Display.
which one should i go for. whether the screen quality will be on par to Inspiron one atleast? ( I dont need HD).
im planning on using the laptop for videos, photoshop and a bit of gaming, maybe even a bit more gaming :-)
The Vaio F Series only has 330M Nvidia Graphics Card with i7QM and up to 8GB of Ram and up to 256GB SSD.
The E Series has ATI 5650 (a less powerful version, reduced clock speed) combined with a i5 520M with up to 6Gb of Ram and up to 500GB of HDD ? Why can i not choose SSD ?
if I can use the AC Adapter of a Vaio TT on the Vaio Z. The standard AC Adapter that comes with the Vaio Z is of 19.5V and the one for the Vaio TT is of 16V, which I don't know if it's enough for the Vaio Z to function properly or if there could be any problem or damage. Both machines have batteries of 10,8V.
I have an undervolted Vaio Z by the way (last multiplier at 0.9875) so I don't know if this could help in any way for my Z to work ok with the TT AC Adapter.
I'm trying to boot from legacy boot from my new dell 7000 series. however when i change from uefi to legacy i have no boot option. the whole boot list is empty.
i have called dell and the support desk told me dell has no support for legacy :S that means no windows 7 on my dell or any other os that uses non uefi...... i think the bios is corrupt is the whole list is simply missing.
I have this "problem" since I got my Z. When I start vaio update 3 utility I get this error "messageID=0008" there are no updates for your model bla bla...
However when I go to vaio support page, there are some new updates for my Z590N model (new Bios, USB patch...)
I have downloaded new version of Viao Update utility 3.2.something but I had to uninstall my current version (3.1.something), which I did. However when I started this new setup message poped up "there is no previous version installed" - abort.
I have checked esupport page where is said if you have problems with Vaio Update 3, to download Sony Shared Library which suppose to contain vaio update utility), I run installation but it doesn't install Vaio Update 3
Now, I can live with this esupport page regular visit updates,
Whats the major difference between 16.4" VAIO Display (1600x900) and 16.4" VAIO extra-wide HD display (1920x1080). Upto what angle I could see my display in VAIO Display (1600x900)? Can I watch HD movies perfectly in VAIO Display (1600x900) ?
I downloaded 2 different downloads, and burned on two different DVDs. I get a screen that says "loading files" (first screen) and they both freeze at the EXACT same spot .
I had vista earlier, then got windows 7 RC so it has worked fine before. I wiped my HDD with killdisk (to get rid of hidden vista files) and had a boot-up windows 7 disk, which worked fine in my test beforehand, but fails now. So I have NO OS, NOTHING. I am on Linux puppy just to have something and post on here,
In my house, my laptop is the only computer with a DVD burner. Formating with a flash drive is difficult because the rest of the computers have XP and I can't disk part them (XP doesn't recognize flash drives in command prompt) Way too advanced for me. So I downloaded windows 7, put it on a flash drive, then put it on my laptop (that has Linux puppy) and burned it onto a DVD again. Same result .....
