boot problem w/Sony Vaio

beezelbubba

beezelbubba

Shitty Buddhist
A girl I work with gave me this Sony Vaio PCV RX640 computer that she thought got a virus(I don't believe she knows a great deal about computers).It won't boot up.It will get as far as the Windows XP screen,then go into the speil about Windows not being able to boot or whatever and giving you the choice of :
Safe mode
Safe mode with network
Safe mode command prompt
Last known good configuration
Normal boot

Selecting either of the last 2 option causes the computer to restart itself.All the other options cause the screen to fill up with what appears to be driver names.
She didn't have the disk(s)that the machine came with,and I haven't been able to find out if this thing has a recovery partition.
Any thoughts?
 
She can try to do last known good configuration... that probably wont work..

Best bet is to boot into safemode, run msconfig .. and remove all start up items... then go to services, click the "hide all microsoft services" .. and remove the remaining... reboot... this also, will probably not fix the problem. BUT, worth a shot..

you're going to have to reformat, and make sure you do a clean install of everything, make her pay for the cd... dont jump through hoops just because she's hot...
 
Wow man...that sonds like you will need an XP disc to get to the recovery stuff, or even re-format. If you really wanted to work at it, you could install it as a slave drive in another pc, and try and do some stuff, but it might be the windows install is smoked....for which you will need a disc. You might not need to format, to get it to boot, so there might be a way to save data, but it's always a crapshoot there. And I've read alot of manufacturers haven't been sending discs, just a recovery partition. Can you get it to Dos prompt? (F2, F8 or whatever). That might show if there is a recovery partition on it. I don't know if contacting the manufacterer would help.....to see about a disc that doesn't cost so much. Might be worth it. :confused:
 
if i were you i would nuke the drive (completely reformat) and reinstal windows, if you cant get the last working config to work, then it means that was corrupted too.

if there is stuff on there that you wanted to save, there are a few ways of trying to get it back. the easiest way is to boot up on an OS that doesnt require instalation, like Barts PE to make a bootable xp disc (you would need another computer to do this one) you can also download yourself a copy of DSL (damn small linux) from http://www.no-install.com/ and boot off of a thumb drive then snoop around the messed up drive, get what you want out of it etc.

if you dont have an xp cd, well i cant officialy suggest to get an illegal copy of it, but if you look in the right places there are plenty of ways to get ahold of a temp copy i am sure or perhaps if you use bit torrents you could look in other places for that .

k
o
F
 
Actually,she gave me the pc and isn't interested in getting it back.
I do have an XP disk,that I put on my recording pc.Will this help me get through the door,so to speak?
 
beezelbubba said:
Actually,she gave me the pc and isn't interested in getting it back.
I do have an XP disk,that I put on my recording pc.Will this help me get through the door,so to speak?
Click to expand...
It should. See if you can Boot From CD, and there is a windows fix in there somewhere. May not work, but if you don't want any info from the pc, format and install Windows....
 
Dogman said:
It should. See if you can Boot From CD, and there is a windows fix in there somewhere.
Click to expand...
I put the CD in and pressed F8 as it turned on.It seems to recognize the CD,and gives me the option of using XP home edition(which is what the CD is)but selecting it and hitting enter has the same effect as before.The Windows XP screen comes on as if it is booting,the the CPU or power supply fan shuts off and the pc restarts itself.
Dogman said:
May not work, but if you don't want any info from the pc, format and install Windows....
Click to expand...
For one,I don't know how to get the thing to DOS,hell I can't even figure out how to get to the BIOS screen.
Also,wouldn't I have to activate,validate or masterbate with Microsoft in 30 days if I reformat and install from my disk?
 
Hm....When you put the cd in, and re-boot, does it ever say "press any key to boot from cd"?
You should get that message, if it is trying to use the cd at the start. If not, you need to find a way into the BIOS....if not F8, maybe F2, or some key combo that might just flash on the screen. Sometimes its alt+del....see if you can get into the bios. Then you need to make sure it is trying to boot from cd.

If you don't see the "boot from cd message", It must still be trying to boot from Windows.
 
bios will either be F2 or Delete when booting, go in there and make sure you have the CD as one of the first boot devices, then rebuild windows.
 
Hey,it worked! :)
I switched the boot sequence,and did a repair of the bootwhatever and I'm in.
Thank you ,geeks!You really make the world go 'round!
 
I am posting from the computer in question.I'm fighting an uphill battle against spyware,which is getting better(I've run Spybot and Spyware Blaster).I've only gotten one popup in the 30 min. that my feeble typing skills took to write this post. :D
Any advice on totally killing the spyware beast would be most welcome!
 
beezelbubba said:
I am posting from the computer in question.I'm fighting an uphill battle against spyware,which is getting better(I've run Spybot and Spyware Blaster).I've only gotten one popup in the 30 min. that my feeble typing skills took to write this post. :D
Any advice on totally killing the spyware beast would be most welcome!
Click to expand...
If you have a name to look at, go to pcworld.com . There seems to be info there on quite a bit of stuff, but you need to know what it's called.
Also, look at adaware...www.lavasoft.de I believe. (you can find it off pcworld's site also.) Just incase it's some form of adaware.
 
for spyware removal, i recommend counterspy. They have a 15 day demo which will update and at least give you a good cleaning. I would just do a fresh install and update to current patches asap
 
altitude909 said:
for spyware removal, i recommend counterspy. They have a 15 day demo which will update and at least give you a good cleaning. I would just do a fresh install and update to current patches asap
Click to expand...
Yep, if this is an option for you, it will remove all bad stuff.........
 
altitude909 said:
for spyware removal, i recommend counterspy. They have a 15 day demo which will update and at least give you a good cleaning. I would just do a fresh install and update to current patches asap
Click to expand...
Will a fresh install require me to validate with Microsoft?
 
beezelbubba said:
Will a fresh install require me to validate with Microsoft?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure that matters...but it could keep you from getting updates..... :confused:
 
What does he mean by this?
" Change directory to the \%systemroot%\system32 folder"
How do I "change the directory"? :confused:
 
that should be c:\windows\system32

\%systemroot%\ just means your windows directory (its not always c:\windows)

in safe mode command prompt u use the CD command to change dir

Dont forget to extract the product key if there is no sticker on the machine

So from C:\windows\ (where it should start u)

cd system32 (prompt should be c:\windows\system32)
rename wpa.dbl wpa.nonactivated
rename wpa.bak wpabak.nonactivated (if it exists)

copy over the files from where-ever
 
Last edited:
altitude909 said:
that should be c:\windows\system32

\%systemroot%\ just means your windows directory (its not always c:\windows)

in safe mode command prompt u use the CD command to change dir

Dont forget to extract the product key if there is no sticker on the machine

So from C:\windows\ (where it should start u)

cd system32 (prompt should be c:\windows\system32)
rename wpa.dbl wpa.nonactivated
rename wpa.bak wpabak.nonactivated (if it exists)

copy over the files from where-ever
Click to expand...
So far,I've not been able to get things to work.Here's a couple bits of info:
Somehow,I ended up doing my fresh install on the Drive D partition(which is much larger than drive C.The old install is still on C,and I have to choose at bootup.This is fine with me for now,until I either solve the validation issue or don't.
When I type in the command:D:\windows\system32,it tells me it's not a valid command,batchfile,whatever.Should the "D" be capital,or lower case?
Thanks,BTW to you and Dogman for the help!
 
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