topic Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S in PCs & Accessories

HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Hottee — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 09:55:42 GMT

Hi guys
VERY new to this - first posting. Hubby bought me the above for Christmas. Everything going ok[ish] - just occasional non-starts, i.e. lighting up but no screen, but I thought, hey I can live with it. Now this morning turned it on, same problem. Took out battery, started from AC adaptor, replaced battery etc etc. Now all I get is the Vaio start-up screen which then goes to "A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". Followed that prompt and NOTHING! Cannot get past that.
Many thanks for your assistance.

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Blencogo — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 10:32:42 GMT

Hi Hottee and welcome to Club Vaio.

It sounds like either a hard disc problem or some corrupt files in your boot sector.

Can you open in Safe Mode? When you see the Vaio logo press F8 repeatedly. Do you see a Startup Options Screen?. With the up/down arrow keys select Safe Mode and press Enter. If your Vaio starts up, let us know. Try this a few times as it may not work first time.

Do you have many programs that you have added yourself? If not it is probably best to do a full restore to factory settings. At the Vaio logo press F10 repeatedly to start the Recovery Wizard. Choose to Restore your Computer and then to Recover Drive C: and follow the prompts. Make sure you are on mains power and DO NOT interrupt the restore process which may take some time.

EDIT: To avoid confusion, I will remove your identical thread in the Solutions Room.

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Hottee — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:04:18 GMT

Hi Blencogo

Thanks for replaying and thanks also for deleting the other post!
I have repeatedly pressed F8 as you suggested but can't get anywhere with it. The only accessible key seems to be F2 that goes to the BIOS setup utility and that's where I am at the moment. I fortunately backed up by word docs and photos onto CD. I have loaded Word 2003 from CD so I can reload them. I also made some restore disks a week or so ago. I'm not sure how I can run them tho if I can't get started....
Thanks

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Hottee — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:09:48 GMT

Hi again, I've managed to access F10 and it's doing a hardware diagnostics at the moment [with 111 minutes remaining!!] - seems to have hung there!

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Blencogo — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:39:46 GMT

Has it definitely hung or is it still working slowly? Is the hard drive light coming on occasionally? Are you past the screen that asks you to choose from three options ( Recover Drive C: etc)?

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Hottee — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:44:34 GMT

Hi again Blencogo
Just completing stage 3 - Application Recovery. Working on the assumption that it successfull !!, what software do you suggest that I delete. I'll reload my MS Office package, so do you suggest that I maybe delete MS Works?

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Blencogo — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:50:36 GMT

Lets hope everything works OK. You will have to set everything up again from scratch.

If you don't need Works, uninstall it in Control Panel -> Add/Remove programs but this is not really essential as you are not running out of disc space (yet).

Fingers Crossed!!

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Hottee — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:55:31 GMT

Ha Ha - not not yet! THANK you so much for all your help. I may be back.............. Let's hope not, but I don't trust hope these days [ggg]. I've still got the daunting task of reloading AOL! - Another experience. Well it seems that I've got to restart now as everything seems to have been loaded successfully. Yes, I'm up and running to the welcome sound of the chimes - yipee! Incidentally, should I now create further Recovery Media Kit or do I not have to worrry about that now?
Many thanks

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Blencogo — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 12:08:46 GMT

Hi Hottee,

No, you don't need to make another set of discs - but it is a good 'belt and braces' safeguard to have more than one set.

Good luck - hope the reinstallation works and you can get AOL online!!

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

kee-lo_ — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:28:02 GMT

Sounds to me like something was interfering with your boot up, glad you're back on your feet.

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Hottee — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 20:34:17 GMT

Hi guys, me again"
Well it's taken me up till now - some 12 hours after the problem occurred - to remain "stable". The notebook must have rebooted itself a dozzen times or more, with blue screens, serious error repoorts, re-boots etc etc. Eventually got started, using various power options, i.e. battery only, battery and AC adaptor combinations and stayed on long enough to have time to load loaded MS Word , installing recommended software, including Norton, which failed to install 2 fixes, though these eventually were successful. Have installed all the updates that were "thrown" at me. Stopped briefly for lunch and [foolishly] tutrned off. Ages to get it started again and I've had it plugged in since. Battery reached about 97% so unplugged AC and when battery ran down to about 35% plugged AC adaptor again. Sorry this all a bit long-winded. Anyway, I just KNOW that when I come to turn it on again tomorow [can't leave it plugged in all night - it's hot as it is!], that something isn't going to be right [female intuition!!]. So....... what I want to know is: a contact number for reporting fault/exchanging for a new Vaio of Sony Style [from where it was purchased on-line].in the event that my hunch is right. Phew - that's it.
Many thanks to anyone who can help.

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Blencogo — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 21:16:10 GMT

Hi Hottee - you have had a busy day!

Something is obviously wrong with your Vaio or its software. Needless to say, this should not happen and you should not have to do all this.

Telephone Sony Style on 0207 365 2947 and ask for a replacement.

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Hottee — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 21:40:42 GMT

Thank you so very much Blencogo, I'm extremely grateful for that and, indeed, all your earlier help. Hopefully, I'll be back, but all being well it'll be in the Fun Room!
Kindest regards

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

kee-lo_ — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 12:58:55 GMT

Good luck getting a replacement.

Re: HELP PLEASE!! Sony Vaio VGN-C1S

Hottee — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 10:40:19 GMT

Good luck getting a replacement.

Oh dear - that sounds ominous! I phoned Sony yesterday and someone has just been to collect it. It does sound as if they are going to repair it rather than replace it. The chap who picked it up said he's been to collect a laptop from the same customer FIVE times! We'll see.