Help=PCG-TR5MP

[Azzziii]

Hi,
I have a sony PCG-TR5MP and up until 3 weeks ago it worked fine. I've had it for a long time and it is still seemingly in good condition and it has no warranty. I picked it up and whilst walking the monitor went black. I tried restarting it but the monitor came on once after several tries. When I got back into windows, I found that windows was corrupted.

1) I tried re-installing windows using an external DVD drive as the internal one doesn't work. During the installation, the files would stop copying and the laptop would restart.Three times all the files copied and the laptop restarted but it wasn't in windows. I checked through recovery console and all my old files from windows were not deleted. I used SmartSuite to delete them (sa my internal dvd drive works for CDs but not DVDs, very odd and it is a DVD drive!!). Now i'm trying to install windows but the USB boot option is not available in the BIOS so my external DVD drive does not work.

2) The monitor at times switches on and runs perfectly but at times, when the laptop turns on it does not come on. For example, if I left it off for a day and turned it on it would come on. After restarting it would stay off and if I retried after 15-20 minutes of waiting and then trying, it would come on.

Could someone kindly help me configure the BIOS so it has the USB option and tell me what I could do about my monitor?
Thanks in advance,
AZII

[Blencogo]

Hi Azii and welcome to Club Vaio.

Bad news - you cannot boot any Vaio from a USB device if it is using XP. DOS is used during the boot process and only a few floppy 1.44MB drives can be recognised through a USB port.

If your CD/DVD drive still reads CDs then borrow a XP Pro CD Installation Disc and run a Repair.

You can also buy a replacement CD set of Recovery Discs from Sony Support.

There are two firmware updates for optical drives here: -

http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/downloads/updates/updates.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons&c=0&s=PCG-TR&m=1642

but your problem sounds like a hardware fault as it is intermittent - a poor screen or inverter connection perhaps. This would need a local electrical engineer to have a look inside.

[Azzziii]

Thank you for your reply, can the computer not boot off a USB external dvd-writer? I cannot find the options for it.

[Blencogo]

No - it will not boot from an external USB drive.