Sony Viao PCG-7M1M Problems

[Speedfire66]

I was wondering if anyone could help. My laptop (Viao PCG-7M1M) wont start up at all. I deleted the partitions on it to install a new Windows XP on it but it froze at 27% doing the formatting. The problem before was that it kept getting to the welcome screen and then shutting off. It's a very tempermental laptop. I suspected the battery to be at fault at first but I guess the fact that it fails to load an Operating System is a bigger problem now. Although I am expecting this (as I wiped it off), I am rather concerned about the fact that when it asks to press any key to boot from the XP disc... I cant. Has anyone else ever encountered this problem before? I am still trying to sort it out as we speak but am not getting any joy. Basically this laptop works when it wants to. Before I wiped everything off, it would shut off randomly and it would also not start completely sometimes. Could this have anything to do with a corrupt hard-drive do you think? Help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

[Blencogo]

Hi Speedfire66.

It could be quite a few things!!!!

You are quoting the chassis number, not the Vaio model.

I think you have a VGN-FS515B like this one: -

http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/specifications/specifications.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons&c=0&s=VGN-FS&m=...

You will need to check the model to download the Drivers and Utilities if you are trying to install a commercial version of XP.

What error messages are you getting when you try to boot from the Windows XP disc? Does it say it can't find the hard disc?

You have a SATA hard drive and need to load the SATA drivers from a floppy disc drive before XP will recognise the disc and install.

Do you have recovery discs? Have you tried tapping F10 just after turning your Vaio on?