Vaio PCV LX2 Desktop

[davannh]

Hi I hope someone has the answer to my problem.

I have a 5 year old Sony Vaio Desktop which has been running slowly.

I decided (!) to do a full system recovery and followed the instructions on the Sony Vaio site by restoring the Bios defaults and removing the partitions on the hard disk drive. Then I did the system recovery which went smoothly. However, at the end of the process the system will not reboot, it just stays on an information screen about the computer with a little flashing dash at the bottom left. I have tried pressing F8 to restart in safe mode as the computer starts, I have had a look at the setup by pressing F2 but I do not know what I am looking for. Help, is my computer now lost forever? Or is there something I can do to nurse it back to health!

[Blencogo]

Hi davannh and welcome.

I wonder if Windows is now installed in a different Partition Number and Boot.ini can't find it?

I think it is usually F5 to access the Startup Options on Vaio Desktops (F8 for laptops).

The best thing to do is to borrow a bootable CD to see if your system works with that. Can you borrow a XP Pro installation disc? This will allow you to repair the problem if you can identify it.

What does it say on the information screen? Give as much information as you can. Any information may help.

[davannh]

Thank you Blencogo for replying and so quickly!

I think it is very likely that Windows is installed on a different partition and so will not boot up on its own. Is there any way of changing which partition the system boots from?

I have tried F5 on start-up, holding it down and repeatedly pressing it.

I do not have access to an XP-pro installation disk, I do not know anyone else with a Sony Vaio!
The screen which appears shows:-

Diskette Drive A: None
Diskette Drive B: None
Pri. Master Disk: 81964MB, UDMA 5
Pri. Slave Disk: None
Sec Master Disk: CDROM, Mode 4
Sec Slave Drive: None
Serial Port(s): 2F8
Parallel Port (s): None
DRAM Type: SDRAM
SPD on Module(s): Yes

There then follows a PCI device listing.

Many thanks