Blue Screen of Death on Sony Vaio

barneysplash

Hi everyone

I have a Sony Vaio laptop I am repairing.

The details are:

Sony VAIO VGn-FZ21Z model number PCG-391M.


BIOS is Phoenix Trusted COre BIOS R1120J7.


I've cleaned out a lot of dust, have saved the client's
data and am ready to re-install Windows XP.


I am getting the Blue Screen of Death error :

STOP: 0x0000007B 0XF78A6524 0xC0000034, 0x0000000, 0x0000000


I can't get into Windows to try anything.

I think the BIOS is not working, I could be wrong.

I cannot find any BIOS updates on the Sony support sites,
or on the Phoenix site and I have been bouncing around support forums looking for help.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Moon54

Maybe try using a Linux Live CD, it's a bootable Disc with a the Linux OS on it. It doesn't affect your windows install, just boots on startup.

There's lots out there, see http://www.livecdlist.com/
Download and burn to CD. It would be a big file, 700MB approx.
There's USB versions too, but easier with CD, imo.

Anyway, if the Live CD boots OK to the Linux OS, you can deduce that your hardware & BIOS is OK.

If it's OK, try booting Windows into Safe Mode, (Tap F8 at startup), that might sort out the BSOD. Hope that helps.

Solitaire

That's the DLL Hell error - a critical chunk of Windows' Registry and/or DLLs are AWOL leaving the OS corrupted. Very common with "limpet mine" malware that sticks to said in order to destroy the OS install if a virus scan finds it - the antivirus is tricked into deleting something critical to XPs life support :eek:

Odds are even Safe Mode cannot be accessed. I'd suggest a full reinstall. If you have to retrieve something, use a Linux Boot Drive/CD.

Why do you think the Bios isn't working? Does it post? Does it allow you to boot from cd/DVD?

What operating system is on it?

barneysplash

I can boot to a live CD. I have a live CD of Puppy Linux that works fine.

At fires it was the BIOS doing something with the SATA disk support, but I
got past that by using a USB floppy drive with the SATA drivers on it, and I
hit "F6 for SCSI/External driver" at the start of the windows re-install.

I have reformatted the hard drive and tried to re-install Windows XP but during installing,
I get a message saying that iastor.sys and a bunch of other files are missing. I've tried this twice.

I've never seen these errors during a Windows install

Saadyst

In my experience, 0x07b errors relate to hard drive problems. Judging from the info you've given - fails on install, copy of files etc. I'd see if it's possible to test on another hard drive.

I've never heard of a BIOS failing.

francois

barneysplash wrote: »

I can boot to a live CD. I have a live CD of Puppy Linux that works fine.

At fires it was the BIOS doing something with the SATA disk support, but I
got past that by using a USB floppy drive with the SATA drivers on it, and I
hit "F6 for SCSI/External driver" at the start of the windows re-install.

I have reformatted the hard drive and tried to re-install Windows XP but during installing,
I get a message saying that iastor.sys and a bunch of other files are missing. I've tried this twice.

I've never seen these errors during a Windows install

YOu may need to create a custom XP install. loading those SATA drivers probably won't work from USB-Download Nlite-you can inject drivers into a custom XP install. it's easy enough to do ( http://www.nliteos.com/download.html)
The guides are pretty comprehensive on the site
Secondly if it isnt too important try and change the drive behaviour in the BIOS from SATA to AHCI, this may load XP, but you may have not get card readers or the like working

barneysplash

It sounds like it is the Hard Drive.

Is is fixable? Are there any programs I could try to repair the drive?

I have formatted it twice to prepare for Windows install.

The screen is displaying lines of dots as well, as soon as the laptop
is powered on. When I was re-installing Windows, there were lots
of dots around the text that would come up on the screen,
is this related?

Saadyst

barneysplash wrote: »

It sounds like it is the Hard Drive.

Is is fixable? Are there any programs I could try to repair the drive?

I have formatted it twice to prepare for Windows install.

The screen is displaying lines of dots as well, as soon as the laptop
is powered on. When I was re-installing Windows, there were lots
of dots around the text that would come up on the screen,
is this related?

Depends entirely what's wrong with the drive... I've not used it extensively, but I know windows has a method of noting where any bad sectors are on a drive and not using them. But the operating system would have to be functional on it first of all.

If the drive is on it's way out, it would be a bad idea to install an operating system on it for regular use.


The graphical problem.. I would say it's not related, but it's impossible to be sure. The easiest next step would be to try a different hard drive to begin isolating the issue. It would help narrow down the cause of the fault(s).

barneysplash

From reading around on forums, it appears that the problem is not the BIOS
but a missing Mass Storage Controller.

I've waded through a lot of rubbish forums and sites trying to find solid
information, most of the sites just want you to install some program
that "will solve all your driver problems forever", or your money back.:rolleyes:

I've found this FTP site from SONY with loads of driver on it, but I don't
know which one is the mass storage controller.

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/VAIO/

The hard drive in the laptop is a Fujitsu MHX2300BT, I have been looking
around without success for the drivers for this unit.

Anyone know where I can find a reliable list of Mass Storage Controllers?

thenightrider

barneysplash wrote: »

It sounds like it is the Hard Drive.

Is is fixable? Are there any programs I could try to repair the drive?

I have formatted it twice to prepare for Windows install.

The screen is displaying lines of dots as well, as soon as the laptop
is powered on. When I was re-installing Windows, there were lots
of dots around the text that would come up on the screen,
is this related?

The 8600m gs gpu sounds like its on its last legs

Solitaire

Yup, sounds like the 8600GS is cooked as well :eek: If its removable you might need to bake it, if its integrated.... new laptop time

As for the MSC, you need it for RAID and HDD functionality, but its only an issue with the OS, you need to be able to load XP before it makes any difference And if it isn't on your laptop's driver page, try finding out your Vaio's chipset and look up the website (usually Intel) and grab a relevant Matrix MSC driver off them.

At this point you should try another HDD in there, it could be the chipset's SATA controller itself is failing if its an nVidia chipset in that Vaio

thenightrider

The gpu on the vgn-fz21z is integrated im useing the same laptop right now with its 3rd brand new motherboard in it this one seems to be working better then the last one.

The gpu is at about 52c just on the net can get high when gameing.

barneysplash

Based on info provided here and other forums, I've conceded that this laptop is now unrepairable.

The chronic overheating that the client encountered would have damaged
any laptop, when I first got it and switched it on, it quickly heated up to
the hottest I have ever seen a laptop get.

Add to that the quality issues surrounding the Graphics processor soldering,
and the resultant screen distortion that has worsened significantly in the last
few days, the laptop is now a write off.

The other problem of Windows re-install not detecting the hard drive could
be explained by damage to the microchips that normally provide the Mass Storage Controller,
again as a result of extended overheating over the last few months that
only became evident when I tried to re-install windows, and these chips
could not function.

I tried several times to install the Intel SATA AHCI driver, but to no avail.

As a way of closing off this topic, I will share the useful resources encountered
during these attempted repairs :

Here is a site from Sony that details many drivers for the VAIO
series laptops:

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/VAIO/

Below is the front end of the site, where you input details to find the downloads
detailed in the above FTP site.

http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/index.aspx?l=en_GB


Here is the Intel SATA AHCI driver download :

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&softwareitem=ob-54270-1


I found it very annoying that any search for drivers would inevitable
lead to "click here for our ultimate free driver scan download" type sites.
These would use suggestive language to promise you that the drivers you need
are "only a click away", when in fact, the site had only checked your search text
and returned a load of rubbish peppered with terms you be looking.
This was very frustrating.


Here is a great site that has driver packs for download via Bit Torrent:
There are loads of common drivers for Hard Disks, Sound, Video and
peripheral hardware.

http://driverpacks.net/downloads


Here are two sites that detail the graphics card problems I encountered.
There are pictures of screens that I saw as well on the first link, The second
link has a detailed article on the problem

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=90875

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1028703/all-nvidia-g84-g86s-bad

Thanks to everyone for posting replies and suggestions.

Until the next repair crisis
Barney

Solitaire

Did you ever try a known-good HDD in there? And while I'm not sure some people have baked laptop mobos before just to fix their nVidia GPUs. Well, if its already doomed... :D

barneysplash

Yes the laptop is doomed because of the graphics problems.

The hard drive is grand, last night I installed Windows on it with no
problems by connecting it into a desktop computer.

There is a few quid in spares in the laptop so I'll recommend to my friend
that he does a scrap or trade-in deal on a new system.