Sony Vaio Not Booting..

Bosh

Sony Vaio VGN-FS315E laptop
Windows XP (I think, well that's what the sticker says anyway!)

Was asked to look at this laptop, when switched on the following appears:

" The last attempt to restart the system from its previous location failed. Attempt to restart again?"

Two options are:

"Delete restoration data and proceed to system boot menu" or
"Continue with system restart"

Keyboard not responding so cannot select either.

It appears that this occurs when system goes into hibernation & the restart files become corrupt.

All suggested remedies seem to involve booting with a PS2 keyboard connected...have one of those but there ain't no such port on there here new fangled maw-sheens! External USB keyboard not working either.

I get the Vaio splash screen first with no options to enter boot menu or bios and have tried every key combination I can think of to no avail.

It will boot from XP cd, but fails as keyboard not responding for "press any key to boot from cd.." and loops back to above error message.

Any suggestions, short of application of lump hammer?

Bosh

No?

Jarren

That xp cd, is that recovery disc from Sony ?

Monotype

It seems to be F2 to get into the BIOS, but be sure to try every other 'F' key and delete. If the keyboard is broken, you might have no luck.

You could try to boot from a linux live disc to see if that picks up the keyboard? Doubtful though if BIOS can't find it.

It sounds like a more serious problem with the keyboard - could be broken or a loose connection inside. Or corrupted BIOS. You'd need windows to update the BIOS - I don't know how well something like that would work with WINE and linux but it could be dangerous.

Bosh

Thanks guys, update..

Disassembled to keyboard & reassembled - no joy.

Then wouldn't boot even to splash screen....

Swapped out RAM... half boot hanging on Vaio splash screen, but still no keyb.

Keyb out again, cleaned ribbon contacts with isopropyl.

Reassembled & back to "Last attempt to restart " error screen and hey presto! Keyb working! Deleted restoration data and it booted to XP no prob.

Restarted & it wouldn't boot past XP loading - Insufficient resources, ACPI errors :eek:

More RAM fiddling and eventually am getting clean boots, running chkdsk at the minute but all looks ok....

Still no idea what got it working.....Ghosts in the machine or what... :rolleyes:

Monotype

Run memtest86 if you suspect that it's the RAM.
http://memtest.org/#downiso

Autoinstaller for USB key would be the easiest to use, so long as you have a clean USB drive that you can use.

Bosh

OK, chkdsk found no errors, disk clean.

But now it's back to switching off after XP splash screen, get as far as cursor against black screen & it powers off. Briefly got ACPI error message again once.

Tried booting from XP pro disk & UBCD but cannot boot from CD as keyboard unresponsive - ditto for entering BIOS or safe mode.

When I did get into Windows, the keyboard was working fine so I don't think it's a physical problem with the keyboard. BIOS must not be seeing it?

Getting really frustrated now!

Bosh

Hmmmm

Just got a BSOD after more attempts to start giving a stop code A5.

This apparently relates to a not fully ACPI compliant BIOS. This would tie in with the earlier ACPI error messages.

I wonder if someone had been in messing with the BIOS..

So how to reset the BIOS on a Vaio :eek:

Monotype

I usually stay well away from Sony laptops as they tend to be less standardised than most. It could still be your RAM given that it worked after you took it out and put it back in. You could try booting with just one stick - one of them might be faulty. If it doesn't work, try the other one on its own then.

Bosh

Tried that,swapped over, tried each stick individually in each slot and also one identical spare I had here.

Feckin' thing is allover the place, booted to Vaio screen now and then just blank with just power light.

It's the dead keyboard at boot that's bugging me,can't even get into the BIOS :mad:

Bosh

Another reboot, past Vaio splash to 'windows didn't start normally' but cannot select safe mode or command prompt or whichever as keyboard still dead....

Timed out to Windows starting normally and got brief 'insufficient resources' error before power off.

Jarren

You need to get that PS2 /USB keyboard working first.

Try different USB ports and remove all memory cars if any from your lappy,then reboot.

Bosh

USB posts seem to be working on boot, memory stick lights up, but external keyboard not working. No PS2 port, have ordered a PS2/USB adapter but don't know if it'll work.

Got as far as XP loading again & then brief message about page file size, powered off before I could read all of it...

Starting to lean towards stripping it down & trying to reset the BIOS....

Bosh

Latest love note from the Vaio: :P

Not enough virtual memory or paging file quota is available to complete the specified operation

Sits for a while then say "feck it" & shuts down

No joy with PS2/USB adapter, tried all 3 usb ports; keyboard lights come on briefly when it boots but then no response.

Monotype

I assume that your hard drive isn't overloaded?

duckysauce

take the hard drive out and then see if keyboard works or if you can get into the bios

Bosh

Nope, no joy

Bosh

Ok...

Reset the BIOS & it booted up fine into XP.

All lovely and it then went through found new hardware (balloon in bottom right) and then informed me that it had sucessfully installed ACPI Uniprocessor PC and that I needed to reboot.

Said no, went into device manager and ACPI Uniprocessor is only entry under Computer with no option to uninstall.

Rebooted & back to square one as per previous posts, no keyboard on boot etc.

Reset BIOS again & sucessfully entered BIOS with functioning keyboard.

No option to disable ACPI or enabling legacy USB. Found one item on tinternet suggesting that it was part of deal with Sony & MS to hide/disable ACPI BIOS settings

Set BIOS to defaults & rebooted back into XP - and ACPI installed itself again :mad:

So... do I reset bios again & do a clean install or try repair first?

Sorry for lengthy post..