Laptop beyond repair or simple fix?

Buck

Hi All, I just tried to boot up my laptop last night and got this message. Tried restarting, clicking Enter or F8 to no avail.

Is there a simple fix I can do myself or will I have to bring it to a repair shop?

All help greatly appreciated, as you may tell - I know very little about these things.

Thanks, B

Digital Solitude

Might not be a simple fix but repairable. Don't know how to help you out but might put you a bit at ease

liamtimdusty

Windows 8? Make / Model?

mordeith

Buck wrote: »

Tried restarting, clicking Enter or F8 to no avail.

Did the PC restart? If so then try pressing F8 during the start up process (before the Windows screen loads). That should give you repair options (or at least let you try to boot into Safe Mode).

liamtimdusty

Most Sony laptops have an 'assist' button which will get you to recovery options. Error usually from a faulty HD or corrupt OS.
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/detail-page/SonyEG_Buttons33_lg.jpg

NickNickleby

Hi Buck,
I suspect this is a Laptop. THe message suggests some device is not working. Do you normally have any devices connected to the Laptop, like a second disk or usb, which is now disconnected? If so, reconnect it and try again.

Next possibility is that the Laptop has a failed CMOS battery (i think that's what they're called). This happened to me. I went to TEsco and bought a replacement battery for a couple of euro. THe downside is that it was a b*gger to disassemble the laptop just to replace a button battery. Yours might be easier.

Next possibility is the hard drive has failed, or its contents have been corrupted (perhaps by a virus). To recover from this is not impossible, but it is a long messy procedure. AND you might need the product key (Windows serial number).
Or perhaps, there's a built-in method on your Laptop. If you actually have to go down the recovery route, you should be able to use a built in function in your laptop. Naturally you kept all the documentation that came with the laptop :-), cos that's where you look for the detailed steps to complete this process. Bear in mind, this is basically returning the device to how it was when you took it out of the box. You'll have to reinstall all your favourite games etc. Plus any docs you had will be gone. There might be a way to recover stuff from the disk, but its really messy if things are as bad as they could be. So, try the easy stuff first:

1. check about the connected devices.
2. check for a battery problem (probably less likely the more I think about it). Normally when you boot up your laptop, you first get a black screen - its at this point you can interrupt the process and go look at the BIOS screen. Now is the time to decide, how much do you really want to learn about computers????
3. Tell me the EXACT make and model, I'll do some looking up for you. (or if you in fact DO have the product documentation, read about recovery procedures).

Almost Anything can be fixed. It depends on how much effort and money you want to expend.

Worst case is : unrecoverable disk failure. Messy, but machine can be rebuilt with new disk.

Next possibility, disk contents completely corrupted, but disk physically ok. same as above, but without the cost of a new disk. However, someone with the right tools would be able to scan the disk, and perhaps recover important documents.

Depending on the level of damage to the disk contents, it might be possible to repair the OS (Windows) without interfering with the data (ie you documents and photos).

So, I'm simply talking off the top of my head here, without knowing precisely the condition of your pc/laptop. I'm just trying to let you know that if you're tightfisted like me, you can get your laptop working again, but maybe without you documents and photos.

Cheers
AC (or Nick , on here)

Buck

Thanks guys. It's a Sony Viao about 5 years old running Windows 10 (which has been nothing but trouble since the upgrade). Have a few things there to try tonight. Will let you know how I get on. Thanks all.
B

Buck

Also...what a first post NickNickleby

liamtimdusty

FYI, if you upgraded from 7 to 10 and you run the built in recovery option on the Vaio (Either by holding alt+F10 on boot or pressing assist button) it will re-install windows 7. If this works you should do all of your windows updates, and update to windows 10 again (optional).

Best of luck.

NickNickleby

Hi Buck,
Yes it was quite a rambling post wasn't it... sorry about that. I was actually thinking of all the times I had to recover from hits on my sons' laptops. All the possibilities I described actually happened. My worst ever was a Windows 10 install failed and left the pc unusable. But, I recovered all the photos over the house network and then ran the built in recovery - all the way back to XP!! Six months later, the cpu failed due to over heat. Fixed that as well, but only temporarily. Two lessons here:
1. if you have important stuff, like photos or documents, back them up
2. laptop is a misnomer, it should be not-quite-on-your-lap top, as blocking the vents causes overheat.

That reminds me, I must set up a backup regime - I'd better now, as no doubt I'm now tempting fate by mentioning it.

Cheers
Nick

Buck

Thanks Liamtimdusty, the Assist button worked a treat. We now have a Windows 7 laptop with all the crap gone

liamtimdusty

Good to hear Buck,
Might be a good idea to run a hard drive test, to make sure it was a corrupt OS and not a hard drive fault which will cause issues in the near future!