[Sony Visio]

I recently purchased a laptop from an associate, a Sony Vaio. I did a factory data restore when I bought it just to erase what I could of his old files. I had it about a week without problems. Last night I went to sleep while listening to music on the internet. When I woke up this morning the screen was frozen. I powered it off but now every time I cut it on I get the Vaio screen and then a black screen that says Operating system not working.

The only f key that seems to work on start up is F2 and there is no option to check the drive for errors. I am not getting any kind of response from the laptop besides that same screen and I don't have a system recovery disk. I hope I didn't get cheated, I cant afford to buy a new laptop.

Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance for the help!

[Advertisements]

You can try booting the install DVD and doing a Repair My Computer, then select the Command Prompt and run chkdsk /r. See if that fixes any file system errors and allows you to boot again.

How to run System File Checker (SFC) or chkdsk from the Recovery Console

• Boot your Vista or Windows 7 installation DVD
• When you see "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD", press Enter
• At the "Install Windows" screen, click on Repair your computer at lower left
• At the System Recovery Options screen, make note of the drive letter assigned to your boot drive (normally C:) and click Next
• At the Chose a Recovery Tool window, click on Command Prompt. You will be sitting at X:\Sources directory
• Run SFC or chkdsk
• If you did not note the drive letter of your boot disk, you can enter bcdedit and look at the osdevice line to see what it is.
• For sfc, type sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows and press Enter (use the letter from above)
• For chkdsk, type chkdsk c: /r and press Enter (use the letter from above).

Let either run to completion undisturbed.

Vista or Windows 7: If you don't have a install DVD, you can download a legal copy here:
Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River
Download Official Windows Vista RTM with SP1 Setup Files (32-bit and 64-bit)

Make sure you get the same version you have installed: 32 or 64 bit; Home Premium, Pro or Ultimate.

[Ztruker]

You can try booting the install DVD and doing a Repair My Computer, then select the Command Prompt and run chkdsk /r. See if that fixes any file system errors and allows you to boot again.

How to run System File Checker (SFC) or chkdsk from the Recovery Console

• Boot your Vista or Windows 7 installation DVD
• When you see "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD", press Enter
• At the "Install Windows" screen, click on Repair your computer at lower left
• At the System Recovery Options screen, make note of the drive letter assigned to your boot drive (normally C:) and click Next
• At the Chose a Recovery Tool window, click on Command Prompt. You will be sitting at X:\Sources directory
• Run SFC or chkdsk
• If you did not note the drive letter of your boot disk, you can enter bcdedit and look at the osdevice line to see what it is.
• For sfc, type sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows and press Enter (use the letter from above)
• For chkdsk, type chkdsk c: /r and press Enter (use the letter from above).

Let either run to completion undisturbed.

Vista or Windows 7: If you don't have a install DVD, you can download a legal copy here:
Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River
Download Official Windows Vista RTM with SP1 Setup Files (32-bit and 64-bit)

Make sure you get the same version you have installed: 32 or 64 bit; Home Premium, Pro or Ultimate.

[Sony Visio]

Will let you know how this works for me, you are a life saver. THANK YOU!

Trying to survive on a student's budget is already hard enough without unexpected speed bumps!

[Sony Visio]

I tried that - it didn't work. I downloaded the disk and that gave me the window's screen. I've tried to fix my laptop several different ways. I couldn't repair the disk or reinstall Windows.

I think the computer was unable to communicate with the hard drive.

Edited by Sony Visio, 10 September 2012 - 02:45 PM.

[Ztruker]

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
Bootable Hard Drive Diagnostics