[stevecox32]

Hi there from a new member and first post.

I would welcome any advice that you can give on a problem with Sony Vaio VGN-CS11S. I am sorry but this will be a long question as I have tried so much to rectify this issue.

First of all I have to say that this is a self inflicted problem! I hate the preinstalled Windows VISTA on the SONY and decided to go back to XP with a full version SP3 disc that I have. I could not get XP to install and so decided to strip the HDD and go for a clean install. After unsucessful attempts to format the HDD I used Darik's Nuke and Boot to do a full clean of the system. My error as i realise now is that I did not create XP or Vista recovery discs (yes I know!)

I have changed the BIOS to fire the CD Rom first then HDD

After doing this I put the XP disc in expecting things to fire up - however what happens is that I get an error message non system disc or disk error replace and press any key.

I have tried this CD on other machines and it fires up fine and allows me to search the CD ROM.

I then thought that if I could get a command prompt this could work. So I downloaded DOS 6.22 onto a CDROM. When I put this in it fires up and is looking for BANANA driver which it cannot find and therefore says install aborted BUT it does give me the a: prompt. The message I get at this point is 'device driver not found BANANA' No valid CD Rom drivers selected

I have gone into C: and set up a partition and active partition and downloaded DOS onto C: but with no success.

If I try to boot from C; it gives me Operating system not found and from DOS CDROM it gives me the a: prompt. If I then put in the Windows XP SP3 disc it gives an error message 'invaid media type reading drive a' Abort Retry Fail.

I have a Sony VAIO recovery disc from another laptop and it boots up and goes down the install route. It seems to work and I then get the Blue screen of death. Again, I have a recovery disc from a fujitsu with XP SP2 and again this starts the install of files and the it says windows is starting before it then goes to the blue screen.

Finally I have an upgrade copy of Vista Ultimate and this will appear to install and then gets to the same point with the blue screen and unexpected error - my hopes dashed again!

Is there any rescue from this or I have I messed it up completely. i really want to try and get it going as it is only a couple of years old and a really good laptop.

I have access to the web from another laptop and access to a USB DVD recorder. Just for info, if I plug the external drive into the Sony - with the DOS drive it reads it and again says that it is looking for the BANANA driver and gives me the a prompt

Any advise would be really appreciated to overcome my stupidity!

Cheers

[etaf]

I suspect none of these windows cds are licensed - most come with the PC and are tied to that machine

the best thing would be to get sony to send some replacement recovery cds
http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/m...00%20218476384

[stevecox32]

Thanks for your comment. I can confirm that the windows XP is a genuine windows full version purchase not linked to any machine.

Hope this clarifies

Cheers

[etaf]

thanks for the clarification

[Byteman]

After using various disk wiping utilities, it's very common to run into this issue. I have had to attach hard drives to another computer, as a Slave not a booting hard drive....and format them, sometimes more than once, in order to be able to use a wiped drive again.

Some one should have suggestions for you- unless there is a hardware issue, or your BIOS does not recognize a drive....about the only possible thing is the disk wipe that would cause this.

Ask for help if you need assistance with removing and attaching your hard drive as a Slave to another computer to see if a formatting will help.

There are some ins and outs with attaching hard drives..

[Snagglegaster]

stevecox32, what's probably happening here is that XP doesn't support the drive controllers on your Sony. And there likely isn't a fix for that. Trying to load recovery disks from other systems isn't going to work, and wouldn't be legal anyway. My best advice would be, if you just can't live with Vista, buy a Windows 7 upgrade.

[stevecox32]

Thanks for your email. Can I come back to you if I need to set up the HDD as a slave as it sounds complicated! many thanks

[Byteman]

Of course.

As was posted, your system may not work if you have a SATA drive and try to load XP. ... however:

Some but not all systems have both type of ports- SATA and IDE. Many have BIOS options to be COMPATIBLE using BIOS settings to allow the drive to function in XP environment. I'm using an HP Pavilion A1510N right now with an IDE hard drive and a SATA DVD burner.

[stevecox32]

Originally Posted by Snagglegaster

stevecox32, what's probably happening here is that XP doesn't support the drive controllers on your Sony. And there likely isn't a fix for that. Trying to load recovery disks from other systems isn't going to work, and wouldn't be legal anyway. My best advice would be, if you just can't live with Vista, buy a Windows 7 upgrade.

Hi there, I am not too sure that a 7 upgrade would work as I have wiped vista off the laptop completely? I have a vista upgrade and that is saying that it cannot install as it cannot find the original so i assume that this would be the same with windows 7. Many thanks

[stevecox32]

Originally Posted by Byteman

Of course.

As was posted, your system may not work if you have a SATA drive and try to load XP. ... however:

Some but not all systems have both type of ports- SATA and IDE. Many have BIOS options to be COMPATIBLE using BIOS settings to allow the drive to function in XP environment. I'm using an HP Pavilion A1510N right now with an IDE hard drive and a SATA DVD burner.

thanks for this. Do you know how I can establish if this is the case for my machine. What should I be looking for. Really appreciate your help with this

[Snagglegaster]

Originally Posted by stevecox32

Hi there, I am not too sure that a 7 upgrade would work as I have wiped vista off the laptop completely? I have a vista upgrade and that is saying that it cannot install as it cannot find the original so i assume that this would be the same with windows 7. Many thanks

If you have a license for Vista, a Win7 upgrade is legal and you can load it even without XP or Vista installed. It just requires a little bit of (legal) effort.

[Elvandil]

Since you have a SATA drive, you're not installing XP without some hoops to jump through, as mentioned.

But I'm wondering about what seem to be recurring blue screens. Testing RAM would not be a bad idea.

And by all means get DOS out of the picture. DOS has had nothing to do with Windows in over 10 years and it's presence is only going to lead to problems. It doesn't support the new partition types, it won't support SATA drives (banana driver or not), and it can't be used to access XP or newer file systems.

Drive wiping has made some drives unusable. There is no reason for it unless you are getting rid of the drive.

Memory Testing (including bootable CD's and floppies):

Memtest86
MemScope (Floppy and CD images.)
Roadkil's RAM Test
Microsoft Memory Test (floppy or CD ISO image)

If you have enough memory sticks, you can test them by removing one at a time and see if the problem disappears.

If you are running Vista or 7, tap F8 on boot and choose the memory diagnostic, or if you can boot up, go to Start > Search and type:

mdsched.exe

Choose to run a memory diagnostic on next boot. Or, you can boot from the DVD and run it from there.