topic SONY VAIO PCG SERIES in PCs & Accessories

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

dscaryspice — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:11:54 GMT

HI Can anyone give me a step by step guide for a senior , I want to pass my Vaio on to a younger person but want to clear it first. What do I need to do. Please make it simple.

Thanks guys.

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

rich912 — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:57:49 GMT

Hi dscaryspice,

Without your exact model number it is difficult to give precise instructions, but in order to retain full functionality of the notebook your best option is to restore it to factory settings using Vaio Recovery.

Tap F10 at boot when you see the Vaio logo and, once the Recovery Center loads, select ‘Restore Complete System’ – skip any prompts to backup data etc.

Alternatively boot with your recovery disk in the drive and follow the same procedure.

Restoring to factory settings will format the hard drive and then reinstall the original operating system, drivers, utilities and pre-installed software. You will of course lose all personal data and third party software.

Rich

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

dscaryspice — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:35:05 GMT

Hi Rich, thasnks for your reply. The model is PCG-GR214EP, I have 4 product recovery cds and one Documentation cd-rom so I hope I have all the ones i need.

Thanks again

Regards Dianne

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

rich912 — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:31:29 GMT

Hi Dianne,

In that case the F10 option will not be available so boot with the first of the recovery CD's in the drive - you should find the recovery procedure for this model on the documentation CD.

The GR series, in my opinion, was one of the best and I still have a fully functioning GR114 so hopefully yours will provide a few more years of service.:smileyhappy:

Rich

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

dscaryspice — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:40:22 GMT

Hi Rich, thanks very much I will let you know how things go. Will wait till i have a quiet half an hour without distractions to do this.

Regards Dianne:smileyhappy:

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

dscaryspice — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 11:09:21 GMT

Good Morning Rich I got to 87% completed and was prompted to insert cd 3, then the following message came up

" an internal Stack overflow has caused the session to be halted, change the STACKS in your CONFIG.SYS and try again.

I have no idea what to do now.

Can you help

Regards Dianne

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

rich912 — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:06:08 GMT

Hi Dianne,

My apologies for the delay in responding.

I have not encountered that message since the days of DOS operating system! As your machine came with XP, and that is what you are attempting to reinstall, I can only assume that there are problems initialising some device.

I suggest that first you reset the BIOS to defaults (tap F2 at boot when you see the Vaio logo). Then retry the recovery with no external devices attached and internet disconnected.

BTW are you able to boot into Windows at present or has the recovery failed completely?

Rich

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

dscaryspice — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:09:24 GMT

Hi Rich thanks for the reply . I have the PHOENIXBIOS SET UP UTILITY screen up now but not sure how to reset it. Alos have not been able to boot into windows either as it seems the recovery has halted.

Do i just F9 and when the set up confirmation box pops up press yes to {Load default configuration now}

Tried that anyway, following message came up " windows could not start because the following file is missing \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vgaoen.fon

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD_ROM

tried that too but still nothing happening.

Ok disc one of repaair seems top be running now, will update you.

Message was edited by: dscaryspice

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

rich912 — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:20:17 GMT

Hi Dianne,

Pressing F9 when in the Bios screen should reset factory default Bios. Then press F10 to save and exit.

You will then need to shut down completely, remove all externally attached devices, and reboot with the first of the recovery disks in the drive.

Rich

EDIT: Missed your last edit before replying - let us know how things go...

Message was edited by: rich912

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

dscaryspice — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:20:56 GMT

Hi Again Rich, have done that and the first disc completed 34% then prompted to insert disc 2 but the same stacks meesage has come up again.

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

rich912 — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:45:04 GMT

Hi Dianne,

I am beginning to suspect that your recovery disks are faulty or dirty. Try cleaning them and repeat the process. If that doesn’t work then, as a last resort, make a copy of the disks and try again as just occasionally a copy will work.

It seems strange that on the first attempt the recovery process progressed to disk 3 and now it is failing on disk 2. I assume that until you attempted the recovery all was working normally?

Rich

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

dscaryspice — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:51:44 GMT

Hello again Rich I will try your suggestion and let you know how things go. Yes the system was working perfectly before i tried the recovery. Thanks for you patience.

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

dscaryspice — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:11:32 GMT

Hi Rich that seemed to work although after disc 3 completed it said system was restored. i was not asked to insert disc 4. Do i have to do anything else now . Windows XP came up on the screen and "please wait for windows to start ............. is showing. Now it is taking me through Windows XP professional.

it is asking me to set a password, should I ?

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

rich912 — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:18:20 GMT

Hi Dianne,

This is encouraging!

I am not sure what is on disk 4 as my GR only has 3 recovery disks.

Best option is to check out the system and if all is working as expected and there is no pre-installed software missing then leave things as they are.

There is no need to set a password unless you chose to.

Rich

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

dscaryspice — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:22:38 GMT

Hi Rich, Thanks very much for all your help. The system seems to be working correctly now. I am truly grateful for your help.

Kind Regards Dianne

SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

rich912 — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:38:47 GMT

Hi Dianne,

That’s great news:smileyhappy:

I hope that whoever you are passing this machine on to appreciates your generosity.

Rich