Hi, so my friends sony vaio laptop crashed the other day, saying "Please insert correct boot media" when he booted, i played around with it for ages and decided it was the hard drive that was playing up, so i've replaced it with a brand new one and its still saying the same thing! Windows setup says there is no hard drive installed, i have booted with the case off and i can hear the drive spin up so i dont think its a power issue. The bios does not detect it either Any help would be really appreciated. And by the way its a sony vaio VGN-A117S
Hi, I would try these things: If you can test the HD in another machine. Failing that you can usually get a USB HD caddy on ebay for only a few quid. That way you can rule out the HD If this is not the fault then I wuold suggest giving Sony a call (if under warrrenty) as it would most likely be the motherboard that is screwed. You could try a bios update (though I am cluthing at straws here, saying that I have had some odd things resoled by thid in the past and Sony may ask you to do this during diagnostics) Also I am not sure for sonys but if you hold the fn key down on dells when they boot they boot into a diagnostic app. (though that is usally off the HD). Hope this helps Phill
Hi thanks for the suggestions mate, It is out of warranty, but im just wondering is there a way to update the bios without windows installed? Because the bios on the vaio website is an .exe file. Thanks
He's already ruled out the HDD being the problem Phill, by buying a new one... with the same result [/QUOTE] Unfortunately though... you could be right about the mobo. It may 'just' be the HDD controller which has gone? But that's neither here nor there really, because if it is a mobo problem of some sort, it'll likely require a replacement mobo anyway But as Phill has suggested Seebul... it would be worth contacting Sony tech support (whether it's still under warranty or not), to see what they might be able to suggest? What's the betting they'll suggest returning it to them for fixing... at a premium But I'd also recommend contacting one or more laptop repair specialists (there are a few in the UK - i.e. Laptop Repair, who claim to be "Sony specialists"? Google for more), to see if they can help diagnose the problem initially? If most of them think it's most likely a mobo problem... it'll be cheaper sending it to them, than Sony Assuming it's still valuable enough, to warrant paying for repairs on in the first place of course?
Thanks Hazardous, yeh i gave sony a call about the bios update, but they were uninterested really because it was out of warranty, just rang them back about the HDD problem but there now closed I'll give them a ring in the morning. Thanks for that link aswell i'll take a look, i want to try and avoid spending toooo much money as i already bought a new hard drive which it turned out not to be the problem!
