Boot up issues

Im facing an issue and dont know where to begin. My computer Blue Lighted the other day and now it wont even turn on. After it Blue Lighted I ran a Virus (AVG Free Edition) check and came up with nothing. I also ran Spybot S&D and that came up with nothing, as well. Well along with the Blue Light came notification that wouldnt stay up long enough to read, split second flash really, and a prompt that windows needed to install something and reboot.

I installed whatever it was that windows wanted to install and it tried to reboot but kept booting up but wouldnt get passed Vaio screen. Well managed to get passed it by turning the computer off then back on again. Well after that i ran an Error Checking and it did everything and attempted to restart my computer and now I cant do anything.

My laptop appears to be booting up or acting as such but OS isnt booting up with it. All my lights are coming on and the fans are running but no screen or noise from laptop at all. I am not allowed to place it in safe mode to restore from earlier date or anything. Is there anyone that can offer any assistance?

 

describe "blue lighted"
blue light for bluetooth connection?

 

No, It popped up with a screen couldnt read it though cause it was up for maybe a second. I was able to read the word driver and that was it. Its nothing to do with Bluetooth. Im in the means of uploading a video that shows exactly what its doing.

 

That fact that you mentioned AVG immediately made me think of this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/537565-updated-avg-free-z-will-not-start-_.html

A friend of mine let his AVG update on his new VAIO Z and then it wouldn't boot up. There's a link on the second page to an AVG forum. This may apply to your problem:
Free Antivirus | Forum - How To Disable AVG When The Operating System Cannot Be Started Properly

I'm not sure what process he did to recover from the problem, but he has resolved it and changed his antivirus to MSE to try it out.

Good luck!

 

Hi sumpump1203,

Sorry to here about your problems.

Did you look at the link anseio posted? It will link you to my thread I posted after I updated my AVG 2011 virus protection.
My 1st impression after doing a quick read of you original post was you have a video driver issue, but it can be any number of things.
I have a feeling you don't have the same issue I had only because you said "

"
~You did the AVG scan after the Blue Screen, With me and most others with my issue the AVG Free updated 1st then after the computer did the required reboot it would not go past the VAIO BIOS screen.
~When I and many others did get the Blue Screen of Death after AVG update the error message would stay for about 60 seconds, much longer than your BSoD. This is what mine said... " STOP: c0000135 The program can't start because %hs is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem."
~Do you have Win 7 64bit? My problem only effects that OS.
Of course there are always exceptions, you may have the same prob I had.

My advice to you is boot your computer in "Safe Mode" and watch the list of drivers getting loaded, take note of the last driver shown starting. If you computer does not boot into safe mode and gives the BSoD then the last driver loaded crashed the system. If you can go into safe mode then check your "Device Manager" to see if there are any devices that failed to load or with exclamation marks.

I have to go away from my computer for a few hrs but start with that and I'll get back with you.

Good luck!

 

I wish was able to run in safe mode but Im unable to do anything. If I turn my laptop on the only thing that comes on are the lock lights up top (cpa, number,scroll) and the lights in the front (power, charge, the light that says its busy, and wifi). I also see my D drive light come on if I place something into it. I am however unable to see anything on my screen or hear any noise. I have tried to hook it up to my TV with VGA connection but nothing there either.

Im not to sure, it looks and sounds is like the the comp is starting up but the OS isnt starting with it, just all the electronics within the laptop.

When it first started it started like you where talking about. I would start up but was able to get past the the Vaio page. They I was turn it off and back on and it would get past the Vaio page and give me a prompt dont quite remember what it said though. I do remember it took me to a windows page that said " comp shut down abruptly to avoid damage and gave me a couple options. One to run virus scan, another to do an error check on c-drive, and a third I dont remember what it was. I did the virus check with AVG and came up with nothing but still had the issue. After that I tried the Error-Check and after it did it went to reboot my comp and I ended up with a paper weight.

 

Maybe it would be useful to uninstall that new AVG. If it is stable enough in safe mode to do that. By he way it's "blue screen" as in blue screen of death (BSoD) not "blue lighted"

 

Im sorry I dont wanna seem rude or come off as being unappreciative but in all post I have made I stated "Im unable to do anything, screen doesnt turn on." Im not able to run it in safe mode or hook it up external source such as another monitor or T.V. I was looking up on google and ran across a symptom that that could if not at least acts as the problem that Im facing.

I came across a person that said his CMOS Battery went/going bad. He said that his computer was turning on but was getting nothing on his screen as if OS wasnt booting up. He said that it started with his time/date being incorrect and always being prompted to update it. Now I have never been asked to update time but my time was always incorrect no matter how many times I corrected it it would always reset to 12 o'clock if screen saver was to come on or I reset the comp.

Ive had this laptop for about 5 years roughly and was wondering can a CMOS go bad I that short amount of time? Im asking cause the more I read the more people posted that a CMOS should outlast the life of a laptop/pc.


Sorry I havent been ablet to fined out how to make signature but Im running:
Sony Vaio VGN-FS 660/w
XP Home edition

 

Sorry about that. When you said

I assumed you could run things, but I guess you meant that you ran it from that opening screen.

 

The CMOS will hardly ever go bad, but the battery that powers the CMOS may. However, normally that just causes a clock that gets set back to the BIOS default date and everything running on defaults, not an unbootable system.

But if the battery is just at the edge, unpredictable things may happen, as there may be enough juice to appear to the BIOS (or in this case EFI BIOS emulator) when the computer is warm, but not enough to preserve the settings when the computer is cold.

5 years is a substantial time -- even though batteries are rated for 8-10, that's average, and not a guarantee. Some will fail faster, and some slower.
And a new battery costs a buck or two, plus work (more if it has to be unsoldered/soldered), so it might be worth trying. The technician can look for other problems while in there (like blown capacitors).

 

Sounds like a hardware issue. If you can't even get the sony bios screen to come up it points to motherboard component or ram.

I'd start with swapping ram. You didn't post your model # but any chance it's one of the recalled NVIDIA units? See the sticky at the top of the sony forum here.

 

This is what I would do next...

Take the HDD out and attach it to an external case, see if you can read off it. If another computer can read/recognize it then check...
1) the RAM.
2) the thermal paste between the CPU and heat sink.
3) if they check out (or you can just do this before you even take the HDD out) then I would try re installing/recovering XP Home. If the HDD is dead XP Home won't install anyway.

The top five things that I encounter when people want me to fix their machine that fits your description is...
1) Bad RAM
2) Thermal paste bad
3) Motherboard problem/dead
4) OS gone bad/corrupt
5) Dead HDD

 

If you don't get ANY image at all when powering on the computer, you can dismiss most of TheBugMan's suggestions.
A dead HD will still let the BIOS (or, rather EFI BIOS emulator) tests run. Same with an OS problem. And bad RAM.

As for the thermal paste problem, that will normally manifest the same way as a clogged fan -- the computer will spin up, and then almost immediately shut down again. That doesn't seem to be the problem here either.

Likely problems are:
- Corrupted EFI BIOS emulator.
- Hardware failure on the motherboard. Likely culprits are a weak CMOS battery or a blown capacitor.
- Power problems (it's possible that +3.3V for the power LED is working, but 12V or 5V isn't, or other combinations). Including bad solder, bad connector or a bad wire.

 

^Don't rule out ram arth, if it's gone totally bad the system will not post at all. But I'm with you, odds are motherboard or powerboard.

 

I'm just trying to give hope that it's one of these lesser problems like HDD or RAM (^_^).

It's always better to eliminate the HDD and RAM 1st before going into the other costly/time consuming suggestions even though I think it is the RAM/Motherboard/CPU Paste(maybe).