C-140G Mystery

Hi Folks,

First I'd like to thank anyone who can help with my problem in advance. I don't want to make matters worse, so I figured I would come here.


I recently bought a C-140G off eBay, from a reputable seller, etc. It had first had Windows XP installed, and the previous owner had upgraded it to Windows 7.

For the first two days the computer worked fine, booted and powered down flawlessly.

I then began the arduous process of ripping my iPod to the new computer with a software I've used several times. I had left the iPod plugged into the USB, and forgot to unplug it before booting the computer up. From previous experience I've known PC's to be temperamental when booting with anything plugged into it, and sure enough, the laptop wouldn't go past the VAIO title screen.

I forced a shutdown, unplugged the iPod, and rebooted. This is where my trouble began, as the boot went past the VAIO screen, to the blinking " - " screen, which blinked methodically three times, and then fluttered.

The computer then went black, with the backlight still lit. CTRL+ALT+Delete didnt work, so I forced another shutdown.

I then rebooted and attempted to bring the computer to safe mode by pressing F8, and it only produced several high pitched computer-y beeps. When I stopped pressing F8, it proceeded in the same fashion to the black screen.

Then I tried MSCONFIG, and things get even STRANGER. I type in MSCONFIG at the blinking " - ", and it brings me to GRUB's prompt! I had never even seen that before in my life, and only knew what it was because I went online to search for it. I had no idea what to do at the point, and decided to try to reinstall XP with a reinstallation disk I had.

That seemed to be going fine, until the installation of XP required a reboot, and then got even further still, to the XP logo and loading bar, and then produced the same black screen. On the next reboot, F8 finally worked, but when I try to run the computer in Safe Mode to do a System Restore, it too produces the black screen.

So now the Computer has XP installed, but can't bring itself past the black screen, in a regular start up or in Safe Mode.

Besides questions like "did my stupid iPod do this to me" and "why is GRUB on there at all?", can anyone out there lend their expertise? I am truly at a loss, and will truly be very upset if I purchased a dead computer.


Again, thanks for any help in advance.

 

This may seem like a dumb question but how much RAM does this computer have?

 

Intel Centrino Duo T5500, 1.66GHz, 3GB Gig Ram, 160 GB HDD

 

Is this a Sony AR series? people don't really go by the model number.
It wouldn't hurt to try to press F2 to enter the BIOS and load the default values.
Also, you could remove the battery, power cord and hold the power button for 45secs and then try restarting.

 

His is a C Series computer.

Okay so I have a weird issue on my C260E computer which is very similar to yours. It came with 2GB ram and Sony officially states that 2GB ram is the max supported. However, I heard of other members installing 4GB ram in their C series with no issues and how their computer supports it.

So I bought 4GB ram and installed it, but my computer only registers 3GB (I am running 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate). When I boot up the computer and go into the BIOS, it states that only recognizes 3GB. Within Windows 7 it only recognizes 3GB.

Here's the issue, if I put the computer to hibernate OR the computer loses power while it's running (my battery doesn't work so if it gets unplugged while it's on, I lose all my work) the computer will go to the BIOS screen and then where Windows should be loading, the screen stays black forever. I don't have any beeps like you do, though.

The only way to fix this issue is if I physically take out 2GB ram so I am only booting with 2GB. This allows the OS to load. If I want to run on 3GB I have to shut down the computer, and install the additional ram, then I can use it. Basically, I lose my hibernate feature with extra ram which I don't know how to fix.

In the end, my issue can be completely different than yours, but maybe there's an off chance that if you remove one stick of ram so it boots with 2gb you won't have this issue.

 

Ok.

So I followed Genericsn's advice and removed a stick of RAM, seeing as the other suggestions didn't work, and more promising things are happening with the computer.

The computer booted past the windows loading screen, to the XP installation screen.

There are two popups at the moment, one asking for the installation disk, which is not the problem.

The other is an error box, "lsass.exe - System Error: Object Name not found."

The only option to click is ok, and when I click ok the computer restarts itself and gets to the same screen with the same error message.

Now what did I do? Can I reinstall XP, or Windows 7 (I bought it the other day), or will this new error message delay me even further.

 

Here is how to fix it
1) Remove the drive and use it as an external drive in another system. I'll call it drive X:

2) On that other computer, create the following folders on X:
x:\temp\registry\new
x:\temp\registry\orig

3) start windows explorer and Right click on
X:\System Volume Information and assign Full
privileges for your current administrator user.
If you cannot see X:\System Volume Information,
then you need to go to the Tools-->Folder Options menu
and click on the view tab.
Then be sure that the following boxes are checxked:

Display the Contents of System Folders
Show Hidden Files and Folders

and UNcheck the following box:
Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended)

Then do what was stated at the beginning of #3 above

4) Open the X:\System Volume Information and and copy the most "recent" working directory to
x:\temp\registry\new . How do you know
what's recent? The paths are named X:\System Volume
Information\_restore{x-GUID-x}\RP###.
Get the most recent RP### path from a date when the system was working
- never choose RP### from the day on which you discovered corruption.

5) Now you need to back up files that we are going to replace: Copy all of the registry files from x:\WINDOWS\system32\config to
x:\temp\registry\orig . The registry files will probably be the following: SOFTWARE, SAM, DEFAULT, SECURITY, SYSTEM -- with no extensions.

6) Delete those 5 files from x:\WINDOWS\system32\config

7) Copy those 5 files from x:\temp\registry\new\rp###\snapshot to x:\windows\system32\config. Note: the files in snapshot will probably have the following prefix: _REGISTRY_MACHINE_ or _REGISTRY_USER
After copying, edit those file names so that they once again just say SOFTWARE, SAM, DEFAULT, SECURITY, and SYSTEM

8) Move your hard drive back into the original system and reboot. And hope for the best.

P.S. I just googled it.

 

@avmaxfan or anyone, (I've tried googling before) but do you know how to fix the issue where my computer won't boot from hibernate after my ram upgrade from 2 to 4gb? Also, do we know why the computer only recognizes 3gb of ram, is it a hardware limitation? (I'm running 64bit Windows 7 Ultimate)

 

Are you sure the timings of both the RAM modules match ? Are they same make/type ?

 

I bought a kit so it should be the same.

Edit: Actually Windows recognizes 4.00GB but only 2.99GB is usable. Perhaps the other 1.01GB is going to the integrated graphics? Hrmm, maybe I should check to see how much is usable when I only have 2GB in there.