Problems with BIOS and CD Drive

Hi,

I'm having some strange happenings with my Vaio FZ of late. I took it apart a couple of days ago to clean it up and after re-assemebling and hitting the power button, the computer wouldn't go past the initial "Vaio,Phoenix,Intel" screen. I tried a couple of hours later and it booted fine. (Note, I've took it apart on two occasions before and have had zero problems after)

This continued to happen however when I tried to boot with the battery only, it booted fine. Today however, I restarted my computer whilst the battery charging it froze again. Unplugged the battery and it still didn't work. Waiting around 10mins and surprisingly worked again. Weird eh?

Yesterday I had noticed that my BD ROM was invisible in Windows. The same case was in Ubuntu where it appeared in "Computer" but it always failed to mount. Today I started my computer and it WAS found in windows. Restarted my computer and yep, it got stuck on that initial screen again. When it finally booted (after 10mins of rest) my BD ROM was again invisible in Windows.

Why I think these are linked? Well my drive opens fine and I can hear it spin but it doesn't seem to run anything. When I try to boot from a cd it goes straight to my Bootloader (GAG). Normally it waits like 3 secs before going to my bootloader but everytime it doesn't, my drive never seems to be found.

I doubt anyone has had anything similiar but can anyone hazard a wild guess? The annoying thing is that Sony never give BIOS updates. I'm kinda lucky that my Vaio is still alive considering it has an 8600GS which was apparently seen as a faulty GPU in that nvidia saga around a year and a half ago - my temps hit 90C after six months and thats why I have to clean it often.

 

Hi
I have similar problem with my vaio s430p u can check my thread....any inputs from other user would be appreciated.
Cheers
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=451273

 

This is just my opinion, but it could be that your drive is faulty, if you're having issues in Windows and Ubuntu.

 

Yeah I seen your thread when I was searching for a similiar problem to mine. I doubt that mine has anything to do with the Bios battery though - my fz is only 25 months old.

I was thinking the same too. But I don't quite understand why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Today I charged my battery, unplugged ac adapter, then after 10mins switched my computer on and hey presto, I was able to boot for a cd and fix my mbr (since I removed ubuntu).

Since then (around 5 hrs) I've had the laptop switched on. It found the drive under "my computer" but just checked now and its disappeared! This actually used to happen around year ago until I re-installed windows and everything was ok. If I'm right, it was around that time I was experimenting with Ubuntu but surly thats nothing to do with my drive not being recognised, is it? Maybe my laptop doesn't like Grub or Gag or something lol?

 

Because it could be " faulty"

I couldn't answer that, but if you have experienced it before using Ubuntu, it could be that, but I have no experience with any of the above so just speculating.

 

I'm always under the impression that something works or it doesn't? Well I'm currently formatting and will re-install windows to see if it helps. If it doesn't then guess I'll purchase another drive. About a new drive, do I have to purchase one specifically made for the FZ or do most removable drives fit all laptops?

 

Depends I guess.

Might be your best bet, and although a pain, at least it will help rule out a dual boot issue.

You do yes, as it will have to fit your casing. Do you know what firmware the drives got? The newest I've found is 1.4, so once you're back up and running let me know, and if you need to update I'll attach the file.

 

Re-installed windows and it hasn't helped. Guess I'm gonna have to invest in a new cd drive. My Fz comes fitted with a Matsui BD Rom - do I have to buy an identical model or could I just buy a dvd rom (for the fz offcourse)? Well I hope a new drive will fix the problem since most ebay listings for a compatible drive are non-refundable.

AND, I assume it should get recognised in the BIOS as soon as it is installed yep?

 

Yep, so long as it's out of an FZ you'll be fine.

I would imagine so yes.