The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Sony Vaio "no operating system found"

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by sechracer, Sep 27, 2009.

  1. sechracer

    sechracer Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi,
    My friend bought a Sony Viao VGN-FZ190 Laptop from a estate sale. The Problem with the laptop is that when you try to boot it, it tells you that the operating system is not found. I tried to recover/reload the operating system, but when you boot from cd, it goes through everything and says "hard drive not found". When you boot it, the post test show the hard drive, and I even tried putting in a brand new one with the same results. If I tap the esc. key when booting it asks me to boot from the hard drive (even gives me the name of the hard drive) or cd. Same results. I can not get into the bios, due to not having the password, and since I do not have the origional recipts from purchase, sony will not issue me the "one time" bios password. Which is fine since I think $50 for a password to something you own is a rip.

    Any ideas that could help me?
     
  2. SPEEDwithJJ

    SPEEDwithJJ NBR Super Idiot

    Reputations:
    865
    Messages:
    3,499
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    106
    Mind if I ask how much did your friend pay for this notebook? :confused:
     
  3. sechracer

    sechracer Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    not sure...
     
  4. ScuderiaConchiglia

    ScuderiaConchiglia NBR Vaio Team Curmudgeon

    Reputations:
    2,674
    Messages:
    6,039
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    What OS are you trying to install? I bet it is XP, right? The machine originally had Vista on it. Sony is not going to help you without PROOF you own it. And if you think about it, that is really how it OUGHT to be. I bet if you call and talk to a second tier support and provide a receipt from the estate sale you might get better results. Without that Sony has no idea if your friend is the legal owner or not.

    Gary
     
  5. ajreynol

    ajreynol Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    941
    Messages:
    2,555
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    sure there's a HDD in it? if so, take it out, put it into an external USB HDD enclosure and test it out.
     
  6. sechracer

    sechracer Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I have the recipt as PROOF, but it only states laptop on it, it doesnt say Sony Vaio laptop on it. As for installing xp, yes, but that part shouldnt matter when I try to launch the setup program it tells me that there is no hard drive found. I know there is a hard drive in it, a brand new one. I purchased it and installed it myself. Also, like I said above. $50 for a password to something you own is stupid. I talked to someone from teir support and they said that I would need the store purchase recipts.....
     
  7. SPEEDwithJJ

    SPEEDwithJJ NBR Super Idiot

    Reputations:
    865
    Messages:
    3,499
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    106
    I cannot help but think that your friend has been ripped off. :( This is a sign of something fishy with the notebook based on the above sentence. :(
     
  8. Rachel

    Rachel Busy Bee

    Reputations:
    1,369
    Messages:
    4,245
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    106
    As you stated you cannot enter the BIOS so it looks like it might be a security issue.
    No one here on this forum can help you on cracking any BIOS security issues as this would be against the forum rules. This thread has to be closed.