recovery disk not wokring on SZ model

My brother has a vgn-sz436n, he bought it from asia.
recently his sz cannot boot in to normal windows mode, but can get into safe mode.
so I figure a way to get into windows mode and made a copy of the sony recovery disk.
I start to restore his computer with the disk by pressing F10 in the startup.
however it would only install half way, when it restart itself, same thing happened, I cannot get into the windows, all black screen.
so I decide to try install XP, and turn out XP can install perfectly...
so I try to do the recovery disc agian, I press F10 in the startup, nothing happened, it just sent me to XP.
I google a bit, find out once I install xp, the F10 button would not work..

so my question is , How can I recover the vista using the backup reocovery disk? what do I do now?

thanks so much for the help, I reeally spent the whole night looking for answer, but cannot find one ..

 

It's confusing from your post whether you are trying to recover Vista or XP. Anways did you try SONY recovery disk or RETAIL version?
F10 did work for me only on OEM disk.

Did you check whether BIOS version is current? Any recent hardware changes on the laptop?

 

Hi

thanks for helping, and sorry about my English :>

the laptop comes with vista, so first I try to install with the Sony recovery DVD, and it didnot wok (install black out half way through).

and then I use a retail XP DVD and try to see its working, and indeed, it install XP sucessfully.

then I went back and use the SONY recovery disc and reinstall again (because my brother wants Vista), the F10 button wont work, when I press F10, it didnot show the recovery screen, it go to windows XP.

now I dont know what to do now...

 

I believe F10 is just for OEM customization and it doesn't have much usage with the typical RETAIL XP version.

Now you know that your laptop is working with XP. Can you try Vista install using SONY RECOVERY DVD?

If you get the same BLANK SCREEN problem, you can look at install log and see where it got struck.

 

I did try install using Sony Recovery dvd, but it straight go to WIndows XP, because the F10 wont work any more, so I am now stuck with a none usable recovery disc...

 

Two Points

1. your F10 key won't work because you overwrote OEM version with a RETAIL version
2. If you have SONY vista recovery DVD, you can boot from it. If booting from DVD won't work, check the "booting priority sequence" in BIOS by pressing F2 key

 

OMG, please call me a retard....
when I burn those 2 sony recovery DVDs, I mistakenly wrote down DVD 1 as DVD2, and DVD2 as DVD1.
So all this time, I have been put in DVD 2 as DVD1, no wonder windows doesnot recognize it...

Thank you so much sateesh for your patience, thank you thank you

 

Good to hear that I could help you. Thanks

 

ah, bad news...

after i finish loading 2 recovery dvd as instructed, it restart itself, and then it just stop at a black screen forever.....

so I tried to install a retail XP, and it's working perfectly...

I even change a new hard drive, still the same result...stuck at a black black screen.

so I know the problem is not the harddrive.. what could be the problem?

i think i have to stuck with XP then..

 

It Could be problem with the second DVD also. Can you try with the retail VISTA version and see if it works? You don't need to activate Vista for 30 days

 

ok, I will try download a vista retail cd, and let you know, Thanks again

 

I solve the problem last week, here is the update..


The vaio's can only be install under stamina mode.
if switch to speed mode, it cannot going to windows..
so I guess the video card is not working ...
so now the laptop can only be use under stamina mode,