SONY VAIO PCG SERIES

[dscaryspice]

HI Can anyone give me a step by step guide for a senior , I want to pass my Vaio on to a younger person but want to clear it first. What do I need to do. Please make it simple.

Thanks guys.

[rich912]

Hi dscaryspice,

Without your exact model number it is difficult to give precise instructions, but in order to retain full functionality of the notebook your best option is to restore it to factory settings using Vaio Recovery.

Tap F10 at boot when you see the Vaio logo and, once the Recovery Center loads, select ‘Restore Complete System’ – skip any prompts to backup data etc.

Alternatively boot with your recovery disk in the drive and follow the same procedure.

Restoring to factory settings will format the hard drive and then reinstall the original operating system, drivers, utilities and pre-installed software. You will of course lose all personal data and third party software.

Rich

[dscaryspice]

Hi Rich, thasnks for your reply. The model is PCG-GR214EP, I have 4 product recovery cds and one Documentation cd-rom so I hope I have all the ones i need.

Thanks again

Regards Dianne

[rich912]

Hi Dianne,

In that case the F10 option will not be available so boot with the first of the recovery CD's in the drive - you should find the recovery procedure for this model on the documentation CD.

The GR series, in my opinion, was one of the best and I still have a fully functioning GR114 so hopefully yours will provide a few more years of service.:smileyhappy:

Rich

[dscaryspice]

Hi Rich, thanks very much I will let you know how things go. Will wait till i have a quiet half an hour without distractions to do this.

Regards Dianne:smileyhappy:

[dscaryspice]

Good Morning Rich I got to 87% completed and was prompted to insert cd 3, then the following message came up

" an internal Stack overflow has caused the session to be halted, change the STACKS in  your CONFIG.SYS and try again.

I have no idea what to do now.

Can you help

Regards Dianne

[rich912]

Hi Dianne,

My apologies for the delay in responding.

I have not encountered that message since the days of DOS operating system! As your machine came with XP, and that is what you are attempting to reinstall, I can only assume that there are problems initialising some device.

I suggest that first you reset the BIOS to defaults (tap F2 at boot when you see the Vaio logo). Then retry the recovery with no external devices attached and internet disconnected.

BTW are you able to boot into Windows at present or has the recovery failed completely?

Rich

[dscaryspice]

Hi Rich thanks for the reply . I have the PHOENIXBIOS SET UP UTILITY  screen up now but not sure how to reset it. Alos have not been able to boot into windows either as it seems the recovery has halted.

Do i just F9 and when the set up confirmation box pops up press yes to {Load default configuration now}

Tried that anyway,  following message came up  " windows could not start because the following file is missing \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vgaoen.fon

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD_ROM

tried that too but still nothing happening.

Ok disc one of repaair seems top be running now, will update you.

Message was edited by: dscaryspice

Message was edited by: dscaryspice

[rich912]

Hi Dianne,

Pressing F9 when in the Bios screen should reset factory default Bios. Then press F10 to save and exit.

You will then need to shut down completely, remove all externally attached devices, and reboot with the first of the recovery disks in the drive.

Rich

EDIT: Missed your last edit before replying - let us know how things go...

Message was edited by: rich912

Message was edited by: rich912

[dscaryspice]

Hi Again Rich, have done that and the first disc completed 34% then  prompted to insert disc 2 but the same stacks meesage has come up again.

D