Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

[DickyMint51]

Hi, I have a Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M, not long after buying it I had lots of problems with in caused by the graphics card. Sony kindly repaired it for me at no cost. I had already purchase the recovery disc's from sony in an endeavor to repair it and obviously this had failed, it was only by accident that I found out about the graphics card failure. Not long after I got the commputer back I noticed that I could not use the Sony updates because the Sony updates sight said it did not reconise my computer, I suspect this is because the bios was altered at Sony. Not being computer literate I do not know how to alter the bios in order to make the sony updater reconise my computer. Has anyone any suggestions please?

Regards,

David.

[rich912]

Hi David,

As far as I know there is nothing that you can do within the BIOS to enable Sony updates. I assume you are referring to Vaio Update?

You can of course manually download any updates available from the Support site by following this link.

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/vgc-lm1m

In the meantime this has been escalated to Support for suggestions on the way forward.

Rich

[DickyMint51]

Hi Rich, Thank you for your reply. I have used the Vaio update site many time over the last few years but would much rather have set my computer to automatic updates from Sony. I fear this may not now be possible. The other problem I was having is, I accidently formatted my C:\ drive when I tried to do a full retore using the Sony recovery discs it would get to 21% and then come up with an error code 508:58 and would not complete the install. I have tried every way I know how to put the computer back to its factory condition without any success so the recovery disc are of no use other than to go through the motions and end up in the same position. The only way I can retore Vista and get my computer up and running is to do a clean install using Vista from another disc. Once I have done this and try to load all the divers from the recovery disc I just get another error code.

[rich912]

Hi DickyMint51,

As you now have a retail copy of Windows installed you will not have the option of Vaio Update.

You can purchase a new set of recovery disks from Support at a cost of approx. £60. These will return your machine to ‘as delivered’ with all Sony software and utilities.

If you wish to purchase a set of recovery disks you will need to call the OOW number. From the UK the number is 0905 0310006 (£0.35 per min.)

Rich

Edit: Sorry, missed the point that you have already purchased a set of recovery disks. I will see whether we can get any information on error code 508:58.

Message was edited by: rich912

[DickyMint51]

Hi Rich,

thank you for your repy, however like I explained in my post I already have the recovery discs I bought from Sony. My understanding was that I would be able to return my computer back to its original factory settings with these, turns out I was wrong. The shop bought copy of Windows Vista home premium did allow me to at least get my computer up and running on account that to use the Sony Discs you have to have an OS loaded. Once the shop bought Vista was loaded I was able to attempt putting (C:) drive back to its origial state, this would allow me to load certain things but not everything. If I tried to do a full install back to original factory condition using the same method, I would always get the error message.

Having said that I have now decided to fit a new hard drive. (Seagate 3TB ) I think once I have fitted this new hard drive I will be able to do the full restore as per the Sony discs. I have just ugraded the ram to 4gb and patiently awaiting the new hard drive. The early problems I had doing the retore were down to the graphics card, this one I suspect is down to something being put on the old hard drive by either Sony or by the shop bought Vista OS. Once again Thank you for your imput, much appreciated.

David.

[rich912]

Hi David,

A couple of things to consider...

Is the drive you have ordered a 2.5" x9.5mm form factor? I am almost certain that this is the size fitted in your model.

If the new drive is an Advanced Format drive (4096-byte sectors as opposed to the old 512-byte sectors) there is a strong possibility that the recovery media will fail to install as it is a few years old and will not be AF aware.

Rich

[DickyMint51]

Hi Rich, I will have to get back to you on that my hard drive is 100 mm by 146mm. I am not sure what you mean by AF.

The hard drive has not arrived this morning so I cannot do a comparrison. The original drive is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320gb

David.

[rich912]

Hi David,

Have you physically checked the size of the existing hard drive – It seems I may be totally incorrect on the size fitted to your model as the model number you have quoted would seem to be a 3.5” drive – i.e. 100 mm by 146mm.

The following link will provide more information on Advanced Format drives – also try a Google.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format

Rich

[DickyMint51]

Hi Rich,

I fitted the hard drive then booted it up using the Sony recovery disc. I tried a full install but this got to 6% and  gave the error message 323:55 foolowed by 319 followed by 320 followed by 330 then Task failed with error code 1 I then tried a different tack by doing a clean install using a shop bought Windows vista disc which was successfull but when I looked at the amount of disc space I was left with just over 2TB  I thought was not enough considering I had loaded nothing only Vista. I did a hardware check and everything was ok. I scrubbed it once more and tried to restore (C:) drive to factory settings which  completed successfully but when it tried to boot up I got the dreaded blue screen. So no luck, "Any suggestions?)

[rich912]

Hi David,

I think the problem you are having is that 2TB is the limit for Master Boot Record (MBR). I'm afraid that I have absolutely no experience of drives of this size so can only suggest further reading. Start with the following link and then Google for more detail.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2581408

Hopefully another member with practical experience may be able to offer further advice or you could see whether the drive manufacturer has any advice to offer.

Rich