Solved: Sony Vaio VPCEC1S1E issues

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Sony Vaio VPCEC1S1E issues

Hi from a Newbie

I have a neighbour who Im trying to help with a 17" Sony Vaio VPCEC1S1E thats developed some issues. Its only 18 months old but sadly out of warranty. Its running Windows 7 Home Premium.

Im not sure if its a hardware fault or software.

The main issues are that occasionally the screen goes black but the mouse is still there flickering on the black screen. If you CTRL ALT DEL it briefly brings up the task manager for a second then goes black again. Same if you put it to sleep. when you wake it it briefly displays the desktop icons then goes black. the only way out of this is to power it down and restart. then it may be ok for a few hours.

Also occasionally when there is hardly anything running it brings up an error message when trying to open a file such as a spreadsheet stating there are insufficent resources to complete the task.

Its really slow on boot up, takes four minutes.

We spoke to the Sony out of warranty help line yesterday who sent me a link for the lastest Graphics driver and BIOS updates. These have been installed and the problem persists.

Ive run all the Sony Diagnostics for hardware faults and they come up ok.

Im guessing its a software problem but I just dont know for sure. The laptop has lots of programs, data and devices installed and it would be a huge task to factory reset and probably a days work which may or may not resolve the problem.

Is there any way on this machine of performing a repair without wiping it or should we just bite the bullet at go for a full recovery?

System Restore doesnt work either. Just says unable to restore.

Any suggestions appreciated

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Something is hogging resources - I presume you have run a Malware Scan? Which AntiVirus is installed?

Have you tried running the System File Checker? SFC /scannow at the Command Prompt.

Have you tried running a Registry Checker to remove all broken links to uninstalled/deleted programs? This is the most frequent cause of slow running/loading. There are several examples that are either free or available on a 30 day free trial.

You can run a Repair Installation but you will need to borrow a Windows 7 retail installation disc. Alternatively you can download or create a System Repair Disc.

http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/Create-a-system-repair-disc

Ultimately, a System Recovery may be the last resort.