Sony Viao Laptop crashing whilst booting up

[ferrance79]

Hi

I have a Sony Viao Laptop

VGN-FS315B

when I switch it on the windows logo comes up then the following message appears "An error has been encountered that prevents set up continuing. Windows is unable to start because the registry could not be updated. To address this problem please contact your computer manufacturer. Windows must now shut down.

Then if I try to turn it on again it come up with "The request operation was unsuccessful"

Any help is greatly appriciated

Many Thanks

Natalie

[rich912 · Accepted solution]

Hi Natalie,

As you are unable to boot to windows this is a difficult one. Unless anyone has other suggestions I would bite the bullet and recover the system to factory settings – I assume you are still using the original XP OS?

To do this either tap F10 at boot to access the hard disk recovery utility (if this exists) or boot with your recovery disk in the CD drive.

Be aware that this procedure will delete all personal data and third party software. If you have a backup of your data this can be recovered after reinstalling the OS but third party software will need to be reinstalled.

If you do not have a backup of data and need to retain this then you will need to remove the hard drive from the notebook, place it in a USB caddy and connect this to another PC to retrieve any data required.

This Microsoft Support kb article may throw some light on the problem but only recommends rebuilding the image – i.e. reinstalling.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818171

Rich