topic Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem. in PCs & Accessories

Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

DickyMint51 — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:19:39 GMT

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.

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

rich912 — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:18:34 GMT

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

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

DickyMint51 — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:55:49 GMT

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.

Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

rich912 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:36:32 GMT

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

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

DickyMint51 — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:57:30 GMT

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.

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

rich912 — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:30:10 GMT

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

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

DickyMint51 — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 09:03:17 GMT

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.

Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

rich912 — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:05:02 GMT

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

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

DickyMint51 — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 21:38:49 GMT

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?)

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

rich912 — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:29:41 GMT

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

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

DickyMint51 — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 16:10:40 GMT

Hi, Just to bring you all up to date, my computer is up and running. I managed to kick start it with the shop bought Vista then managed to install all of the drivers using both the recovery discs and the sony on site drivers. Although my new hard drive was origianlly 3TB after all the upgrades an all my clutter I still have 1.65 TB free to play with. I have the ram up from 2gb to 4gb and all is well, "Just got to deal with the noisey fans Any ideas short of replacing both of the?

Davivid.

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

rich912 — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 18:47:35 GMT

Hi David,

Good to hear that you have cracked the install part.

Have you checked Disk Management to make sure that the full 3TB is recognised? Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management.

As for the fan noise did you check the fan and vents for dust when you had the back off?

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

DickyMint51 — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 11:03:33 GMT

Hi Rich,

Thank you for the reply.

I checked the disc partition, it has it down as Disc 0 and it has divided it into three (C:) has2038.08 GB NTFS ( Heathy boot page file crash dump primary Partition. There is another partition with 746.52 GB Unallocated and one 9.92GBHealth ( EISA Conf ) I would like to allocate it all to C drive if its possible.

I did clean out the fans when I had the back off, I need to check if I can buy replacements or better still an upgraded fan.

David.

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

rich912 — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:18:27 GMT

Hi David,

That was the answer I was expecting unfortunately.

The ESIA partition is the hidden recovery media that would have been installed by your recovery disks. Should you ever need to recover to factory settings and your disks don't work for any reason then this is your lifeline - so leave well alone.

The unallocated space of 746GB is what remains after the MBR limit of 2.2TB and unfortunately I understand that this on a 32Bit system is not accessible.

I suggest you Google 'MBR 2TB limit Windows Vista' for further reading but any possible solutions will be for a 64Bit OS.

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

DickyMint51 — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 08:52:36 GMT

Hello Rich,

Once again thank you for your help and imput. I will have to look into changing over from 32 bits to 64Bit OS maybe an upgrade would do the trick? either way I will post any progress I make.

Regards,

David.

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

rich912 — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 09:31:47 GMT

Hi David,

Unfortunately an upgrade from 32Bit to 64Bit is not an option. You will need to clean install a 64Bit retail version and then install any 64Bit drivers and utilities available from Sony Support. Note that very few are available from the Support link posted earlier so I advise caution...

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

DickyMint51 — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 10:30:57 GMT

Hi Rich,

Thank you for your reply, Considering the time I have had to spend getting my desktop back up and running I do not think that just to convert to 64bits would be worth a full install again. I am led to believe that 32bits is almost as good as 64 and for what I use my computer for I dont think I would benifit me. Having said that I will continue to better the computer I have in the hopes I can continue using it a bit longer, it might be a few years old but it was expensive when I bought it back in 2007. In the meantime keep up the good work it is much appreciated.

Regards,

David.

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

rich912 — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:55:43 GMT

A wise decision David:smileywink:

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

davsmith3551 — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:06:27 GMT

I have read through all this discussuion and it follows my problems.I cannot do any of the technical stuff due to no skill or experience. I am thinking its all over for me and a new PC is on the cards. I have no idea of likely costs of having Sony Repair guys take a look ( with a £36 deposit) just to get started. From your comments above it looks serious.

Ah well !

Re: Sony Vaio VGC-LM1M Bios problem.

DickyMint51 — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 22:03:36 GMT

Hi Dave,

Not sure if you have the same computer as myself, but if its any consolation I have no knowledge or skill either, just a will to get my computer back to normal. Sony would much rather you buy a new computer but when I bought this in 2007 if my memory serves me it was well over a £1000 maybe even more, so not being in work a new one would be out of the question. Good luck with whatever you decide.

David.