XP crashing, Vaio laptop...must b a way...

Hi guys.

I'm desperatly trying to get a solution for a sick Sony vaio laptop PCG-FX 705, ATHLON 1600+. XP Home preinstalled.

- Xp keeps crashing, different dumps all pointing to hardware.
- Those vaio have a faulty motherboard that makes XP crash bcause of high temperature. Been sent to repair several times but all they did is change the CPU, and refuse to do more...hahaha. Sony charges somethg like £150 to fix the motherboard pb that they are aware of! hahaha!
- I've also thought of a loop of data between CPU and video card (a poor ATI mobility-M1). It constantly crashes while playing a big flash game on a website. Screen freezes. No command works anymore. Note : graphic driver updated through Sony website. No changes.

Ok, if it's a motherboard pb, I can't do anythg, but my pb is it works perfectly in safe mode.... (Thus thinking of that video card pb). So there must be a way!!!!

I've also found that I may not have that pb with w98 because it doesn't care bout ACPI. But if i set up w98 instead of xp i might lose Sony system files...

Any suggestion welcome.

 

You can do a search on the BBS - I've posted this fix before and right now don't have time to look it up for you. There was a problem with some Viao laptops and i think yours is one of them re XPSP1 and Sony hardware. They have this on their website and the fix requires a BIOS upgrade flash - very simple fix using the Sony recommended tools and procedures. Nothing else I know is going to fix what ails your computer (assuming yours is one of the problem machines) no matter how many parts, pieces or whatever you want to change out. Go to the Sony support site.

 

Rockster2U, I've already been on sony website, already flashed the bios : many bips error codes, and computer shut down before end of flashing. But when i went back to the bios it displayed the new version number... ?!
Couldn't find any security protection in the bios.
Still crashes.
Crashes without sp1, crashes with sp1, crashes with sp2.

 

Rockster2u, I've finally found ur post about another vaio.
I already knew that fix and that website and my difference is there : that laptop doesn't have any random shutdown in safe mode (the page says it would if it was a temperature pb caused by that famous voltage issue). And only Intel processors are mentionned. This one is an AMD.
So.... ?

And Sony website is not much helping. That laptop is still under guarantee, I pointed the owner to that voltage pb before she took it to the repair center, and they just changed the CPU! Thank u Sony.

 

Wouldn't assume that flash was successful; it shouldn't "flashed the bios : many bips error codes, and computer shut down before end of flashing ". Try again with a boot floppy that has only command.com, io.sys, and an empty msdos.sys plus the flash program and the bios.

 

Also you didn't find the right post - the one I was referencing was re: an AMD. The thread you found didn't have a solution from me. My guidance - go to FAQ's on your exact machine model # at the Sony site and read, read and read some more - you'll find it. I've been through this several times. And, if your machine died during a bios flash or with the sony tool, a BIOS update - then you don't have the newest BIOS installed. PERIOD!

 

Rockster2u I was close to be unpolite to u after u said:
"go to FAQ's on your exact machine model # at the Sony site and read, read and read some more - you'll find it ", which sounded like "just read, u nana! "
cos i've spent f**** hours on that Sony website, read it over and over and never could find any information about that problem.
I now know why u did find it and not me : u go on the american site, when i gotta go on the european one. There is much more information on the US one (thank you Sony for being so ****).
Finally my model doesn't match the US ones so they don't know about it! Of course, why should it be easy?! I manage to find some information by chosing a close matching model.
We're then back to the bios (all other updates didn't change anythg).
I'll try to flash it with another floppy than the sony one, as suggested by sparrow. But looks like the bips (thanks to the american website...) mean a memory pb....Errrr doesn't make much sense to me there, but anyway.
If that doesn't work, I throw that laptop through the window.

 

Didn't mean to offend and am glad your tenacity lead you to something close. I didn't recognize the model # and didn't want to spend the time looking myself because I know its buried deep at the Sony site. My apologies for overlooking the possible differences between various Sony support sites re: geographic regions - I had no idea and yes, I realize this is one of those problems that can be extremely frustrating because no normal solution or trouble shooting procedure will work. If you can run OK in Safe mode, I'd think that the Sony Bios update tool (little different than a normal flash I'm used to) would work too. Good Luck.

re: the window - do you live in a high rise? Might want to visit someone who does.

 

Apologies accepted Rockster2u
Don't live very high, but on the ocean coast and I'm sure that vaio doesn't have any scubba suit.

No solution yet, flashing still turns off comp before completing, although it did go a bit further with the drdflash u recommanded in another post, Rockster2u. Could be back to that MB voltage pb?

Now i've found out I've got lots of people on IRQ9. Must be a party going on there.
I've got like 2 options in BIOS (btw still wondering how it can still work), so no way to change them.
Gonna try to disable some hardware that are using that IRQ, then gonna see how the sony system restore works to see if I can format the HD before reinstalling evrythg.
Got a memory range shared as well by graphic card and somethg i can't remember right now cause....
Pffffff... headache. Need some fresh air.

 

Solved

Hi there

I've finally manage to solve 2 out of 3 pbs. I'm posting what i've done for other users who might experience them.

Basically, Sony and windows updates were the solution. Although I already had them all installed when the pbs occured (!), restarting all the installations from zero and applying the updates in chronological order made the comp happy.

- First I used the sony recovery CDs to have the comp as it was delivered : XP without any SP.
- 1st sony recommended update : 813818 (firewire) -> still crashes, BSOD
- XP sp1 -> still crashes, BSOD
- sony recommended updates q822827 (hibernation issue) and 833228 (QFE issue after sp1) -> no more crash, no more BSOD.
- graphic card driver updated
- MB chipset updated (including AGP port)
->the graphic card freezes the computer on only one flash games out of the previous 2

The BIOS flash : it actually always worked, since Sony website says : "Please wait, as the update of the BIOS will take a few minutes to complete. Once the update is complete, the notebook will automatically turns off. "
Even though it took less than one minute and I could hear bips all the way and the "computer turned off" before I could see the program reach the line "finished" , I finally concluded it was the "normal" behaving of the update... Adding to this that the computer would still turn on after this and that the BIOS was showing the new version number. My "mistake" then to think it was just crashing.
So that bios update has been applied as well.

Finally about the graphic card freeze :
the freeze pb being solved on one game, I kept thinking it could still be solved for the other game.
I changed the graphic card options to lower its appetite : I can go a bit further in the game. But it eventually would crash again.
Thus I just conclude that that poor ATI mobility-M1 (8Mo) has reached its top capabilities and that the game is just too big for it.

 

Roger

I echo those sentiments - thanks for posting back and thanks for the detail. I used to consider those ATI rage pro's as a pretty good choice in video cards for the budget minded, but have seen a lot of problems with XP and that particular video card/chipset - not just laptops, but AGP cards too.

I admire your tenacity and the thoroughness of your response - this type of analysis/feedback goes a long way towards helping others.

Regards,


Afterthough edit: actually more of a question but have you tried playing with video BIOS shadowing in the setup? Not cached, but shadowed. Don't have many other ideas and I don't think a memory hole is the answer either, but may be related to a specific upper memory address - long shot, but ........

 

Thanks guys. I don't like to leave pbs unsolved. My mind's still busy with those pbs though, cos I'd like to understand why it happened. If the repair center has changed the MB without checking windows response to that (and I know they haven't), then that might be the reason. (I still don't know if they've changed MB or CPU only).

I forgot to say I've also set up a small ram optimiser software that did improve the graphic card behaviour. I've also noticed (through a third party software) that the graphic card aperture size is set a bit high for the total amount of memory available on that computer : 128MB out of 256MB. But there's no way I can change that aperture size. I guess more RAM could help (cos it's not much anyway).

That answers your question as well Rockster2u : the BIOS has like only 2 options (boot sequence, PWD and com and LTP ports), so nothing for the shadowing or graphic card or AGP port, and nor has the ATI software, and nor the game, as it is only a flash game on a website .
The specific upper memory address is a good shot as the same address came back most of the times in the dump files. But then what can I do about it? :/

 

Everythg solved

Ok... so I was left with that ATI mobility-M1 freeze pb when playing any kind of game...
Obviously a memory conflict somewhere, but no way to change IRQs or memory addresses on that stupid lappy. In the worst case scenario, a hardware pb and the lappy wud have gone to the bin.
So I took a hammer and...

Formatted the HD, reinstalled XP from my own retailed cd this time, instead of the sony restore cd.
Installed sp1, haven't even installed sony patches.

-> No more pbs of any kind, no BSOD and graphic card is happier than ever!!!

Conclusion : If I had a hammer, I'd hammer on Sony. For their drivers, applications, "patches" or whatever was messing it all. And I hush now cos I could be very unpolite for all that b%£& time I've spent to find a solution. Sony's been useless. No surprise : they were the pb.