Laptop showing a blue screen and wont load windows - please help

alisoncol

My daughter's Sony Vaio laptop decided yesterday to start showing a blue screen, the recovery option does not seem to work? Any help appreciated.

It is running Windows 7 - she thinks it went wrong after plugging in her ipod lead (which she has used before)

davb

First off try starting with nothing else connected - usb stuff, cd/dvd etc and see if it helps.
After that try safe mode (F8 on boot) and see if it will boot there - if it can you may be able to do a system restore to a couple of days ago.

RussJK

What does the blue screen say?

Even the meaningless numbers might be meaningful to someone

waddler_8

Like this:

alisoncol

Thank you guys for your replies, i will try this and see if i get anywhere if not will try to capture the numbers that come up.

alisoncol

There doesnt seem to be any message as such when you launch windows - the only number i could see as it flashed before my eyes was the 3 red box you had on your blue page with the number 50 on the end, there didn't seem to be any error message as such.

When we tried to startup repair - it advises it cannot repair the computer and there is a problem detail option this shows:

Startuprepair offline
6.1.7600.16385
6.1.7600.16385
unknown
21200716
autofailover
10
0x50
6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
2057
the above had problem signature next to them.

The next page it says:

If you have recently attached a device to this computer, such as a camera or portable music player, remove it and restart your computer. If you continue to see this message, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

On the diagnosis and repair details it shows a number of tests performed and states startup repair has tried several times but still cannot determine the cause of the problem.

Any suggestions?

bedpotato_2

When my laptop got the blue screen of death I was at my wits end until an IT man suggested I try taking out the battery and putting it back in. It worked!

I have no idea if it would work in your case, or even be a good idea, because I don't know if you're having the same problem or seeing the same type of "blue screen."

waddler_8

Continually tap f8 at start up and when you reach the Windows Advanced boot options window, choose the option that says "Disable automatic restart on system failure" That'll give you more time to read the Blue screen error.

alisoncol

hi, found some help on sony vaio website, it said to tap f10 several times and run the sony hardware diagnositc tests which i am doing now but not sure how long will take on 86% now.

alisoncol

Well the test completed and showed up this error message:
Surface Scan Test did not pass = (E-HDD-004)

Errors were detected on this pc

Would you guys recomend i do a complete system recovery?

davb

The error message suggests that your hard drive is failing, and will probably need replacing - and the OS reinstalling (did you make a recovery DVD). If you just do a system restore, you may get it started now, but you are likely to be in the same situation again before long.
The first thing to consider is if you have any important data on the current disk - documents, music, photo's, email etc that aren't backed up elsewhere. There is a chance (not a certainty) that some things could still be recovered.
Secondly, how old is the laptop - is it still under warranty.