Ugent Help plz, Vaio laptop cant use mousepad, mouse, keyboard or put in password

andrewlol

Could you try pressing ESC, Del and the F-keys on the sony screen as the computer starts up?

If the computer recognizes one of them it should open a menu up, if this happens just turn the machine off(and post back ;p), if not i think the key bored is knackered.

TakeThis

You can test as to whether it a hardware problem but booting up with Ubuntu and using the Try Ubuntu option. If everything works, we can proceed as if it is a software issue.

Lady_K

Do you mean the esc key or f keys on thier own or a combination together as the sony starts up?
I know I already tried yesterday pressing f8 to start it in safe mode just in case it made a difference to just choosing normal start up from that other safemode/safemodewithnetworking ect page

Take This

I'll try that ubuntu option I have to try everything, got to try and get it sorted by early this aternoon as daughter desperately needs it to do work. I'm really worried as she does have some unsaved work on the laptop and other stuff, photos and alsorts but its the work shes most worried about

I have never used ubunto, if it does allow me to use it will it wipe out the win7 or anything else on the machine at the mo?
I do have an old copy of ubunto on a disc already created but this could be 1yr-2yrs old should I just try putting that in first before creating a new one? I never used the disc before so I have no clue about ubunto

Also is it worth calling sony out of warranty tech help for advice or should I just go straight to ubunto?

Thanks so much for your help with this I cant even begin to tell you how important it is to get this going without losing anything or having to try and start the machine from factory settings, I've got to try and avoid that if at all possible

GunJack

if you're more familiar with a windows environment than a linux one, burn a copy of Hiren's bootCD on a good machine, and boot the lappy with it (after changing boot order in BIOS), choosing miniXP mode. This will run from RAM, behaves like XP, and will allow you to copy DD's files off onto USB stick. It will confirm also whether it's a hardware or software fault that's currently causing your problems - if mouse & keyboard work ok in miniXP, then it's your W7 installation that's burgered......

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

Lady_K

I did just try the old ubunto cd and it didnt work but I didnt know about bios settings, how do I change that I'm nervous about messing things up even more

scheming_gypsy

To be honest i'm pretty confident that it's Windows that's gone toes up. She can use the keyboard before it comes onto the log on screen (changing to safe mode etc), so it's working till the Windows drivers kick in.

The killer bit is the mouse not working as you could use the on screen keyboard if it did.

First step ideally, would be to get an external caddy for the hard drive so they can pull off any files that need to be saved...

Lady_K

But after that can it be put back in again to put it back to factory settings? Will everything work ok then? Its an only just 2 yr old computer, I've never taken out a laptop hardrive is this tricky or could it cause damage?

scheming_gypsy

taking a laptop out is usually 1 screw and slide. Also usually video tuturials of you google 'sony viao remove hard drive'.

and yep, once you've taken all the data off it you can give it a restore.

GunJack

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

First step ideally, would be to get an external caddy for the hard drive so they can pull off any files that need to be saved...

If time is of the essence (i.e. today) then the hiren's method will be quicker in the short term....

lady-k, to set the bios to boot from cd drive, see here

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-system/i-have-a-sony-viao-vgn-nr220e-the-laptop-came-back/54a911c1-29d2-4ae3-9001-7fa3a1215aee

in a nutshell, as soon as you power-on the lappy, keep tapping F2 and Del keys to enter bios - it'll be one or the other, so keep tapping both alternately and you'll get in . BEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER, open the cd tray and insert the bootable cd and close the tray. Then, find the boot order menu, and change the cd drive to be the first boot device. Save changes and exit (often F10, but should be showing on the screen), and let the machine reboot itself, from the cd you've just left in the drive.

GunJack

just a thought, whether it be Hiren's or Ubuntu, when you download the file, save it. It will be an .ISO file. This needs to be burned to a cd using a burning program that can burn ISO images in order for the disk to be bootable. Use Nero if you have it, or ImgBurn is free and does a great job:-

http://www.filehippo.com/download_imgburn/