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

Lady_K

Before I start attempting to take out the laptop hardrive which I'm very nervous about I thought I should at least give sony tech help a call just in case they know a solution. He asked some questions and tried a fw things but after trying the mouse in safemode and it still not working plus still not being able to ge the password in by any means, he asked exactly what happened when it stopped working and I told him that it just went as daughter tried to save her word file and found she couldnt use keypad or keyboard. He said the only solution in this case is to clean instal but I will lose all data.
I asked him if it was possible to take out the hardrive, save the contents to another computer then put it back he said it would be pretty tricky as things are very sensitive so I'm worried now, he recommended get a specialist to do this if I really want to.

To make matters worse cannot view utube videos on this laptop (tried everything just wont do it) so wont be able to view any to help with taking it out and putting it back. Are vaios a bit different to other laptops with doing things like that?

I go the feeling the tech man thought it was windows wrecked too although he did not say it directly, he seemed sure it was the only solution to clean instal

Even if it is windows wrecked would using the ubunto or hirens method be a way to get data off including word files, pictures and itunes? I dont use itunes myself I always thought that if you had an account with them it would be saved in itunes anyway

debitcardmayhem

They should be able to access the disk , if you want to try the ubuntu method first start the cd as described earlier, and when it starts up select TRY UBUNTU, don't try to install it , then lets see if the keyboar/mouse work first.

GunJack

Lady_K wrote: »

I asked him if it was possible to take out the hardrive, save the contents to another computer then put it back he said it would be pretty tricky as things are very sensitive so I'm worried now, he recommended get a specialist to do this if I really want to.
He's paid to say things like that to put off non-techies from trying to do it themselves, and possibly gain an expensive repair for his organisation



Even if it is windows wrecked would using the ubunto or hirens method be a way to get data off including word files, pictures and itunes? I dont use itunes myself I always thought that if you had an account with them it would be saved in itunes anyway

Absolutely, hiren's (or ubuntu) is the way to get the data off the hdd without having to get a caddy and take the hdd out of the laptop. Once booted, copy the data off the hdd onto a usb stick and bob's yer uncle

Using miniXP from hiren's is just like using an XP pc, double-click My Computer, double-click the hard drive, and you can see/copy/etc. all her files. The only thing that is slightly different, is when you plug in the usb stick, you have to run the mount USB utility, by double-clicking on the desktop icon. This will then show your usb stick in My Computer as per normal, so you can then copy DD's data onto it - easy-peasy

Lady_K

Just trying to set the bios to start up with cd, by the way this is the old ubunto cd I'm trying with just to see if the keyboard works and mousepad is this ok?

In the boot section of bios it doesnt actally say cd it just says

boot configuration
external device disabled
network boot disabled

boot priority
select 1st internal optical disc drive
select 2nd internal hrd disc drive
select 3rd external device

Which should I choose?

If the keyboard and mouse do work when I try the old ubunto then maybe I'd be better to download and burn the hirens one if its easier to use but I just didnt think it was worth downloading and burning it until I know if its going to work seeing as I have an old ubunto version on disc already even though its never been used

scheming_gypsy

your keyboard and mouse work or you wouldn't be in the BIOS.

hardware = keyboard and mouse don't work at all
software = keyboard and mouse don't work in windows.


the settings are correct though, the CD is set for first. It should ask you to press any key to boot from CD when it reads it.

GunJack

that is the correct boot order for what you need, optical (cd/dvd) drive first Good idea to do it that way to try it if you already have a bootable disk handy, lots of people don't.

GunJack

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

your keyboard and mouse work or you wouldn't be in the BIOS.

hardware = keyboard and mouse don't work at all
software = keyboard and mouse don't work in windows.

superbly succinct way of putting it SG

Lady_K

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

your keyboard and mouse work or you wouldn't be in the BIOS.

hardware = keyboard and mouse don't work at all
software = keyboard and mouse don't work in windows.


the settings are correct though, the CD is set for first. It should ask you to press any key to boot from CD when it reads it.

The strange thing is I havent changed anything in the bios yet, thats how it was when I looked in boot configuration. Is that normal?
The bios has never been change at any time even before this but its just been booting up as normal in the 2 yrs daughter has had it

So all I've done now is, nothing to the bios, I've put th ubunto disc in and I'm going to press esc to exit then restart and wait for the press any key message
I'm just confused because I expected to have to change it in the bios as it didnt work before by just putting the ubunto disc in and restarting

Is there anything I'm missing?

scheming_gypsy

Pretty normal. There is no standard as to how the BIOS should be setup. But if the computer has had the operating system installed manually then it would have been changed at some point so they could boot off a CD.

You could have missed the message before, the CD is corrupt or it isn't bootable. If it doesn't boot, try it in yours and see what happens.

Lady_K

Oh gawd

I pressed esc and it restarted with ubuntu its got to the try ubuntu version 10.04 LTS but the mousepad is not working, I tried the arrows and they do not work apart from repeatedly pressing it and thers no control with it, it moved down in the language list at the left side but its no stuck on dutch and wont move either way its stuck and it was hard to get it to do that. I'm a bit worried about pressing them in case it does something and the instal button gets started rather than trial, I'll try to restart ith the wired mouse in now again but I have to keep taking it out of this one to do that