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I'm new here.. I have a 2yr old Sony Vaio VGN-TX17GP bought in KL, upgraded to 1GB RAM. It had windows XP. I downloaded Ubuntu 8.04 & erased windows XP. After unsatisfactory results with Ubuntu, as the sound was gone, the F3, F4 function keys did not work & Ubuntu wouldn’t download some of my old programs. I decided to go back to Windows XP. I insert the Vaio Recovery CD, but my CD drive did not access the CD. It didn’t read nor boot up. As I’m living in Germany, I called up the Sony Service Center. The lady analyist said she could not help since it’s bought in M’sia, she only solves Vaios bought in Germany but said to try pressing F10 when starting the laptop. After following her instruction, my Vaio went dead!! There is not even the sign of “Vaio” - appearance on the screen anymore when it starts. The only thing I see is the green light when it’s switched on, I can hear the CD drive spinning & nothing else, other than a black screen. I would be terribly grateful if somebody with Sony Vaio VGN-TX17GP experience help me get this Vaio back to factory default of windows XP again. I'm desperate.. Thank you.

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Dani AI

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Brief, practical troubleshooting and recovery options tied to the advice already in the thread (thanks to for posting the problem and to for flagging firmware/BIOS as a likely area to check).

Start by treating the two symptoms separately: a machine that sometimes shows nothing at power-on (POST/display issue) and a recovery disc that will not boot. Work methodically: confirm whether the laptop completes POST (listen for beeps, watch LED activity), try an external monitor to rule out the internal display, and perform a safe power-reset (remove AC and main battery, hold power 20–30 seconds, reconnect and test). Reseat the memory module(s) and the main storage, test with one DIMM at a time, and remove any non-essential peripherals before further diagnosis. If uncomfortable with internal work, a local shop can do these inexpensive checks.

If hardware/POST looks healthy but the recovery media still won’t start, use one of these practical alternatives:

  • Try a known-bootable disc or USB stick on another PC to verify the media itself.
  • Use an external USB DVD drive (or borrow one) — it’s the quickest way to rule out an internal optical failure.
  • Create a USB installer from a retail Windows XP ISO (retail media is more reliable than some OEM recovery discs that expect factory partitions). Tools designed for XP USB installs (e.g., WinSetupFromUSB or similar utilities) will prepare a bootable USB; then install the OS and add vendor drivers afterward. Remember to use the product key on the machine’s COA sticker for activation.

If you later replace the internal drive, match the slimline form factor and bezel size or use a specialist supplier. After you recover the system, build a fresh set of recovery media and back up a disk image so a single hardware fault won’t force a repeat of the whole process.

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Member Avatar for ma2moon13

i a not an expert in vaio but i think the problem is (BIOS need to reset)

what you can do so you can skep this step
is to reformat your hard disk to NTFs files
so you can setup xp

Member Avatar for Housewife

Hi, thanks for your suggestion. I got my husband (who's alot better than me, in computers) to help me out. Somehow, Vaio came alive with it's Vaio logo, as I switched it on yesterday. We both got so excited & just installed a winXP prog. belonging to our Medion computer in (German language). It worked but does not read the original Vaio Recovery CD. Do you know if I need any start program on the hard drive to start the Recovery CD? Thank you.

Member Avatar for ma2moon13

Hi, every OS change the sectors of the hard disk to work with it so its diff to recover .
your lap worked that mean that the bios is reset to defult. go to BIOS and search for boot piorety make the CD first device. and try to install XP

Member Avatar for Housewife

Thanks, we tried this already & the CD still doesn't start. We even copied the Recovery CD on the hard drive & started fr. there. A box appeared saying "If you want to start this, insert the CD" We did & still no response. My husband thinks there's a data on the hard drive which enables the Recovery prog. on the CD to run, but this data has been erased by Ubuntu. There is an "Autorun.exe" (not "Setup.exe"), on the Recovery CD.

Member Avatar for Housewife

Hi all, we found out that the DVD-drive of my Vaio is out of order. It can only read CDs, but not DVDs. Since all of our Recovery CDs are on DVDs, we can't do any recovery. We tried copying the DVDs on CDs, but it didn't work, as we don't know the correct sequence order of the datas. We also tried copying them on the Harddrive also with no avail. Sony does not supply it's customers with recovery CDs upon buying the laptop! My question is: 1) Can anybody help me find these recovery CDs for Vaio VGN-TX17GP? 2) This Vaio has Matshita UJ-832D, DVD drive. Sony sells it for Euro 175. I would be very pleased if anybody can recommend me a less expensive drive just as long as it fits Vaio & bears the same function. We tried Samsung, but the top lid was just a little too high & it didn't fit. Thank you.

Member Avatar for Housewife

After one yr of searching for a DVD drive for my Sony Vaio TX series I found an address "VaioRefurbs" in England. I'm so happy that everything turned out well & now my Vaio is working again. If anybody wants Vaio parts do contact:
Thank you DaniWeb for making this forum site.

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