Member Avatar for George641

Hi, as the title states my vaio does not want to boot from my USB even though it is set to boot from EXTERNAL DEVICE in the bios and EXTERNAL DEVICE is the 1st boot priority. Where the screen that shows the message "windows is loading files" is supposed to appear, instead i have a blinking cursor and after a minute or two the letter J appears and the cursor continues to blink next to it and if left alone, nothing happens.

The reason for re-installing windows is that every time i try turning on the laptop normally, i get the blue screen error message coming up stating that a memory dump is in progress and the laptop is shutting down to prevent any damages to windows. My issue here is no longer about trying to fix the memory dump problem. I simply wish to reinstall windows which is just not happening. The laptop is running on windows 7 and it is the same OS which i am trying to re-install. The laptop is a fairly new one, bought about a year and a half to two years ago and has barely been used.

Any help available would be greatly appreciated. Btw i'm sending this message from another computer since the vaio is currently unable to access anything. Also, booting from safe mode is not working as a message comes up stating that the username and/or password is not correct which is stupid seeing as it's the same username and password i've been using all this time.

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Dani AI

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If Alt+F10 restored the laptop to factory defaults, that strongly implies an OEM recovery partition was present even though it wasn't obvious in Explorer. OEM recovery areas are hidden and often flagged so the normal user interface won't show them — which explains the surprise felt. was on the right track suggesting a recovery option existed.

To confirm and inspect the partition from Windows (or a recovery/PE environment), open Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) or run diskpart from an elevated command prompt and look for small OEM/recovery partitions:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list partition

A small partition labeled "Recovery" or "OEM" is the one the Alt+F10 routine boots.

If you ever need to boot from USB again, common causes of the blinking cursor/garbled characters are a non-bootable USB, wrong BIOS USB mode, or an installer with the wrong partition/format. Quick checklist to avoid that next time:

  • Test the USB stick on another PC to confirm it boots.
  • Try different USB ports on the laptop.
  • In BIOS, prefer "USB-HDD" or "USB device" as the boot target and enable legacy/USB boot support if present.
  • Recreate the installer using a reliable tool and match MBR-for-BIOS or GPT-for-UEFI depending on the machine.
  • If you see a blinking cursor after the installer starts, remake the USB (boot sector/bootloader was likely corrupted).

Final notes: the safe-mode login rejection can be caused by Caps Lock/Num Lock or a corrupted user profile — try the on-screen keyboard at the logon or boot to the recovery environment to run System Restore or a memory test. After getting the system back, create vendor recovery media and a regular backup so the recovery partition is not your only fallback.

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Member Avatar for flagstar

A dumb question, maybe all of it was dumb

Did you verify that your USB is even bootable? Possibly on another computer

Do sony product you have has recovery partition embedded in your laptop?

Do you have recovery disk that used to recover your laptop to factory default windows?

And lastly, did you try to press any button when you try to boot your USB?

Member Avatar for George641

Yes my usb is bootable. I have used it before to reinstall windows. No there is no recovery partition embedded and no i don't have the recovery disk but i did manage to solve the problem by restoring to factory default by pressing alt and f10 on boot. Thank you for your help. Much appreciated.

Member Avatar for flagstar

When you say you solve it by restoring to factory default, it means there was a recovery partition embedded. Kinda weird when you say there's no recovery partition at first and tell you solve by factory default.

By the way, glad to see you've solve your problem.

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