My Sony Vaio vpcf136fm is stuck at the black Vaio screen. I think this happened as the result of a failed BIOS or Windows update. I came home from work and the machine was stuck. I've tried recovering Windows via a Windows 7 64 disk, tried pulling RAM and rebooting, pulling the CMOS battery. With the Win7 disk, I was able to get to the Windows Recovery loader, but cannot get the keyboard to respond.

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It's most likely that your hard drive has failed or is faulty. I have replaced quite a few hard drives on Sony Vaio's.
The area where the hard drive is is rather poorly designed. There is no ventilation in that area of the laptop and the hard drive gets very hot and fails.

It's most likely that your hard drive has failed or is faulty. I have replaced quite a few hard drives on Sony Vaio's.
The area where the hard drive is is rather poorly designed. There is no ventilation in that area of the laptop and the hard drive gets very hot and fails.

I thought of that. I pulled the HD and replaced it with a new one. I was unable to get the Windows 7 disk to load. In fact, I can't get past the black VAIO screen. I'm pretty certain now that I have a BIOS problem, but can't a new one loaded.

Try booting from the windows install cd with a usb keyboard attached and see if you have any luck.

Try booting from the windows install cd with a usb keyboard attached and see if you have any luck.

I tried that also. The USB keyboard didn't respond. From the research I've done, it looks like the BIOS default is a PS2 keyboard. You need to change the BIOS to allow a USB keyboard.

That's just typical of Sony. I doubt it even has a PS2 socket.

Looks like flashing the bios is the only option you have left. But be warned, a failed bios update can render a machine completely useless. Mind you, that wouldn't make a great difference at this point.

have you set to default in bios? I can't think of it right off the top of my head but what format does the hard drive boot in bios? vista and 7 use a newer method and if its not correct you'll have your result. sounds like that's what it is and i'll have to reboot my computer and log back in to tell you more details.

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