Member Avatar for mikebraun

I have a Sony Vaio PGC-K33 and I CAN'T GET IT TO WORK
OK, I am an Mac person :cool: , but I have a Vaio PGC-k33 model, two years old. Was my daughter's. She buggered it up somehow so I am trying to fix. When you turn it on, you get a quick blue screen with some writing for about 3 seconds and then it goes to a black screen where it gives you options to restart. I have tried ALL the options, nothing worked. I tried the recovery wizard that was installed on the machine, no soap. I ordered the Vaio recovery disk )($20, :angry: geeez, thank god for my Mac!) and it restarted, went to a blue screen for about 10 minutes, then shut down.
Nothing I have tried worked.

Are there ANY people out there who might give me a clue as to what to try next? :?:

Any help would be appreciated. Kinda ironic that I have to go online via a Mac to fix a PC. Sheesh


If you like, please email me with suggestions at


Thanks

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Short summary and next moves (builds on 's recovery-console suggestion): the loop you describe usually means Windows cannot reliably read the boot volume or the drive is behaving intermittently. Starting with software repair is correct, but do not do any destructive steps until important files are backed up or the drive is imaged.

Actionable checklist:

  • Enter the machine setup (BIOS/Setup) and confirm the hard disk is detected and the boot order is sensible.
  • Run a vendor bootable diagnostic (quick + long/extended). Seagate and Western Digital publish free bootable utilities for this purpose: SeaTools and WD Data Lifeguard. These will tell you if the drive has physical faults or failing SMART attributes.
  • If tests show problems, make a sector-level image of the disk before further repairs. Imaging preserves recoverable data and lets you run repairs on a copy. For difficult imaging scenarios see GNU ddrescue. If unsure, stop and consider a data-recovery service.
  • If diagnostics pass, boot a Live USB to copy personal files off the drive (creating the USB is easy from macOS with tools such as balenaEtcher). Doing a read-only copy avoids writing to a fragile disk.

Cautions and final options:

  • Repeated hangs or shutdowns during recovery can also point to power or overheating problems — try with AC power only and reseat the drive connector if comfortable opening the chassis.
  • If hardware checks fail, replace the drive and reinstall Windows (keep the Sony recovery media). If hardware checks pass but the filesystem is damaged, work from an image and only then attempt repairs or a clean install. For the official Windows guidance on the boot/mount error see Microsoft documentation on the relevant bugcheck.

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Member Avatar for Chaky

You'll need to write down the stop error you see in that BSOD. name, numbers, filename... anything you see specific to that error.

Edit:
(doh!) ...and post it here.

Member Avatar for mikebraun

My SONY VAIO PCG-K33 will start, try to load Windows XP, stop, then go to the Vaio screen, then a small blue screen flashes, then I get a black screen with the following:

We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this.

If your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was automatically shutdown to protect your files and folders , choose Last Known Good Configuration to revert to the most recent settings that worked.

IF a previous startup attempt was interrupted due to power failure or because the power or reset button was pressed, or if you are not sure what caused the problem, choose Start Windows Normally.

SAFE MODE
SAFE MODE WITH NETWORKING
SAFE MODE WITH COMMAND PROMPT
last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)
Start Windows normally


If I don't select anything, it restarts itself and the message keeps looping over and over and over after it coun ts down 28 seconds

If I try the first option and the last two options, it just keeps resetting and looping (Sometimes is just shuts down completely)
If I try the second and third options, I get 24+ lines of code that end with the following line:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\atisgkaf.sys
(the lines all saying the same thing up to the \ after drivers, which is sometimes upper case and sometimes lowercase)

It then sits there for about 30 second, the blue screen flashes again and we start the whole looping all over again.

OK, i managed to snap a photo oif the blue screen, and it had the phrase, unmountable_boot_error along with pretty much the same text as the black screen.

It also had a technical line, but i can't seem to get a clear shot of that. It says STOP: then has a string of 0's folllowed by four strings of 0's in parenthesis.

Member Avatar for Chaky

Try booting into recovery console.
It is done by booting from windows setup CD.
It will eventually give you an option for recovery console.
You will be prompted for administrator password. Giving that it can not read the HD, there will be none. (just hit enter)
in the command prompt type

chkdsk c /p

If you suspect bad sectors, then use /r switch, instead /p
After it is done, type EXIT and it will reboot. Remove the CD, so it would boot normal way.

If that fails, get back to the recovery console these, but one at the time, and exit (normal reboot) after each one:

fixboot c:

giving that you have one HD and C partition is the primary.

map

you will be listed with installed HD's and partitions.

then type:

fixmbr <-- followed by the HD in question from the "MAP" listing

example:
fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0

That might help.
If all that fails try removing the partition altogether via setup process and making new one. That would mean loosing ALL data.

Member Avatar for Chaky

correction...

If that fails, get back to the recovery console and try these, but one at the time, and exit (normal reboot) after each one:

Member Avatar for mikebraun

Thx.Will give it a go

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