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Laptop goes KABLOOIE!!

March 3rd, 2010 · 1 Comment · Personal

So, the Windows 7 Release Candidate that I’ve had installed on my old laptop for the past few months to try out W7 to see if I liked it (I did – have it on my desktop now) expired at the start of this week, which means that the computer will shut down every 2 hours. I decided I should revert back to Windows XP before that starts to get just a little annoying. Why XP? Well Sony doesn’t support this Vaio model for Windows 7, which means I can’t use any of the laptop’s control keys to, say, dim the screen – which means on battery power Windows 7 sucks my double-capacity battery dry in a little under 2-3 hours (it’s supposed to last upwards of 7). I also can’t use some of the built-in hardware like the Sony Memorystick reader as well as some extended trackpad functionality.

Well, no problem – I just popped in the recovery DVDs that I had to buy (see the post I linked to above for why I couldn’t create the recovery discs myself) to restore the system to its factory settings. The setup whirred through no problem, I did the basic XP setup, booted into the OS and was letting the discs install applications when BOOM! Blue screen of death – followed by an automatic reboot. Well shit, I say – but hold out that it’s a minor hardware glitch and upon getting back into – BAM!! The Windows start-up music is playing when the BSoD comes crashing back onto the screen, followed scant seconds later by another auto reboot.

Fantabulous.

So I continue to pray it’s something minor after I successfully make it back into Windows and continue to let the recovery discs install apps. I even got so far as connecting to my wireless router and opening IE to download Input Director. WHAM! You guessed it – BS0D. Okay, I admitted to myself – now we have a problem.

In response, out comes the XP Pro OEM install CD – which didn’t much matter to me because it’s less OEM crap I need to uninstall later, and I’d be needing to update hardware drivers anyways. Pop that sucker in, reboot and strike the key to begin the setup process. I get as far as the EULA, press ‘F8’ to agree… and the computer shuts off.

Okay. What the fuck.

So I turn the laptop back on and once again start the XP setup process. This time I get as far as pressing ‘D’ to wipe clean the system partition and… the computer shuts off.

Well, fine. I take out the W7 RC disc and stick it in, and re-install Windows 7. Everything goes smoothly and I’m sitting back in Windows 7 with absolutely no hardware drivers for nothing. Praying that the problem is fixed, I pop the XP CD back in and restart, get back into setup, agree to the EULA, press ‘D’ and am brought to the final confirmation screen before wiping the system partition. I hit ‘Enter” to begin the wipe

AND THE FUCKING COMPUTER TURNS OFF

So at this point I figure, what the hell – might as well try the Sony Recovery DVDs again. Pop them in, go through the full system restore, get into the basic XP setup, and halfway through it the computer throws another BS0D in my face and automatically reboots.

So now I’m wondering if Microsoft, those devious bastards, stuck some sort of code in my system that refuses to let it revert back to Windows XP or any earlier OS. I’m only partially joking about that at this point.

I suppose, if I can’t get this to work, GDNet will have to buy me a W7 license so I can bring the laptop to GDC next week so they can use it at the booth (as we had planned). My only other alternative is to take out the HDD, stick it in an external enclosure, wipe it clean, reinsert it into the laptop and then try a clean install using the XP Pro OEM CD. That is, assuming that the HDD (something on it, really) is indeed the culprit here.

Bah.

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One Comment so far ↓

  • Desktop goes KABLOOIE!!

    […] of this post looks familiar, that’s because back at the start of the month I posted about my old laptop going belly-up. Well now it seems to have happened to my desktop. No idea what could have caused it, other than […]

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