Sony Vaio PCG-F707 Problem

[laptop_kid]

Hi all, could do with some help if possible as I have gone as far as I can.

My problem is to do with a Sony Viao PCG-F707 notebook.

Due to selling it i decided to return to Win98 from XP. I formatted to HD as I have done on numerous occassions, and then booted up using a win98 boot disc. No problem so far it loaded the cd driver and set the virtual drive to D:, making my CD E:

My problems started when I tried to read the WIN98 or any other cd. It will not read. I just keep getting a CDR101 error. I dont even get a cd in use light.

I though it might be the CD drive even though it was working less than 5 min previously with the same disc. So i changed it. Still the same error, light not lit also.

Then I though that given the disc was working less than 5 min ago it may be a HD failure. I changed it for a different one. Same problem...

The CD and HD are both recognised in the BIOS. The only thing that I thought might be of use next is to flash the BIOS, but before i try it i thought you might be able to suggest something before i have to break it up for parts.

What do you think?

[ross.v]

laptop kid, i am not sure about things with laptops, but ya can try disabling power management from BIOS and also try to create a startup floppy disk and try it.

[NooNoo]

Make sure that the cd is the first bootable device and that legacy usb (keyboard support) is turned on in setup. It packed in reading it... but will it now boot from cd still?

Did you elect to run setup from the cd or start the machine with cdrom support?

[laptop_kid]

Make sure that the cd is the first bootable device and that legacy usb (keyboard support) is turned on in setup. It packed in reading it... but will it now boot from cd still?

Did you elect to run setup from the cd or start the machine with cdrom support?

The cd is set as the first drive in the boot sequence, and is a no go with both of the drives I tried. Just a bit of drive noise from spinning and then nothing. No laser movement I could hear. Then I changed the boot to A: and booted with win98 boot disc using cd rom support. disc loads virtual drive stuff and cd rom driver then tells me cd drive is E:

I can change drives ok, but when i come to actually try and access info on cd I get error. It will read nothing from CD, no matter which one i have in.

I reckon, however unlucky or unlikely it might seem, that both of the DVD drives i put in are deffective. Its the only thing that makes sense to me, unless the motherboard or Drive connections have had it.

[NooNoo]

Is the unit under warranty? If the drives are bad or the bay connectors are bad, it's going to get a tad expensive.

[laptop_kid]

Is the unit under warranty? If the drives are bad or the bay connectors are bad, it's going to get a tad expensive.

Tell me about it

I already bought a new drive less than a month earlier because the old one failed on me. So in truth it has gone through three CD drives and two hard drives.

Oh well, at least i get to break it for parts. Thanks for your assistance