When trying to install Windows, the on-screen instructions tell me to insert the Windows CD. But, then it stops. The laptop won’t recognize the CD.
I recently got a PCG-R505EL laptop from a friend with floppy and CD-ROM dock but sans hard drive. He claimed the hard drive went bad so he tossed it but ended up getting a new laptop rather than fixing this one.
So I figured I’d give it a shot. I got as far as putting a new hard drive.
I made some boot disks for Windows XP and Win2000 and ordered the Sony recovery CDs for this specific laptop.
Problem:
When I tried to boot up with the new hard drive installed, the screen remains blank and then spells out “GRUB”. I guess this means my friend had Linux or something installed.
So I decided to try to install Windows. When trying to install Windows, after I get to the last of the boot floppies, the on-screen instructions tell me to insert the Windows CD. But, then it stops. The laptop won’t recognize the CD.
So then I figured it might work if I restore the original BIOS. But I don’t have a clue where to look on the restore CDs. I went to the Sony website and they do have an installer program to reinstall the PCG-R505EL’s original BIOS but the program also requires that you run it on that computer.
So, here I am.
Any suggestions you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
You are right, GRUB is a boot loader and people use it for multiboot systems. But you shouldn’t have any loader installed on your hard drive, because as you mentioned it’s a new one. Even if your friend had Linux, it’s shouldn’t affect you in any way because his hard dive gone.
Make sure that the Windows CD you are trying to use is in good condition. I would try to boot the laptop from any other bootable CD, to figure out if the CD-ROM drive works at all. If you don’t have a boot CD, you can download and use Hitachi Drive Fitness test utility. You can download a CD image file from their website and burn it on a CD. After that try to boot the laptop from the CD you just burned. If it boots fine, you also can use this utility for testing the hard drive. If it will not boot, them you might have a problem with the drive itself or a bad connection between the laptop and the dock station. I would probably try to reseat the drive just in case if there is a bad connection between the drive and the dock station.
I’m not familiar with this model and not sure if you can disable/enable the CD-ROM drive in BIOS. Enter the BIOS (SETUP) and see if you can somehow enable the CD-ROM drive. To enter the BIOS try F2 or F3 keys on start up.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Jimmy,
You can back up all important files using these methods. After all files are transferred to a safe location, reinstall Windows from scratch.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:01 am
I got a virus and downloaded free anti-virus software. It found the virus on windows files and asked me if I wanted to delete it. I did it and now windows will not boot. I’m trying to do a repair (recovery didn’t work) from the windows XP CD because I have important files I need to retrieve. The computer starts the windows installer CD in DOS mode from the D drive but windows installer itself won’t recognize the D drive during the installation. It needs the CD to replace deleted files. Any ideas?
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Shandy,
Did you change the boot order in the BIOS setup menu? Are you sure the laptop boots from the recovery disc? You’ll find some suggestions in this post.
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
My Acer Travelmate 4060, the harddrive makes a weird noise and suddenly the screen goes blank loose all my work. I did my backup recovery disks and bought a new harddrive; I tried booting from the disk but no-go, the screen comes and says no operating system found.
I had to put back in my old harddrive. Iam so frustrated with this laptop. Please help!
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Roger Stone,
I think this could be connection related issue. I posted my suggestions in this post:
My laptop fell over and will not boot now
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:46 am
My daughter has an Acer Aspire 3100 which fell over a couple of weeks ago. It sounded just like an HDD failure to me so I bought a replacement drive and fitted it. I then tried to restore the system using the restore disk that I had created when originally setting it up for her. Everything seemed to go fine until it got to a point where the message at the bottom of the screen said it was loading Windows – when it hung – no activity at all. I immediately assumed it was a problem with the boot disk and tried a Window upgrade disc – similar result, I scrounged a Dell XP system disc from work – no go. Then I popped the old HDD into a remote enclosure to see if it worked – and it did, nothing wrong with it – so it wasn’t the HDD… My local laptop shop had a look and said – it’s the motherboard or the video card (but the Acer splash screen appears when you try to boot it). So, as a last thing to try I set the BIOS to boot from a USB HDD and connected the original hard drive, in its new remote housing, and the thing immediately booted not to Windows but to DOS! It says Windows 98 but it comes up with the C prompt. It says there is only one file on the disc… So I am utterly confused! Can I save this machine?
November 21st, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I have a nine month old Toshiba Satellite Laptop A105-S4384, that came with Windows XP Media Center Version 2002 Service Pack 2.
After I installed the Toshiba Windows Vista upgrade, I started getting BSOD’s on a regular basis.
The BSOD problem finally got so bad, I put in the Toshiba restore disk and went back to Windows XP.
Ever since then, the MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-841S DVD/CD-R drive will not read any disk but the Toshiba restore disk.
For instance when I try to re-install Norton Ghost 12.0 , I get an error message the reads:
The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error
I subsequently used the Toshiba restore disk three more times to see if it would clear up the problem, and it didn’t.
Toshiba support told me to go to this Microsoft web site http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891894 and follow the instructions to remove the Upper & Lower filters from the Registry.
That didn’t help with the problem, so I did a Google search and found this link:
Toshiba Support – Optical drive stops working after upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista (WinDVD Creator)
http://tinyurl.com/334cjs
When I downloaded the file, my optical drive started reading program disks again for just a few hours, before it reverted back to showing the “The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error” message.
I tried re-installing the Optical drive fix for Windows Vista and it didn’t fix the problem like it did before.
Do you have any suggestions for me?
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:46 am
No, even with hard drive removed I just get the blank screen and flashing cursor as soon as I press the power button
October 18th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Lofty,
Can you get to the BIOS screen if you remove the hard drive? Maybe you have a faulty hard drive?
October 18th, 2007 at 6:41 am
I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 which wont boot, not even to the bios, and just starts with a black screen and flashing cursor. Any ideas ?
September 17th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
John Munson,
Does this laptop have a wireless card? Try loading XP without the wireless card installed, maybe it’s bad. Try removing the modem card too.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:59 am
This one has me stumped. One of my clients brought in a Gateway mx6440 with what looked like a virus. I told her if the data on the laptop wasn’t important, we can do a full system restore. She said “fine”.
Upon loading a new Windows XP Pro disk, it kept hanging when scanning hardware. I am now using the Gateway system restore DVD and it started, but is hanging where it says “Please Wait…”. (I’m fairly certain this is where it is scanning the hardware also.)
I have tried new memory, new hard drive.
Any help is appreciated.
John
September 4th, 2007 at 9:11 am
To: Laptop Freak
Your suggestion #2 worked. Cd-rom is back in action. Thank you very much for the the assistance.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:50 pm
To: Laptop Freak
Thanks for the information, will try out your suggestions this weekend. Will post the results.
August 26th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
James McCarthy,
You can try this.
1. Open the DVD drive and clean the laser with an alcohol wipe. You might have a dirty laser.
2. Uninstall the DVD driver in the device manager and reboot the laptop. The operating system should install the driver again when you reboot the laptop. Reinstalling the driver might help.
3. If the DVD drive disappeared form My Computer, check out this post.
4. Remove the DVD drive from the laptop and install it back. It’s possible that connection between the DVD drive and motherboard got oxidized and the drive is not making a good contact with the motherboard. Reseating the DVD drive might help.
If none of the above mentioned methods work, probably you have a bad DVD drive.
August 26th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I own a Sony Viao, mdl# PCG-GRT100K. Been playing games on this system and all was working correctly. After a proper shut down of the system with the game disk still in the cd-rom, I attempted to start the game the next day. I recieved an error message requesting that the disk needs to be in the cd-rom drive. A system check indicates that the drive is working properly, but it will not recognize any disk that I install. Any suggestions?
July 25th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
My DVD Drive in my Compaq Presario V5000 laptop just crapped out, its not reading any kind of media I am putting in. I downloaded a vista lookalike but its still running on Windows XP, do you think that is the problem, or is the Drive just bunk now lol.
This question with a possible solution has been published here.
July 5th, 2007 at 5:51 am
Hi, I was wondering if anything had been found out as to my ipod shuffle crashing laptop post. Am I writing too early? Please don’t post this if I am. Thanks again in advance for any help. Bill
June 25th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Have a toshiba satelite P15 and just purchased an ipod
shuffle. when I plugged the transfer “dock” into the usb
port the whole computer shut down. I can’t reboot at all! HELP!!! How can I get my computer back. Will not use ipod anything once it is up. Anyone with a similar problem?! Thanks in advance-Bill
June 11th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I would really appreciate some help. I have a toshiba laptop, its fairly new, havent had it a year yet. The problem is my cd rom will not work. It does not read anything, run anything, i have troubleshooted the problem and eveything. Please help!
March 28th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I have an Acer Aspire 3003WLCi that is having problems running DVD’s. It started when trying to play Madden 07. I was able to play a few times but now I put the disc or any dvd’s in and the screen gets very dim and locks up. If I try to start the computer with the disc in, it will not boot. The computer will still play and burn cd’s, but as soon as I put a DVD in, it craps out. I have sufficient specs to run the programs. I have tried updating the drivers and firmware, as well as making sure the boot order was correct. The CD/DVD-ROM is a Philips SCB5265. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
March 15th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
John Johns,
No, you cannot.
March 14th, 2007 at 9:09 am
is there a way that i can hook up my laptop to a destop so that i can use the cd drive off of my destop?? I have a Compaq Evo n400 can some one plz help me??
March 5th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Kris,
Probably it’s just a bad drive, you’ll have to replace it or use an external one as I mentioned in the previous comment.
March 5th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Annemajije Visser,
Sounds like a bad DVD drive but I don’t think that you overused the drive, 15 DVDs/month is not a lot at all. You’ll have to replace the laptop drive OR buy an external USB DVD drive and save some money. The main advantage of the external drive – you can share it between many computers and it’s not as expensive as the laptop drive.
March 2nd, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I was attempting to load Vista in my Toshiba A35, and I came up with the Blue Screen of Death, stating something about my BIOS not being ACPI compliant. Instead of dealing with that now, I attempted to reload XP on my machine. The problem is that I just replaced my old DVD drive with one of the same model, but used. Now, my machine won’t recognize the CD/DVD ROM drive in order for me to load XP at boot. When I did have a working laptop, Windows recognized the new CD/DVD drive, and I was able run programs from it (though they wouldn’t autoload.) Is there any utility to use in order for my “dead-in-the-water” laptop to start recognizing this drive? If this helps, I did update my BIOS to 1.80.
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:07 am
My Toshiba satellite 1800′s dvd-rom isn’t working, well I guess it is working to say that the computer knows it’s there and there aren’t any conflicts when I check my device manager. Here’s what happens, when I close the door with a cd or dvd in it the light will blink a couple of time and then stays solid and I try to access it, it then tells me to please insert disk into drive D:
also if I restart my laptop with the dvd rom door closed the boot up process with freeze untill I open the door and then it continues fine. what could be causing this?
March 2nd, 2007 at 4:12 am
I own a fujitsu siemens Amilo A7640W. Recently, my cd/dvd-rom station doesn’t recognize any cd’s or dvd’s. It makes three ticking noises and then stops reading the disc. I did burn quite a lot dvd’s in the last couple of weeks, like 15 in the last month. Did I use it too much, can I fix it in any way?
February 25th, 2007 at 9:40 am
I dropped my laptop from about 3 feet onto a concrete driveway and it seems to work okay except that I cannot open the DVD drive. The laptop fell onto the right corner near the drive. Any suggestions on how to open it? Thanks for your help. Kathy
February 8th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Gavin,
Most likely the Sony DVD/RW drive you are using is not compatible with your laptop, it’s configured differently. You’ll have to find a compatible drive or use an external USB drive. Just in case I want to mention that you will not be able to boot from an external drive but it will work fine in Windows.
If you want I can find a list of compatible CD-RW/DVD drives, but I cannot help you with DVD/RW.