Ok, my inlaws bought a Sony Viao a couple years ago. Real nice computer, as far as I could tell. Supposedly good for photo and video and stuff. We never got the scanner functioning, we never could get the digital camcorder to communicate with the computer, and we're all pretty much computer stupid when it comes to this stuff.



The hard drive crashed several months back for no apparent reason. The hard drive had a warranty, but I had to pay someone to reload the OS, I couldn't seem to figure it out. Since then it's only been used for solitaire, minesweeper, and web surfing.



Yesterday, it failed to boot up. It makes it as far as the "Win ME" screen, then freezes. I honestly don't want us to spend any more money on it, but it would be a huge waste. Is it worth it to pay someone to figure all this out for me? I'm always afraid they're ripping me off. I'm about to go shopping for a MAC; please talk me out of it.

I have had 3 vaio's now and like them all, never ever a prob. with any. I just finished building my computer now so no more VAIO. I would just formatt the drive and reinstall windows so i didnt have to **** with it. I dont know if you can save it, i have never used ME. sorry



bobby

formatting and installing is a super simple proccess, don't pay someone to do it.. there are plenty of texts out there if you don't know how..

Plus ME is a ghei os anyways.

Ditch that P.O.S. and get a Mac. They're far superior. You won't be disappointed.

Fock mac, just get Xp or 98 and have a ball https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png

straighten out all the cables the 1's cant make sharp turns they get stuck



mike

ok, I'm sure formatting and installing can be simple, but what am I supposed to do right now? just plug in the system reload disk? and keep in mind, this is like the second time this has happened in less than a year, so I'm kinda not wanting it anymore.



and one guy told me that I had trouble before because of some clip on the back of the hard drive being in the wrong place. after I paid the guys to load it for me, they never told me what the problem was. (I had tried loading it, but it kept getting stuck/going back to same screen)





I mean, all I want to do is strap that camera to my motorcycle, then edit in some cool music. Is that so much to ask? freakin' techonology

VAIO's are a pain. Terrible driver support, faulty hard drives. Dont get me started. Anyways, best bet is to format the drive and install XP from scratch. It will recognize most of hardware on the computer and will be much much more stable.

laptop? nope. desktop? yes. the hard drive that's in there now I think I bought off the shelf. I'm having trouble remembering exactly, but I think I returned the faulty one, bought one off the shelf, and I'm not sure if they reimbursed us...



this is where you start realizing how computer stupid I am: how do I format the drive? and will I have to buy XP? will it cost a pretty penny?



here's a better question: is there a place that will just let me trade this in for a different computer with equal capabilites?