I have a Sony Vaio PCG-F305 laptop that keeps shutting down almost immediately after windows is opened. Initially I thought the problem was PSU related, however, I can start in Safe mode and it does not shut down. I have reformatted the C Drive and re-installed Win 98, however, this has not solved the problem. It started doing this about a month ago and initially was not shutting down immediatley, however the problem has worsened and now it shuts down almost as soon as windows opens. In addition the display has reverted to 16 colour format?!?! I have not even the vaguest idea how to solve this and I was hoping someone out there may be able to help...please!

How old is the machine? It might be the CMOS battery, although that seems like a long shot since it doesn't misbehave in Safe Mode. Have you tried the following: 1. Disable any Screen-Saver 2. Disable desktop wallpaper 3. Go to Control Panel->Power Management and check the settings there. Try setting them all to "Never". 4. Check the BIOS settings for APM, etc. HTH

The machine is about 3 years old. I have tried 1 to 3 of your suggestions. Have not checked BIOS, please advise what I need to do there. thanks

Hi, guy, (hope you're not Guy Fawkes) As I begin to type this, no one has responded to you yet, though I'm sure you'll have a DOZEN replies by the time these creaky old fingers finish the task at hand. Think about this for a second, guy. You've RE-INSTALLED Windows and you STILL have the same problem. That normally indicates: ONE -- It's a HARDWARE problem, and when laptops shut down, you have to look at the condition of the battery first (because it is so easy to eliminate); the REAL question is, does it shut down ONLY when running on the battery, ONLY when running on AC, or BOTH? If it shuts down ONLY on the battery, look REAL hard at the battery, and IGNORE what any charge indicator tells you; they AREN'T fool-proof. Have the battery tested at a reputable shop, preferably one that SELLS and SERVICES laptops. If it shuts down ONLY on AC, your problem may well be related to overheating. Laptops run HOT, and if you are the LEAST bit creative, you can find a way to rest the laptop on top of something COLD (box of frozen fish from the freezer, wrapped in plastic to protect the laptop, for example). Run the system, and TIME it to see EXACTLY how long it takes before it shuts down. If extra cooling makes it work (until the fish thaws or COOKS), then HEAT is at least PART of the problem. If it shuts down using both AC and DC, you might STILL have an overheat condition, but that might not be the ONLY problem. Use the cooling trick to see which method (using AC or DC) makes it fail sooner (better stock up on frozen fish). TWO -- Running in Safe Mode (aka "DOS with a candy-coated shell"; thank you, thank you very much, I'll be here all week) does NOT put much strain on the system, so the fact that it runs in Safe Mode doesn't tell us much in this situation. If you'd said that it runs in Safe Mode but CAN'T properly load Windows AT ALL in Normal Mode, THEN we'd have something to look for (corrupted driver, possibly). However, you've told us that Windows DOES load, and (until recently), it would run for ~10 minutes before failing. Does it fail ONLY while you're browsing the 'net? ONLY when you're writing in Notepad? Under what circumstances does it fail? Try this: Boot up, and just let the system SIT, untouched. Time it from the time you first see the Desktop until it shuts down. Then, let the system cool down, and boot it again. This time use it to play a video file, or a music CD, or SOMETHING that puts a good load on the system. Again, time it to see how long it takes to fail. Is there any difference at all? More than just a few minutes? We need those answers to be able to look much further. Troubleshooting this successfully will require patience and diligence. We're here to help you, but you've got to be the on-site technician, and report back with useful data, so the analysts who read these posts can diagnose the problem(s), and help you devise a solution. The video problem is almost ALWAYS caused by not having the correct video driver (or because Safe Mode changed the system back to the plain-vanilla Windows default VGA driver). We can deal with that down the road, but if we can't get the system to RUN, you'll never be able to install the RIGHT driver, so first things first. guy, I truly hope this helps point you in the right direction. We are here to help, and if we put our (collective) heads together, we MIGHT just be able to resolve this. Post your results, and we'll see what we can do. Good luck. HTH Pete "Two peoples, separated by a common language" For as long as I live, I'll never let the world forget that in the Battle of Britian, England stood alone. I might not have any Anglo-Saxon blood in my veins, but we are blood brothers to the core. My father fought in the South Pacific, served in Occupied Germany, and got shot in Korea. Ten years ago, he and my mother made their only trip overseas together, and lived with relatives stationed in England, near an air force base. They were sorry to leave, and talked about the English friends they'd made until their last days. I served in the Middle East (with a few Royal Marines Commandos for company), Europe, and Central America. GSTQ Pete

Hi Pete, Thanks for your reply. Right to go through the points: It happens on both battery and AC no difference. Initially my only prob was hanging shutdowns. The first time the unexpected shutdown prob occured was when i connected to the Internet, then it got worse and started happening when I wasn't connected to the net, shortly after that the display settings started messing up now 16 colour only. I showed it to one of the IT guys at my job and when he first powered up it was just randomly displaying messages etc before shutting down. Unfortunately he did not have much time due to real work beyond formating the HD and reinstalling win 98. Now when i start in normal mode the shutdown occurs about 5-10 secs after the win98 desktop appears, not long enough for me to do anything! It will quite happily perform in safe mode for as long as I want. before reformatting the drive I did have McAfee Online Virus scan installed and had recently renewed my subscription. I was wondering if it may be a virus in the boot sector of the hard drive that was causing this, but it is usually quite dangerous when I wonder as I really don't have a scooby about this stuff! Sorry you got stuck with the 'bootnecks' in the Middle East, however, could've been worse like the para's :o)

Hi again, guy, I'm going to post some instructions that might help straighten out at least PART of this problem. If the system is now shutting down right after Windows loads, it is either overheating IMMEDIATELY (which I tend to doubt), or it could be that the "brains" are scrambled. Either way, these instructions could help. On the other hand, they could also hose your system completely, but in my experience, if things get worse after you try this, the Windows installation was borked beyond hope anyway. Now, you might be screwed, or you might be ROYALLY screwed (sorry, couldn't help it); try this, and we'll know for sure. If you do NOT want to do this, I'll understand, but I think the odds are in your favor (somewhat), because Safe Mode works without a hitch. As a last resort, if this fails (or makes matter worse), you have a 50-50 chance that the scanreg /restore command will pull your bacon and eggs out of the fire. ********************************************* First of all, when you boot your system, hold down the Control key (might be labelled CTRL, or something similar). When you get the boot up menu, choose the next-to-last option (usually listed as Number 6, Command Prompt Only), to boot into pure DOS mode. Note: do NOT choose option Number 7, which is Command Prompt Only with Safe Mode. You should see the DOS-Prompt, which should look something like this: C:\> I will type all commands in CAPS, because I think they will be easier for you to read, although it does NOT make a difference if you use all CAPS, or lowercase letters. Now type this command (without the quotes): C:\>"SCANREG /FIX" Note that there is a SPACE between the letter "G" and the SLASH. The prompt will look like this: C:\>SCANREG /FIX Press the "Enter" key Your screen will change to a blue background, and the DOS version of the Scan Registry utility will run. ScanReg will try to repair any errors it finds in your Windows Registry. You'll see a graphic along the bottom of your monitor, indicated by a yellow progress bar. Wait until ScanReg finishes (shouldn't be more than a few minutes); you'll get a gray dialog box telling you that ScanReg has successfully repaired your Registry. Click on the "OK" button; you'll be returned to the DOS-Prompt. Now type this (again, without the quotation marks): C:\>"SCANREG /OPT" The prompt will look like this: C:\>SCANREG /OPT Note that there is a SPACE between the letter "G" and the SLASH. Press the "Enter" key ScanReg will now "optimize" your Registry, which removes any blank spaces created by the previous Scanreg command (with the /FIX switch). This should take less than a minute, and you'll be back at the DOS-Prompt again. Now type this (no quotes): C:\>"SCANDISK /AUTOFIX" The prompt will look like this: C:\>SCANDISK /AUTOFIX Note that there is a SPACE between the letter "K" and the SLASH. Press the "Enter" key The DOS version of ScanDisk will run; it will look a LOT like the ScanReg program you ran a few minutes ago. Wait for it to finish; it will probably report "No Problems Found", or words to that effect, and you're DONE! ********************************************* Good luck with this; post again when you have some results to report. Do you know if the old Norton factory is still standing in Wolverhampton? Just curious; I've always wanted to make a pilgrimage there. Thanks. HTH Pete

Hi Pete Thanks for all your tips, which I have now run through. Good new is that its not got any worse, bad news is its not got better either, in fact re the problem no real change. I am beginning to suspect that I have a real bad problem that i'm not going to be able to fix and that the Vaio is ready for retirement (over 3 yrs old), unfortunately that means shelling out money that I haven't got right now on a new desktop (sick of laptops):o( Oh well! Re the Norton factory in Wolverhampton, I believe that it has long been shut down and the Norton name is currently in dispute between some N American based business and some German business. I saw a prototype of the Norton Nemesis at the NEC bike show a couple of years back, which was pretty wild but never made it to production due to lack of money. Triumph still has a factory at Hinckley though that got burned down last year and has been replaced with a brand new state of the art jap style production facility, so not much to interest anyone concerned with old brit classics. cheers Guy