Forgive me if this is long winded, but I'm going to be as detailed as possible...

I just go a laptop off of ebay: "Sony Vaio PCG-V505EC Centrino 1.5GHz, 512MB" is what it said for the item description. On the back of the actual laptop, it says "Model PCG-6B1L". It's operating system is XP Home, though I'm not sure if there was a service pack. The sticker on the back does have a Product Key on it. It had Office 2003, but without the Product Key, it wouldn't work, so I installed Office 2004 from a disc I have with a Product Key and that worked fine. I tried to install Avery software called DesignPro from the Avery website. I had done it on my other laptop with success, so thought nothing of it. Installation was taking a really long time, so I stopped it to try again later. When I tried it again, it took a really long time with no visible results, so I decided to check my email in Outlook in the mean time. I was looking in the Outlook Options menu for something when I clicked on a tab and the new tab registered, but the info didn't change. I was confused, but figured it must be running slow because of the install. So I did ctrl alt del. That did absolutely nothing(no window). I tried to move the mouse and it wouldn't move, so I tried ctrl alt del again to try to close the programs. A minute later, I got the blue screen with this info exactly:

"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen,restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.
If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any Windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.
If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable
components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007A (0xC03E12D8, 0xC000000E, 0xF84B6642, 0x173AA860)

*** ftdisk.sys - Address F84B6642 base at F84AC000, DateStamp 3b7d8419

Beginning dump of physical memory"

That's all of it. In my panic, i was confused trying to turn it off, but I finally managed to. It never said that it finished dumping, but when I rebooted, it said "Operating System not found" with a curser underneath. I tried typing "c" with the hope that i could type "c:/" for dos. When I did that, it went blank like it was looking for it, but then came up the same msg again. I had already copied a lot of data off the other laptop, but hadn't deleted it of the old one yet, so I don't care about the data loss. But the op system
is a big deal, because the laptop didn't come with cd's. If there's a way to bring it back, I'm all ears. But I don't have high hopes. I have other questions though. I found op sys cd's on ebay for $130 and up. I'm trying to avoid that. I also found reinstallation CD's on Amazon for less than $50. They say you have to have the Product Key already, which we do (on the sticker under the laptop for xp home). My questions are:

1. If the memory was completely wiped, will these reinstall disks work?

2. If my key is for XP Home, can I use a reinstall disk for XP Pro?

3. All the disks on Amazon are for Dell, but I have a VAIO. Will they still work?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!! If I left anything out, let me know.

I would suggest that you check out your hard drive. You can download a diagnostic from the hard drive manufacturer's web site.

HD Diagnostics

Thanks to Dan Penny!

Imahunnypot

Sony has a series number on the sticker that does not show the model stated on the eBay listing. Check the hinge cover or the LCD bezel to see if the model number shows there, that is the normal location for the model number to be displayed.

The other points addresses;

1. Memory has no effect on data, that is related to the hard drive, as for the drive if the recovery disk is run the drive will be wiped and all data will be gone.

2.Keys are good for the version being installed only, Home keys for a Home install and the same for Pro. They are not interchangable.

3. Dell disks will not work for a Sony, the recovery disks are needed since Sony is not easy to track and download the drivers for all the hardware. When I work on a Sony the charge for doing a reinstall increases if the recovery disks are not available. Did the unit show a recovery partition on the hard drive? Usually a prompt shows during boot about pressing a key to enter the recovery process.

Some Sony models are hard to get the disks for, I have a customer that has been waiting for a month since the failed hard drive was replaced and no recovery disks were created before the failure.

As noted get a hard drive tester and scan the drive, also get memtest 86 and check the memory. Either one could explain why the unit was available on eBay.

Richard