Computer help: Sony Vaio laptop

[gn85]

I've emailed Sony a few times about this problem only to get their form letter reply telling me in so many words that they can't help me. Nice.

I have a Sony Vaio laptop that was originally equipped with Windows ME. This computer had two partitions so I installed Windows XP Pro on the other partition and installed more memory to handle memory hungry XP.

Everything works just fine with XP. WLAN, internet, applications, all is good. The only problem I have is that I need some software and drivers that I need to use the hardware.

Of those, the most important is to access the BIOS. The BIOS changes the Pentium SpeedStep. This changes the processor speed from 500 to 600mhz. At the moment, it's running at a very gingerly pace of 400.

Any way I can get around the BIOS. I don't see any way of manually entering the BIOS. When it turns on you immediately see the SONY VAIO screen then it goes straight to XP.

I already went to their website and tried to download the drivers and applications to make this work with XP, but that didn't work either.

 

[striker_29]

Have you tried the standard keys for getting into the bios? F1, F2, del, etc.

 

[V6 Beast]

Press F2 on the Sony screen to enter setup.


Sully

 

[gn85]

Originally posted by V6 Beast
Press F2 on the Sony screen to enter setup.


Sully

Thank you, I was trying every button I knew, f1, f8, Delete, everything but f2.

Now I've set the CPU to run full speed. Yet, when I enter 'properties' from my computer, it says 493 and not 600. When I had it with ME, there was a switch to go from 500 to 600. But I'll have to look into this further. Still, it's better. Thanks again.

 

[NOSjohnWE4]

If it's a Celeron or AMD processor you won't see the entire range of the "advertised" processor speed.

 

[gn85]

Originally posted by NOSjohnWE4
If it's a Celeron or AMD processor you won't see the entire range of the "advertised" processor speed.

Pentium III

 

[NOSjohnWE4]

Try a google search and see if someone else has had a similar issue. Works for me sometimes when I have a weird problem like that.

 

[V6 Beast]

Originally posted by gn85
Now I've set the CPU to run full speed. Yet, when I enter 'properties' from my computer, it says 493 and not 600. When I had it with ME, there was a switch to go from 500 to 600. But I'll have to look into this further. Still, it's better. Thanks again.

There is no switch in ME to change CPU speed. It may have been software that came with the laptop and you lost it somehow upgrading. Go to Sony's site and re-download the software that came with the laptop. Maybe it was in one the programs.

Sully

 

[gn85]

Sully, you are correct. I'm sorry I didn't really clarify that well.

I have both ME and XP on this computer at the moment. ME came with the computer along with all of the stuff Sony chocks on there. One of the things that Sony put in was a program that controls the processor speed according to if the laptop is using the battery or the wall.

Yes, I went to Sony's website and sure enough I punched in the particular model that I have and there was indeed a program for XP that allows all of this. However, I put this program in and sure enough, the computer said it wouldn't allow access. Said there must be some problem, perhaps something was corrupted and try to re-install the program. After 3 downloads and 5 install attempts, I don't think that's the problem.

I wrote Sony and their only response was that this computer was not meant to run XP and they would not support it in any way. I wrote them back and said, "Well, you have these drivers and programs on your website for my particular model." Once again, they wrote me back just saying, Sorry, can't help. So, that's why I wanted to just go in the BIOS, and do it myself. Screw Sony.

Anyways, thanks again for the help.