Sony vaio Desktop Windows XP. Turns on but never actually starts up goes to screen where you can start safe mode, and other choices. None of those work. Took to Best Buy. Tech says Windows corrupted need to restore. I have recovery CD's so figure I will save myself $140 and do it myself. Tried started it with CD in but still goes to that safe mode screen. How do I get it to start on recovery CD. I did the F2 thing someone suggested but don't see anything that says reinstall windows? Andy advice?

XP and Vista Normal Mode Start your computer as you normally would. Click the "My Computer" icon on your desktop. Go to "C:\ Program Files\Sony\Setting Utility Series." Find and choose the "VCCPointingDevice" folder in the "Setting Utilities Series folder" to open the "Built-in Pointing Device" dialog box. Locate the "Enable" box on the "Built-in Pointing Device" dialog box. Check the box to enable the Vaio touchpad if you wish to use this device. Disable the touchpad if it is interfering with the external mouse. Uncheck the "Enable" box if you have a USB (PS/2) mouse connecting to your Vaio and wish to use that instead of the built-in touchpad. Pick "Yes, I'm Sure" when prompted to activate your choice, then close all the windows. Windows 7 Normal Mode Launch Windows as usual. Go to "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Mouse" > "Pointing Device" to open the Vaio touchpad control center. Uncheck the "Enable" box on the "Pointing Device" window when you wish to use your external mouse. Check the "Enable" box on the "Pointing Device" window when you want to use the Sony Vaio touchpad. Make sure the external mouse is not interfering with the touchpad if you have one connected. If so, unplug the mouse from your computer. Click the "OK" button at the bottom of the "Pointing Device" window. Close all other windows. XP and Vista Safe Mode Restart your computer. Press the F8 key before the Windows welcome screen appears to enter Safe Mode. Click "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Add/Remove Programs." Find and delete all software for mice and pointing devices. Restart your computer in normal Windows mode. Proceed to next step if the problem persists. Restart your computer in Safe Mode. Right click the "My Computer" icon on the desktop. Choose "Properties" on the drop-down list. Pick the "Device Manager" tab in the Properties window. Select the "Other Devices" folder and click on the "+" sign besides it. Delete all the devices under this "+" sign by clicking on the "Remove" button next to each of the items. Restart Windows in Normal Mode. Once Windows is operating, there will be a "New Hardware Wizard" pop-up that will load all the necessary drivers for the touchpad, mouse and other pointing devices. This should fix the corrupt driver for your Vaio touchpad. Windows 7 Safe Mode Reboot your computer and press the F8 key before the Windows welcome screen appears to enter Safe Mode. Go to "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Device Manager" > "Mice and other pointing devices." Click the touchpad icon. Choose the "Driver" tab and press the "Uninstall" button. Press the "OK" button to confirm. Restart Windows in Normal Mode. Go to "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Device Manager" > "Mice and other pointing devices." Choose the "Driver" tab and press the "Update" button. Press the "OK" button to fix the touchpad software.

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XP and Vista Normal Mode Start your computer as you normally would. Click the "My Computer" icon on your desktop. Go to "C:\ Program Files\Sony\Setting Utility Series." Find and choose the "VCCPointingDevice" folder in the "Setting Utilities Series folder" to open the "Built-in Pointing Device" dialog box. Locate the "Enable" box on the "Built-in Pointing Device" dialog box. Check the box to enable the Vaio touchpad if you wish to use this device. Disable the touchpad if it is interfering with the external mouse. Uncheck the "Enable" box if you have a USB (PS/2) mouse connecting to your Vaio and wish to use that instead of the built-in touchpad. Pick "Yes, I'm Sure" when prompted to activate your choice, then close all the windows. Windows 7 Normal Mode Launch Windows as usual. Go to "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Mouse" > "Pointing Device" to open the Vaio touchpad control center. Uncheck the "Enable" box on the "Pointing Device" window when you wish to use your external mouse. Check the "Enable" box on the "Pointing Device" window when you want to use the Sony Vaio touchpad. Make sure the external mouse is not interfering with the touchpad if you have one connected. If so, unplug the mouse from your computer. Click the "OK" button at the bottom of the "Pointing Device" window. Close all other windows. XP and Vista Safe Mode Restart your computer. Press the F8 key before the Windows welcome screen appears to enter Safe Mode. Click "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Add/Remove Programs." Find and delete all software for mice and pointing devices. Restart your computer in normal Windows mode. Proceed to next step if the problem persists. Restart your computer in Safe Mode. Right click the "My Computer" icon on the desktop. Choose "Properties" on the drop-down list. Pick the "Device Manager" tab in the Properties window. Select the "Other Devices" folder and click on the "+" sign besides it. Delete all the devices under this "+" sign by clicking on the "Remove" button next to each of the items. Restart Windows in Normal Mode. Once Windows is operating, there will be a "New Hardware Wizard" pop-up that will load all the necessary drivers for the touchpad, mouse and other pointing devices. This should fix the corrupt driver for your Vaio touchpad. Windows 7 Safe Mode Reboot your computer and press the F8 key before the Windows welcome screen appears to enter Safe Mode. Go to "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Device Manager" > "Mice and other pointing devices." Click the touchpad icon. Choose the "Driver" tab and press the "Uninstall" button. Press the "OK" button to confirm. Restart Windows in Normal Mode. Go to "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Device Manager" > "Mice and other pointing devices." Choose the "Driver" tab and press the "Update" button. Press the "OK" button to fix the touchpad software.

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If you can see the windows logo and get into the bios then it is not the graphics card.

Most likely cause is the os itself, just after post press F8 repeatetly until you have the boot mode page open and choose safe mode, in safe mode do a system restore, goto start bar, programs, accessories, system tools and system restore, and start from a resent restore point. This can can take a while, so be patient and let the computer restore itself until you have the windows screen up.

If the restore dosent work, goto safe mode again, right click on my computer goto properties and enter device manager, in there under display adapters click on the plus sign and uninstall the graphics card, reboot. hope this helps post back if need farther help.

UBCD did not let me get info off of hard drive. Re-installed windows xp, problem ceased.

reinstall the OS ! Just overrite it over the previouse xp so u won;t lose data ...

..most probably u are missing some files ... .. or u have virusez issues. Ofecourse there is the posibility of hardware mallfunction, but considering microsofts reputation ... probably thats not the issue ...

one of the files in the system32 directory in the windows folder is corrupt, the files in the system32 folder contains vital files for the boot procedure, try to start the machine in "safe mode" by pressing F8 after the sony boot screen, if it allows you into the operating system you will need to choose "system Restore" take the time back to at least a week before your problems started DO NOT CREATE A RESTORE POINT

go to safe mode and create new user account, and try again....
if it doesn't reinstall the OS..

When your computer is rebooting, push the F8 key. It will change your start up options and you will see disable automatic reboot on system failure. You can they see the error and continue research on the problem.

your operating system is corrupted, you need to reinstall your winxp cd in order to repair the corrupted file. in order to prevent the recurrence of this upgrading from vista you need to turn off or select from the automatic updates selection portion. vista has a higher requirements qhen it comes to its memory, video cards and so on and that is the reason why the update did not pursue which eventually corrupted your operating system.
i'm hoping that this will help you

it may be mother board problem.but you can try once
start your pc keep on pressing F8 key to get screen you have mentioned . select to boot your system in the safe mode it takes some time to boot it will show (multi disk 0) .once you get enter into the OS, go to programs-- accessories--system tools--system restore and restore your computer in earlier date.

if it again show the blue screen you will have to take the system to the technician try this and let me know