Member Avatar for candiceuk82

Hi, My Sony Vaio VGN-FZ38M wont boot up, it just freezes on the logo and then says no operating system found, it was dropped yesterday and that is when the prioblems began, from searching google i read that my hard drive might be shot but BIOS recognises that the HDD is there and i have ran Vaio diagnostics and it says no hardware problems found, but when i try to do the memory check it says a problem is preventing the memory check, i have ran out of things to look at and would very much appreciate any help as i know nothing about laptops, Thanks in advance Candice :) Oh and i have tried using my recovery discs but it freezes on disc 2 and comes up with an error code

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reported a VGN-FZ38M that hangs at the VAIO logo and then shows "no operating system found" after being dropped. BIOS still lists the HDD, Vaio diagnostics reports no hardware faults, the built‑in memory test will not run, and the recovery discs stall on disc 2. A physical shock can cause read/head damage or intermittent electronics faults even when the drive is still detected by BIOS.

A practical, non‑destructive diagnostic order (prioritize data preservation):

  • Boot a Linux live USB (Ubuntu, SystemRescue, etc.) and inspect SMART attributes and kernel I/O errors to see if the drive is reporting reallocated/pending sectors or read failures.
  • If SMART or dmesg shows errors, image the drive before attempting repairs.
  • If SMART looks clean but the recovery discs still hang, test the discs in another PC or create a USB installer to rule out a failing optical drive.

Example commands (run from a live environment):

# SMART checks
sudo smartctl -H /dev/sda
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
sudo smartctl -t long /dev/sda

# Non-destructive imaging with GNU ddrescue
sudo ddrescue -f -n /dev/sda /media/external/image.img /media/external/image.log
sudo ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sda /media/external/image.img /media/external/image.log

correctly highlighted that impact raises the chance of physical damage; ’s repair-oriented ideas address logical corruption but attempting repairs on a drive showing hardware errors can make recovery harder. If the data is important, prioritize imaging and consider professional recovery before repeated reinstall/repair attempts. If the machine is under warranty, an authorized service center is the safe route for hardware work.

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Member Avatar for Praveenvapn

could you please specify the error code........?
Whether it appears in blue screen..........
could you please paste here the first 3 lines of the error page that you are messing with...

Member Avatar for Praveenvapn

Please note: If your laptop is in warranty period then kindly take it to the service center........ since they can help you better.....

Member Avatar for compdoc

yeah maybe the hard drive is damaged because the computer was dropped or maybe the memory just needs to be reseated. I would try that first to see what happens.

Member Avatar for Praveenvapn

Sorry for my late reply....
Ok! First you test with your memory if that doesn't solve the problem then inserting the OS boot CD try to get in first Repair page and after selecting numeric 1 (it will ask you for admin password if there is password for admin then insert it or if not then press enter)put the password for administrator. then put the command "chkdsk \C" and give it a time to complete the procedure... Might be this will help to resole the issue.

Please Note:
1.) Put the command without inverted commas (").
2.) Also I have mentioned drive "C" in the above command, since, normally OS is installed in C-Drive, so put the drive letter the one that you have installed your OS.
3.) Allow to complete the whole procedure bcoz sumtime it take more than a hour....

Hope this will help you... Once the issue is resolved please mark the query as resolved.

Thanks In Advance,
Praveen P.

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