no operating system found

[peakeagle]

i received a no operating system found on start up, i moved my hard drive to another laptop and it comes up OK. i then used another HD to make sure  and it gave the same message. i learned how to go in to the bios to check to see if the HD was showing up and it was not showing the HD. i switched slots and pulled one of the memory sticks, did not help either. my laptop is a Sony vaio pcg-8y2l; it has windows xp3 operating system. tried changing the boot sequence to internal optical drive to boot from the DVD and it would not do it. would appreciate  some help?
thanks,
peakeagle

[Geek-9pm]

The problem maybe in a connector. Or maybe a motherboard failure.
If you can not boot the DVD or CD drive, you may need to have a friend make you a USB device with some diagnostics on it. If your laptop can boot from USB.
WARNING. Some sises that advertise such things are real rip offs. You can get a FREE diagnostic utility that boot from a USB.
Here is one of the good ones. It will boot from CD or USB.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

[peakeagle]

thanks for replying. i went to the site to download i am confused as to what and how to get it started. i dont know where the download begins can you enlighten me? so many ads

[Geek-9pm]

Sorry you are having trouble. Looks like Google has nearly taken over the site.
Ignore the Google ads.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html
Gives a list of  mirror sites.  Below is what you should see.


I wold recommend using:
http://www.myubcd.com/
Download the ISO file and it can be burnt to CD.  This is calling "burning image to CD."
I think you should try a CD that first. Might work.
But to make the USB version takes a little more work.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/customize.html

Hope this is of some help.

[peakeagle]

thanks again, i finally down loaded the files you suggested on a cd. i loaded it up and got the same message no system found. how do i get the bios to show a hd? is this considered a hardware failure?

[jason2074]

If both HDs were not recognized and received OS not found --> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321626

[Geek-9pm]

jason2074, Thanks for the link.
He needs to read over this part.

Method 1: Verify the BIOS settings

He must set the BIOS to try first from the CD, not the HD.

[peakeagle]

i checked the site and even went to sony and they want me to ship the laptop to them and payy 129.00dollars to do a diagnostic no telling what the cost will be when they find the problem. there has to be an inexpensive way to fix this problem. the bios did not show the hard drive. i changed the settings for booting to the optcal (internal) drive with the hard drive second. i can hear the hard drive running when i boot up why the bios do not show a hard drive being present i donot know because i am just learning. i would think that once the bios shows a hard drive then we a closer to solving this problem. any ideas/ solutions to try? thanks

[Geek-9pm]

On some computers if there is a strange problem with the hard drives the bios will not continue. In that case you have to remove the hard drives to run the diagnostic disc. We still want to run some diagnostics, even with no hard drive. To to eliminate all possible problems.

Once you are sure there is not another problem with the PC. you test the hard drive on another computer. If there is any doubt about the Hard Drive, the next  step is to try a known good drive on the failing PC.

The worse case is that you have a failing motherboard. We don't like that. Replacing a weatherboard is a lot of work.

Inspect the HD cable carefully, Try another cable.

[peakeagle]

i acnt seem to run a dianostic with the drive in or out . now iam not only getting a black screen with no operating system found the screen has rows of white dots running across them with vertical rectangles flashing on the dotted lines some letters like o in the rectangles three blue rectangles and one red rectangle what does this mean?

[jason2074]

i received a no operating system found on start up, i moved my hard drive to another laptop and it comes up OK. i then used another HD to make sure  and it gave the same message. i learned how to go in to the bios to check to see if the HD was showing up and it was not showing the HD. i switched slots and pulled one of the memory sticks, did not help either.

Its already an indication that either a faulty cable(least), BIOS could be corrupted(bad flash,needs updating or damaged). If you are lucky enough it might just need to set default settings under BIOS. Or the motherboard itself...  Did you connected the HD/s with any external enclosure adapter on another machine? How did you manage to confirm it was working? Are you sure the HD is not turned upside down... on your Sony laptop?
+

now iam not only getting a black screen with no operating system found the screen has rows of white dots running across them with vertical rectangles flashing on the dotted lines some letters like o in the rectangles three blue rectangles and one red rectangle what does this mean?

Another sign...

[peakeagle]

thanks for you support. the cable from the motherboard to the harddrive i checked to see if it was connected . i reseated it and started to get the dots and flasing rectangles on the black screen. i did set the default seetings on the bios and got the no operating system found. i connected my hd to another computer and it did show up i even used another good hd in the sony and got the same error. the hd only goes in the cradle one way.  i will double check every thing again.

[peakeagle]

i haqve rechecked everything.HD in other computer new hard drive in the sonywith same sittustion.i checked agin the boot up sequence and the interna optical was set firsrt then the hard drive..the hd lights and the hd ppowers up'how can i get the bios to recognize the hda? help!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           -

[jason2074]

Then its only the mobo and BIOS that might be the culprit... Is your DVD drive still recognized on BIOS?
It seems Sony has cut out support online for your laptop. We can't even try to replace or use a flash bios method due to lack of support. If you can try to get around the site maybe there is a bright side for your problem. However upon what Sony have offered you is for a shipment and repair which is the only practical solution if you want to revived your machine...

[jason2074]

Could you try removing the CMOS battery(laptop turn-off, unplugged)? They sometimes create weird problems.  It might just need a system reset. Its the only thing i can think of right now. Remove and place it after 10 minutes and make sure its properly seated. Some issues are solved by just this method. Fingers-crossed