RandyL

I would say a very nasty infection. JB has notified our excellent security staff so follow the instructions as best you can. They can assist you further. This thread will likely be moved to the security section just so you know.

I don't use Outlook but is there anything in "Tools" in Outlook?

I once started a linux installation and did a hard shut down part way through on purpose. That was Vista Home Premium. I wanted to test the repair option and in my case it did indeed work. Of course Premium versions of Vista and 7 don't have the RE (recovery environment) so you either have to find a download or borrow a full installation disk of a higher version for it to work. Fortunately for my test purposes and for the poster the method you prescribed can and did work.

Yes that is the Vista RE. A good thing to have. Starbuck please do butt in any time.

That tells me the size but not the brand. I was hoping it would show something like WD followed by numbers. WD for instance would be Western Digital. ST would be a Seagate. The only other way I know how to tell is to open up the laptop and look at the drive. Not everyone is comfortable doing that. You might want to wait for Ken or someone else before you proceed.

It's under warranty I assume. Where did you get it because a new computer should not have XP on it.

Maybe a reinstall of the software might help. If you go to HP Support you can download the software and updates. There should be a diagnostics utility there to. A quick glance at the US site lists 4 different models in the 2400 series. Also have a read here. 'The Cover is Open' Message Displays on the Computer for one of the models.

It's a small world. I'm about 50 miles from there. I heard the night life was good there back in the day. Always nice to have service people on our forum. Stick around.

Why did he do this? Was there a problem? Where did he obtain windows 7 ultimate if you did not have it before? As far as I can tell from your post all was working well before he did this. I suggest you reinstall your original Windows version from the media that was included. All should be well again. Yes it might be a hardware problem as michelsmith said but until we hear back from the original poster or an answer to Plastic Nev I think it fruitless to go further as conjecture without feed back is pointless in my opinion.

I can't say if it is possible or not as I am not the expert on security. If you were attacked or infected it might be a case of poor security software. One should always have a good updated antivirus program at the very least. With or without a good AV infections or still possible. Using torrent sites for instance one can always allow infections past an AV. One of our security experts would likely have more input on this.

Well Sony support really is bad. Their spec sheet doesn't say what brand it is. The BIOS might say though. Look at this link for how to get into the BIOS. http://www.ehow.com/how_4761693_access-bios-sony-vaio-laptops.html

Sorry. I guess device manager is no longer an option. Can you give us the model number and serial number please.

Device manager might show you. The Sony site might document it too but we would need the numbers off your Vaio.

I would think that rules out a drive problem then. Don't know what the problem might be though.

As Ken may be away I'll offer my thoughts. I believe you created a Vista RE (recovery environment) disk. As you can run from the disk and the Sony F10 options and diagnostics work I'm thinking you have a defective drive rather then bad memory. I know they found no errors but they are limited as to what they can find. If you know the make of the drive the manufacturer probably has a much better drive test program that you can run from a disk. These are much better. Keep in mind the average life span of a laptop drive is 3 to 5 years so this is a real possibility. You would of course need to contact Sony about purchasing the recovery media. Perhaps VAIO After-Sales Support would be the place to start. I don't know your model or serial number so I can't check it. Or perhaps this link. http://ciscdb.sel.sony.com/info/recovery.html

Did you mean restore c:drive?

No AV? For anyone reading this if you do not have an antivirus program I suggest you keep your Windows installation disk ready to use.

It may have been defective from the start. I've seen them fail in less then a years time. Maybe the laptop was dropped. Drives really hate that.

Absolutely. And when it says don't turn off the power take that very seriously. Doing so when it is configuring the updates can cause major issues. Since it is recently bought it probably has Windows 7 SP1. If SP1 does need to be installed via Windows Updates be prepared for a quite lengthy configuration. Whatever you do let it finish.

Ken will be away for quite a while but will see this when he returns. I'm sure he will be very happy to hear that he has helped you. Thankyou for taking the time to let him know.

Hi jltraveler. Check your thread.

Hi steven. I hope so too.

Try the stand alone installer, Released 6/28/2011) Flash Player 10.3.181.34 (75.7 MB) on this page. http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/142/tn_14266.html Install it off line. You will need to extract or unzip the folder. Then navigate to the "flashplayer10_3r181_34_win.exe" application file.

Although Ccleaner is good I would never advise using a registry cleaner including that aspect of Ccleaner.

Your files won't go missing when you do a system repair. However any programs you installed after that time will need to be reinstalled and you will need to get the Windows updates, antivirus updates etc. again after the date you choose.