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Reason for the reset was basically wanting a clean start. I was previously using this computer for years without a clean install and it was feeling quite sluggish and had a few hanging problems that I couldn’t fix. I wanted to use this computer for work (mainly programming) since I had recently built a desktop and I wanted to compartmentalize a little better. Programming and work on this one, Entertainment on desktop and a spare (currently the one I use for work).

Regardless I don’t have an image, so I would have to reset again.

And Actually I did manage to get through all the Windows Updates, Adobe Updates and Sony Updates (Or at least most of the Sony ones). I was already aware of the problem, but I powered through it retrying as many times as was needed. I was kind of hoping at least one would fix this issue, I guess.

Resetting again wouldn’t be so bad, other than installing Office again (not hard, especially now that I have a faster connection, but I’m worried that the key won’t register this time due to being activated once already). I haven’t installed much else, Firefox, Python 2.7, Python 3, Maven, Pycharms, SourceTree, Git, Github off the top of my head.

One last thing I wanted to try though… It’s been a while since I’ve dabbled in Linux, but I was thinking that maybe if I could find a suitable distro, maybe I could boot from an USB and test the connectivity and speed from Linux. If it works I pretty much confirmed it was a bad install, if it doesn’t it all points back to hardware (though it was fine before the reset…) or Linux drivers also sucking…

Tried that, Temp was pretty empty. Also tried installing the newer drivers, disabling Wireless Connection 2 and messing with the LAN adapter advanced configuration options. Nothing.

I did download the test file on my desktop as a control, downloads in 30s at 4.9mb/s rock steady. I am using wireless on this laptop, but like I said before, I tried the cable and it wasn’t any better.

I did a speedtest after running CCleaner and Defraggler (ran it till there was 0% fragmentation). Seems the speedtest results have ‘improved’, but browsing is still slow and I also attempted a test download again, and was only able to go 2.0mb/s at most, and speed deteriorated after some time. I tried it in IE as well, speeds were markedly slower, though speedtest provided a similar result. Here is the speedtest for reference:

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3460347964

to jwitalka:

Yeah, I was running the Sony version of the driver in the old install. I might still give it a shot, maybe it’ll do something. I check out the clean boot advice see where that leads.

to Sudo15:

Seems I was running… 7-zip with the Speccy directory open, Firefox with about 7 tabs. It might be Alfresco running under tomcat and postgre, I had left it hibernating after working on a project. Other than Sony’s VAIO apps and the annoying webcam app, the laptop installs fairly cleanly. I had not planned on uninstalling them, and I also had them on my previous install. Safe Mode seems like good idea, so I’ll give that a shot.

Also Bluetooth is off, at least from the software switch, since it only has a hardware switch for wireless. I never got what the miniport thing does, but I’ll try disabling it, see where that gets me…

Ok, Update:

I tried a clean boot and using safe mode with networking… Still no difference. One note, I get 40mbps in speedtests on other PC in the same network, this one usually got around half. However I also tried downloading a file as a test (I used the full version of the eclipse x64 windows IDE, from their Brazil mirror about 200mb) I got an estimate of about a minute with 1-2mb/s on firefox. If I let download keep going it would progressively get slower and slower.

Is this in a particular program or in Windows itself? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it, maybe it’s in IE? Or some other Windows Program?

Well, thanks for the advice Ted. I downloaded Microsoft Security Essentials, and have it up and running without a hitch. I’ll be doing a bit of research about creating Disk Images and will get on that once I have everything set up. Hopefully I can get this done around this week and recover pretty quickly what functionality I may have lost during the incident.

Well, I managed to solve the problem now. Yesterday I decided to try calling Sony for support on the issue, and using some remote desktop software, they managed to run a battery of tests on my PC. One suspicion was that a particular Microsoft issued update had caused it, so they proceeded to uninstall that and run several utilities to check for Virus, Malware and other afflictions that might have caused the problem. Unfortunately, none of that helped, and actually made the PC worse. They also ran tests on the condition of the Hard Drive, CPU, and Memory (RAM). But all of that checked out, and eventually, with the help of Sony support I managed to find a feature that I was looking for earlier. It seems Vaio PC’s do have a restore partition of some sort, hidden in some of the proprietary software. So I restored to Factory Default and now I’m in the process of re-installing and re-configuring my PC. Currently looking for a AntiVirus again, don’t know if I should go with Panda Cloud again or try other options.

So thanks for all of the support during this problem, everyone. Hopefully whatever caused the computer to act up in such a way, is rare and won’t happen again, but I never could find out what exactly caused it, so there isn’t much I can do to avoid it in the future.

Thanks again!

*EDIT: In response to the previous post, I ran a test using Speccy just now to check. The Hard Drive currently installed is from Toshiba, but it managed to pass several Drive tests yesterday, so it should be in good working order. I have also tried the Momentus on another laptop I own, and found it works quite well too, so if it comes to that I’ll definitely keep it in mind.

I managed to access the computer properties today. There is just one thing that doesn’t quite add up, when looking over the Windows Activation section, the two fields there are unavailable, both activation status and Product ID. Normally when I need to re-activate or somehow change the Product Key for windows, there has always been a prompt of some sort to to it with. But this is not the case.

One more thing of note, is that after the restart, the computer removed the messages of the OS, build and the “This copy of Windows is not genuine” that appeared on the bottom right of the desktop. Yet certain programs still do not appear to work or start up as usual.

Do you still have the original Windows 7 Premium installation that came with that laptop?
You can either follow Gerald’s advice in calling MS or do an upgrade install with the original W7 Premium…
If it is a factory image located on a hidden partition you shouldn’t have to validate premium until you reinstall
ultimate from your previously “easy upgrade” installation.

The laptop did not include any restore media. So right now I’m probably going to see about the Product Key, and probably end up calling Microsoft about it.

Yes, this is indeed the same PC. I was actually about to go cut my losses and install Windows 7 Professional, since I hoped that it would help get rid of this problem I just confronted. However, this option is now unavailable to me, I had recently cleaned some temporary files in my PC, among them was the ISO copy of the Windows 7 Professional DVD. I no longer posses the physical copy of that DVD, so that option is unavailable to me right now.

I was just about to try the ProduKey app, to verify that both the key on the bottom of the case and the one registered in Windows were the same, but I ran into a problem. When I download the app, it comes in a .zip archive, normally I find it in Windows Explorer and open/extract it, with either Windows or 7-Zip. However Windows Explorer fails to launch, therefore I can’t access it right now either.

One problem with that solution is that if, in fact, it is WGA that rendered the problems I am facing, I am unable to see any timer anywhere. I also cannot access my computer through the Start menu or Control Panel. Whenever I click the button “Computer” in the menu I get an error from explorer.exe, “The remote procedure call failed and did not execute”.

It should be a genuine and legal copy of windows. The PC originally came with Windows 7 Premium and I later upgraded that to Ultimate using one of their Upgrade keys. I will try to pursuit that lead with Microsoft as suggested. In the meantime, I’m still looking for what may be alternate possible diagnosis. I’m thinking that it could very well be a virus or malware, since my Antivirus is unable to run since the incident.

No, it won’t charge any faster. The extra bangs are solely for the extra current required to charge the additional cells of the larger battery. The samller charger will be operating nearer its maximum output and therefore will be running at a higher efficiency. Though this won’t make a dent in your power costs as power demand is quite low for a laptop anyway.

Ok, I think I got it. I was thinking of buying the other charger in case I bought the bigger battery, but I probably won’t do that so I figured I would just go with the regular one.

Thanks Clint, I read the article it might be something to try when I start the process. The only inconsistency is that my Vaio PC didn’t come with any Restore CD or Partition. And due to the circumstances which I bought it, I wasn’t able to make one. I think I might try that though, will have to backup the entire system a few times just in case anything goes wrong, and to be able to recover some of my important files.