Wireless card ate my laptop

[Range Rat]

(I'm submitting this for a less-computer-literate friend.)

I have a friend who has been using a Sony Vaio PCG-FX 340 for some time, and
when she put in a wireless card (I believe it was a Linksys or Netgear) in
the PC Card slot while the machine was off and tried to boot it up, it
attempted to fire up but never completed, as if it were hibernating; the
power light was on, but nobody was home and no hard disk activity. The first
thing I thought was a dead battery problem, but we plugged it into the wall
and same behavior, both with and without the battery in the bay. I then
removed the wireless card and booted again; we were forever doomed to a dead
Vaio, duplicating this same behavior. I can't even get it to the BIOS to
reset anything.

Where would I even begin to troubleshoot this thang?

 

[Malke]

Range Rat wrote:
> (I'm submitting this for a less-computer-literate friend.)
>
> I have a friend who has been using a Sony Vaio PCG-FX 340 for some time, and
> when she put in a wireless card (I believe it was a Linksys or Netgear) in
> the PC Card slot while the machine was off and tried to boot it up, it
> attempted to fire up but never completed, as if it were hibernating; the
> power light was on, but nobody was home and no hard disk activity. The first
> thing I thought was a dead battery problem, but we plugged it into the wall
> and same behavior, both with and without the battery in the bay. I then
> removed the wireless card and booted again; we were forever doomed to a dead
> Vaio, duplicating this same behavior. I can't even get it to the BIOS to
> reset anything.
>
> Where would I even begin to troubleshoot this thang?

Your friend should call Sony tech support. It sounds like something got
fried. Since this is now a hardware issue, only Sony can help you.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Range Rat]

> Your friend should call Sony tech support. It sounds like something got
> fried. Since this is now a hardware issue, only Sony can help you.

What makes you so sure it isn't an XP glitch?

> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com

Fresno? Is there a lot of business in Fresno these days? I grew up in
Merced.

Jon

 

[Malke]

Range Rat wrote:
>> Your friend should call Sony tech support. It sounds like something got
>> fried. Since this is now a hardware issue, only Sony can help you.
>
> What makes you so sure it isn't an XP glitch?

If you can't even get as far as entering the BIOS, this is hardware and
not software (operating system). The operating system isn't even loaded
at that point.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User