system will not boot- unable to access bios to verify boot priority

Typically with VIAO's its F1, F2, or F3

Also is there an assist button you perhaps have to press?

Ah the Gaming-friendly system

http://www.sony-asia.com/microsite/vaio/htmlmanuals/20123Q/SVD1121/eng/contents/04/21/02/02.html

F2 does not work, instead with the computer off, press the "assist" button and then select BIOS in the menu.

Any insight as to where the assist button might be.

i suppose ypou don't have the original sony keyboard?
it is a proprietary button on their models :

Good question, the AV booth brought me the tower only so this morning I will go up and see if I can find it.  I will be in meetings till lunch and then try out these two suggestions (if I can find the keyboard)

After surviving the morning meetings, I went upstairs and was able to locate the wireless VAIO that I believe came with this desktop,however I was unable to make it work.l  I was able to get to the internal battery disconnect it and was able to get the F2 key to let me into bios.

All my drives are listed, with the first one being the boot disk.  I checked the drive  with my laptop and  can see the files and the disk is new.  I checked my DVD device which is slave to the BlueRay unit on the IDE bus and the bios sees it as such.

However, when I attempt to boot I still get the original error:

NO BOOTABLE DEVICE -- INSERT BOOT DISK AND PRESS ANY KEY

I put the Windows 7 disk back in the DVD unit and it was not recognized as well.

So, at this point I have BIOS but no idea what is going on beyond that.  Does anyone know what version I am supposed to be running on BIOS for 64bit Windows 7, which I assume is the same as the Vista BIOS that Sony has on file.

Thanks so far for your help fellas, No assist key is a bummer but I do have BIOS now so maybe there is something else to do now.

carl at St. Andrew's

is the boot disk set so in the boot priority list?
you can also use the paragon boot corrector tool to fix that - on the rescue kit :
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-express/

Priority set to use IDE-DVD first and hard drive second but even though BIOS shows them, it stlll give me the error message that there is no boot device.

PS:  PRESS ANY KEY does nothing.  Have to turn it off and back on?

PPS  I even went so far as to put a USB DVD drive on and the Windows 7 media it too cannot be seen and is ignored.  Beginning to scare me guys.

I would gladly us the boot corrector tool and will download it and make a disk but if the drive is not coming to life and reading it?

set the disk drive first then - and remove all cd 's from the dvd drive too
is the dvd drive recognised in the BIOS ?
if not, it can be bad, or have a bad connection (cable)

Disk drive is set to first, no dvd's installed>IDE is shown in BIOS and still no boot device found.  Beginning to sound more mother board'ish although it was working fine last Thursday when I shut it down after putting the OS on  I still have to verify the BIOS level for 64 bit VS 32 bit.  The AV guy said he put 64 bit bios for Vista on it and although it was working while I was putting 64 bit win7 on, today was the first day from stone cold that it was turned on and had to build from scratch.  Maybe the Bios is incorrect.

If so, what is the best way to reload the BIOS for the correct one if this one is not.

In the meantime I am still waiting for my email on the Paragon repair tool which probably won't work until such time as I can get the reader to read!

ok. i would start testing what you can boot from; easiest is a bootable cd (DVD) or usb drive
so : disconnect all disk drives, and connect a cd drive - or usb drive to boot from
set your bios to the device  you connected
here a nice bootable cd  : ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/knoppix-dvd/KNOPPIX_V7.0.5DVD-2012-12-21-EN.iso 

**if you use an usb drive - test first if it boots ok on a working PC
>>   I still have to verify the BIOS level for 64 bit VS 32 bit  <<  up to now, i never saw a difference in the bios for 32 or 64 bit

working on your suggestion today.  I tried a usb dvd and it didn't see it either the other day.  I will see what today brings.  thanks for the bootable...  another night owl.  The blue ray is defined as master on the IDE, think i will swap them and make the DVD RW the master  and leave the blue ray off for now.  more later.

Found a problem.  I put the Windows Media in the Blue Ray device and the system recogizes it an asks me flor option 1 or  boot.  I reply 1 and it loads the front end of the Windows install and gives me the repair option.

Not knowing yet the proper BIOS for this unit, I am going to format the root drive and start over with a clean unit.  I would just as soon have a clean drive and start over now that the one DVD drive is talking.

I still do not not know the recommended BIOS flash for this box but would like to know what steps i should take to make it right this time.  I have purchased an added 4 gig of memory but the system as of last week when it ran last would not only recognize it in BIOS but not allocate it.  If there are some steps to prepare this unit for added memory usage, I would appreciate any help I can get.  THanks in advance for your patience and consideration.

Carl at St. Andrews

i believe you posted an incorrect model :   RGC-310G   - is that correct?

Good catch nobus.  It is the VGC-RC310G Digital Studio Desktop.  You get points for that one.

Thanks for your feedback.  I chuckled about contacting Sony.  Their website is constructed similar to one run by the IRS.  Finding an actual person to talk to can be difficult but today if things don't go well, I will do just that.

Yesterday decided to try a clean install since my dvd drive became accessible even though the system said there were no bootable devices.  Could not use the assist feature since the AV team member said that the wireless keyboard was bad.  i found it but the wireless receiver in the box had been removed at some time in the past.

Anyway, I made sure my disks were re-formatted correctly and the boot device is on channel 0, although not sure it matters but it was on channel 1 before and I had tried to move it to 0 during diagnostics which did not make a difference,  For this test I left the BIOS alone for now land re-installed Windows 7.  It installed and my USB ports are talking again so have some positive signs, went to Update and downloaded the outstanding 131 updates sitting out there.  Finishing that up this morning when I get back in to work, then will see if function is back and if so, will contact SONY for the BIOS verification.  They don't support this box anymore and sad to say they seem to be like most companies out there and would rather sell me a new unit than help keep this viable one running.  I have your tools burned to dvd and have them at the ready when I need them.  Have to do a little reading up on how they work and how to use them today.  Thanks to all who have contributed so far.  Education is a marvelous thing and you guys help me keep motivated to try and do these things in house rather than farm them out which churches don't have big budgets for.  I appreciate you  all.  More later today, have a great one.  Carl at St. Andrew's

check i fsony uses an online updating sytem for their bios (can be in their software)

Everything came up properly this morning after the multitude of updates completed.

I have to chase SONY about their bios.  Talked with the AV guy that brought me the box after it died.  He said he updated the BIOS "after" installing Windows 7.  In the BIOS comments there is a flag saying not to upgrade from XP to Vista platform until the BIOS is applied.  At this point I have functioning system with 4gig and seems to be running properly, but more time and testing before I go the next step.  My fear is that they will tell me to tear it all back down to XP with original BIOS, or maybe I am just a worry wort.l

Thanks especially to nobus for sticking with me on this so far.  I will report back if needed on a new post since my current post seems to be resolved.  Thanks to everyone else for their comments.

Happy Thanksgiving.

tx for feedback
and if you want me on a new Q, you can always post the link here

Will do and thanks again!