Yet Another Cycling Forum

General Category => The Knowledge => Ctrl-Alt-Del => Topic started by: Martin109 on 03 April, 2018, 08:46:39 pm

Title: Trying to Get to Sony Vaio BIOS - SOLVED
Post by: Martin109 on 03 April, 2018, 08:46:39 pm
I'm trying to access the BIOS screen on a Sony Vaio of uncertain age, so that I can set it to boot from the CD/DVD drive, to load a much newer version of Debian.  I've tried pressing F10, F11 & F12 during the very brief period that 'SONY' appears on the screen, but it just keeps booting from the HDD.  On other machines, it usually tells you which F-key to press to access the BIOS as soon as you turn on the computer.  Any help appreciated.
Title: Re: Trying to Get to Sony Vaio BIOS
Post by: Martin109 on 03 April, 2018, 08:57:13 pm
Solved this bit - you have to press F2 before pressing the power button, and this gets you into the BIOS menu.

However, CD-ROM Drive appears to be set as the first option for booting, so why isn't it booting with a valid disk in the drive?  Any ideas?
Title: Re: Trying to Get to Sony Vaio BIOS
Post by: Polar Bear on 03 April, 2018, 08:58:02 pm
Drive not working?
Title: Re: Trying to Get to Sony Vaio BIOS
Post by: Martin109 on 03 April, 2018, 09:15:42 pm
After many attempts, is bringing up Debian install menu, but just beeps when you hit any menu option and does nothing.  The stupid thing is I have previously installed Debian on this machine via the DC-Rom drive, so can't understand why it isn't working this time.  Will try disk in another machine, just to make sure.
Title: Re: Trying to Get to Sony Vaio BIOS
Post by: Feanor on 03 April, 2018, 09:28:09 pm
I don't think I've installed from an actual optical drive for years.

Can't you get the OS installer set up on a bootable USB stick,and boot from that?
It's faster and more reliable IMHO.


Title: Re: Trying to Get to Sony Vaio BIOS
Post by: Martin109 on 03 April, 2018, 10:11:16 pm
That's certainly an idea to try next time, but I seem to have got the installation going, finally!

Thanks for the suggestions. :thumbsup: