Restore Sony Vaio PCG-9K3M to factory settings

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Gasco_Breizh Posted messages 9 Status Membre -  
Edawards Posted messages 16906 Registration date   Status Membre Last intervention   -
Hello everyone!

WinXP Home Edition SP2, Firefox, Avast, Malwarebytes Antimalware

I want to bring a old laptop back to life that has been sitting unused for 3 years.
It didn't have a wifi card, so I installed a D-Link N300 Nano USB adapter.
I tried to update Malwarebytes, but the latest version won't launch. The old version (which is three years old I think) works fine.
Up-to-date Avast detects nothing.
Rather than trying to eliminate a possible virus, I would prefer to start with a clean factory configuration if possible. Obviously, I have no recovery CD, no original XP CD, and no user manual! The installed Windows is a legal version, with a registration number on the back of the laptop. If there is a hidden recovery partition, how can I use it?
Thank you for your help!

1 réponse

Edawards Posted messages 16906 Registration date   Status Membre Last intervention   1 979
 
Hello,
See this but in my opinion, it's better not to reinstall because XP is no longer supported by Microsoft and you might not be able to use the PC anymore:

http://www.google.fr/...

--
Life is not a river but just a crossing.*
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Gasco_Breizh Posted messages 9 Status Membre 20
 
Thank you very much for your response!
I am quite disappointed that I can't reinstall properly...
So I installed, despite a name that doesn't inspire confidence, SUPERAntiSpyware which found (and I believe eliminated) a trojan, 2 POPs, and 4 or 500 cookies. I reinstalled, to see, the latest version of Malwarebytes (v2.2.0.1024), it still refuses to initialize. Could it be incompatible with XP Sp2, or is it a virus? And if I install Sp3, will I lose my XP activation?
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Edawards Posted messages 16906 Registration date   Status Membre Last intervention   1 979
 
Hello,
Here you can find all the support for XP towards the middle of the page, don't get it wrong:

http://www.google.fr/...


Nothing prevents you from installing SP3 if it is supported by the PC and the hardware that goes with it too.
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Gasco_Breizh Posted messages 9 Status Membre 20 > Edawards Posted messages 16906 Registration date   Status Membre Last intervention  
 
Thank you for the Sony link. But I see that it is assistance for the PCG-GRT716S, while my laptop is a PCG 9K3M or a PCG FR285E (depending on whether I look under the casing or above the keyboard...)
I have another question: before updating, I would like to back up the Windows partition. What freeware software do you recommend?
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Edawards Posted messages 16906 Registration date   Status Membre Last intervention   1 979
 
Good evening,
For Sony Vaio, it's at the very bottom of this link:

http://www.google.fr/...
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Gasco_Breizh Posted messages 9 Status Membre 20 > Edawards Posted messages 16906 Registration date   Status Membre Last intervention  
 
Hello,
Thank you very much for your help and for the links.
Have a great day!
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