Technical forums » Hardware »
Upgrading BIOS (VAIO, HP Pavilion) to boot from USB
Thread poster: CELC Inc
CELC Inc
CELC Inc
Local time: 18:27
Japanese to English
+ ...
Sep 9, 2007

I have a VAIO PCG-443N and an HP Pavilion A737N, both running Win XP Pro (Japanese).

The VAIO laptop is from a bygone age (Sony no longer offers any support even on their website), and I want to move it to Xubuntu. However, it has no optical drive. Can I upgrade the BIOS so that I can boot from a USB port? If so, please provide detailed instructions.

If this is not possible, how about the HP machine? Can I boot it from a USB port? If so, I wonder if I can install t... See more
I have a VAIO PCG-443N and an HP Pavilion A737N, both running Win XP Pro (Japanese).

The VAIO laptop is from a bygone age (Sony no longer offers any support even on their website), and I want to move it to Xubuntu. However, it has no optical drive. Can I upgrade the BIOS so that I can boot from a USB port? If so, please provide detailed instructions.

If this is not possible, how about the HP machine? Can I boot it from a USB port? If so, I wonder if I can install the Linux OS on an old laptop drive in an encasement attached to the USB port. Again, details would really help.

Thanks in advance,
Nathan ▲ Collapse
 
Ahmet Murati
Ahmet Murati  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 11:27
English to Albanian
+ ...
The old BIOS-ES don't support USB Boot option Sep 9, 2007

well about the HP Pavilion I think you can boot up using the USB but for VAIO I am not sure.

Usually the BIOS updates are carried through a bootable Floppy disks that contains a program that carries the updating of the BIOS. What you should take care is to select a proper image that the BIOS would be updated otherwise the bios of your computer would be damaged so your computer would fail to start.
 
Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 11:27
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
FYI: I've moved the topic to the hardware forum Sep 9, 2007

IMHO it is better suitable for your problem.

AFAIR a Sony Vaio should have the possibility to be upgraded with an optical drive.
I must admit I don't know if it is possible to uprade your laptops as you would like to do.
But I have to say I doubt very much if you get Linux working on them - you'll probably get trouble in getting the proper drivers for your hardware. And you will need drivers for the motherboard chipset (to controll HDDs via IDE interface) and a graphics ... See more
IMHO it is better suitable for your problem.

AFAIR a Sony Vaio should have the possibility to be upgraded with an optical drive.
I must admit I don't know if it is possible to uprade your laptops as you would like to do.
But I have to say I doubt very much if you get Linux working on them - you'll probably get trouble in getting the proper drivers for your hardware. And you will need drivers for the motherboard chipset (to controll HDDs via IDE interface) and a graphics driver for your video card, than driver for the ports, for pointing device and so on. So I really doubt if this will work.
Laptop components tend to specific for the laptop brand. This is so especially with your Vaio, where almost certainly the compnents were modified and their manufacturer driver will not fit. I had this case with my Vaio and video card driver - I could not obtain it from the video chip manufacturers site (ATI), but had to download it directly from Sony.

Jerzy ▲ Collapse
 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:

Moderator(s) of this forum
Natalie[Call to this topic]
Prachya Mruetusatorn[Call to this topic]

You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Upgrading BIOS (VAIO, HP Pavilion) to boot from USB






Trados Business Manager Lite
Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio

Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.

More info »
CafeTran Espresso
You've never met a CAT tool this clever!

Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer. Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools. Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free

Buy now! »