Sony Vaio PCG41218L Will Not Boot

[froyman]

When I turn the laptop on, first thing that appears is the VAIO screen; it then flashes off and reappears over and over and over. I cannot boot in safe mode. I booted off of the windows 7 DVD, tried startup repair and found no problems. I restored to an earlier point; same problem. I restored to the earliest point; same problem. I then reinstalled Windows and I still have the same problem. I've spent the last three hours googling the problem and trying every and any solution, but haven't found a working solution. Anyone have any idea what is wrong? I'm thinking it's a hardware issue (hard drive?), but I'm not sure what to do about it.
Thanks for any and all help!

 

[froyman]

Looks like I stumped everyone.

 

[scottiemedic]

Can you get into the BIOS? Can you boot to a different CD, like a memtest ISO and check the memory? Then a HDD utility (like Seatools or whatever for what HDD is in it)? Start systematically ruling in/out hardware.

 

[froyman]

Can you get into the BIOS? Can you boot to a different CD, like a memtest ISO and check the memory? Then a HDD utility (like Seatools or whatever for what HDD is in it)? Start systematically ruling in/out hardware.

I can get to the BIOS and boot to a different CD. What do you recommend? I already reinstalled Windows. What hardware should I check, and can you suggest places to download these files?
Thanks Scottie!

 

[froyman]

Best answer selected by froyman.

 

[scottiemedic]

Google for memtest. The hard drive utility is based on what HDD you have (western, seagate, etc). Go to their respective site for hard drive utilities. Then see if your BIOS has hardware monitoring, make sure your CPU isn't getting too hot. Try those first...