Does anybody know how to fix Sony Vaio laptops?

[gn85]

Hey y'all,

My Sony Vaio just died on me. It's an older model, so I'm trying to avoid taking it to a shop and dumping tons of money into it.

I'm gonna go googe crazy tonight and see what I can find on the net, but I figured I'd ask in here as well.

Here's the problem... was working with it earlier just fine. I had to move it from one room to the other. It was plugged in, I unplugged it, brought it into the other room and plugged it back in. In the meantime it ran on the battery (fully charged). When I opened the laptop back up, screen was blank but computer was still running. I tried opening and closing it.. nothing so I decided turn it off and try turning it back on. It turned off.. but now it will not turn back on.

With it plugged in, I don't see the lights flashing saying it's charging the batteries. I've tried taking the batteries out and putting them back in. Nothing. I tried unplugging the computer with no battery. Once again. Nothing.

Anybody with insight, please chime in.

The model # is: PCG-F650

Thanks

 

[mytyphoon1993]

Have you tried another outlet. Try turning it on with out the battery, hold down the power button and see what it does.

 

[gn85]

Originally posted by mytyphoon1993
Have you tried another outlet. Try turning it on with out the battery, hold down the power button and see what it does.

Tried another outlet. Tried turning it on without the battery. Tried holding the power button.

Thanks.

 

[John Larkin]

I had to have the palm rest (keyboard surround) replaced on mine (Dell). There are alot of circuit boards and stuff on the bottom side. I'm betting the power button itself has lost a contact. Before my repair, I had to manuever the power button side to side to get it to turn on. If you feel adventurous, remove it and see what's under there. You have to remove the screen to do it though.

 

[BLACK6PACK]

Make sure the power cord isn't messed up. They can look like everything is plugged in and really not be.

 

[gn85]

Just tested the plug that goes into the laptop.. getting 19+ volts DC comin' out.

 

[BLACK6PACK]

A volt meter isn't going to get it. Did you stick it on your tounge?

 

[TurboAWd]

well if you have lots of time to read, check out this post:

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/5449/?o=0

one main problem certain older vaios have is the memory chip slot pins crack. you can probably get it working again by removing the memory chip cover and place something on the chip(piece of foam) so that when you put the cover back on, it puts pressure on the memory chip and makes the connection. thats a temporary fix.
i sent mine to the guy below and he resoldered the memory slot for around $130.


Joe Kabalan
AQS Computer Services
2572 Sheridan Drive
Tonawanda, NY 14150

716-832-2473

http://www.aqstech.com
http://www.laptopBIOS.com

 

[gn85]

Thanks for the link...

OMG, 37+ pages... you weren't kidding. Guess I'm gonna have some time on my hands. It seems a lot of people aren't happy with Sony customer support. I tried taking one of the memory cards out, but no change. One of the memory cards I bought was aftermarket, but it's been working a while with that in there. I'll try putting the original (had two small memory cards to start with) back in. But my symptoms seems to be a little worse then what I've read so far in that thread.

Thanks again for the heads up. If it's not fixed by the time I leave here, I'll bring it back with me to the states and get someone to look at it.

 

[klrv6]

Power saver

It may have gone into power save mode not hibernate (laptop function). I have seen Dells do this. Remove the battery and power cord now power up the laptop, this will drain any charge that is left in capacitors. Reinstall the battery and apply power. You can also check to see if there is a very small switch on the keyboard area of the laptop by the display, many lappys have this switch get stuck and power off the display. Also look for a reset button that usually has to be pushed in with a ball point pen. Just some thoughts.