Hardware Analysis - Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

orson whitfield — 2008-05-04T15:50:19-05:00

I have the Sony Vaio model number PCG-GRX570 and it is displaying the same symptoms. I used a piece of a pencil erasure head to plce inside the memory area between the lid/cover and memory chip. It worked for a while but everntually went back to being unreliable. And it was very sensitive to typing vibration. I want to get this fixed. Has any one sent it in for the soldering repair? To who and what were the results?

TIA

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

Mitchell Briggs — 2008-04-14T22:38:30-05:00

Okay. My Vaio started the same EXACT thing as is described here. I've had this one quite a number of years so I suppose I am lucky that it is just now doing this. It is a PCG-F160.

Here's what to do to fix the problem: Just copy and past into your URL this address and follow the steps:
http://www.physik.uni-freiburg.de/~zwerger/cip/Vaio/indexeng.htm

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

Mike H — 2007-12-12T07:53:23-05:00

I recently got a Sony VAIO FX220 donated by a friend. After some time, it would start up only intermittently. You never knew when it would start or not. After tearing it apart several times I finally found the problem. There is a very small shut down switch under where the latch is when you close it that was sticking in the down position. Since it was stuck it would not allow the laptop to start. I didn't know it was there as I am in the habit of shutting down before I close the laptop. I hope this helps someone with the same problem. I wonder how many people junked their FX series laptop just because the switch got stuck!!

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

Elana N — 2007-09-20T20:44:23-05:00

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-A160 that will not boot up. It just shows a black screen with a blinking curser. Also there is a little light on that has never been there before and i cant shut it off. Can anybody help??? Im getting ready to throw it out of the window!!

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

Ken Wilson — 2007-03-23T14:33:18-05:00

Well, I did indeed have the SODIMM problem described on:

http://vaioshutdown.com/sodimm.html

So I guess I'll need to send it to them for repair - has anyone sent their laptop to them for repair and is pleased with the service/ experience?

I can solder, and that's what looks like needs to be done - but of course don't want to damage the motherboard further..... What prevents this problem from reoccuring once it's repaired?

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

Ken Wilson — 2007-03-22T15:12:46-05:00

I am having the EXACT same problem as posted below.

I have model# PCG-8C4L, but I believe this is also referred to as PCG-GRX520 by Sony.

I guess I will try to fix it as mentioned below, but I have my doubts as not even an external monitor will show a picture... I suspect the video card is fried - no warning or problematic usage prior! It was working fine for surfing the net one minute, then the next minute BLACK SCREEN. Rebooting, etc do nothing to remedy the situation - although the power light comes on and the dvd drive spins on boot-up.

I'm guessing the video card is integrated into the motherboard, so I'll need a new motherboard? NICE!

*edit* After reading Tom's post above, I found his link and this sounds like exactly my problem:

http://vaioshutdown.com/sodimm.html

I guess I'll try his diagnostic and see!!!

Oguz Ileri said:

Guys,sorry to hear your problems but after many hours and days of research work for the same approximate problem;the closest Icame to was:
Board ground contact problem,the area that gets effected is the blower fan cage,that is torqued by(probably inch pounds)or turns .I'm sure any of you that have been below the keyboard might have noticed the holes where the mounting screws go in have numbers indicating so.
My "Sony" which I passionetly hate now,did the same thing in one year to be exact.Ofcourse through telephone conversations thru tech help all I got was main Board or the usual $300 or $700 answer.
After obtaining another motherboard (which was extremly hard for a good price),I had the same exact problem.You guys are lucky cause your computer comes on intermittenly.Mine went blank as I was working on it,tried to turn it back on came on with blank screen,(power led on/fan on\though no post)hd whirs then shuts down,cd/dvd will spin.
By the way mine is aPCG FX 270.I even talked one of the technical support guys to okay for a shop manul purchase through Sony Parts after explaning to him the all the trouble shooting I did including display,inverter,power board etc,only trouble was after I received the shop manual finding out that there is a diagnostic software to be acquired thru Sony for their use which ofcourse they would not sell me. Back to "0"
The info I gathered about the ground fault was thru a tech friend working at a very busy downtown shop.If any body has gone far enough you will notice each screw has a brass mounting bushing and a different spring tension.The harness connector to display,ground cable also mounts on the fan cage,if ground faulty there with no load from display,will also cause power problems.My theory is that with time and usage,as rinky dink as the cooling system is the screws with spring tension,back off,or cause intermitten ground disconnects.Feel free to add your comments please.I too use to be a Sony fan till I opened the inside,as far as I'm concerned there is nothing worth $700.

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

Juan Abreu — 2007-02-25T14:26:25-05:00

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it and it worked. Hopefully, it continues to work. If this doesn't continue to work I'm trying the shrink wrap suggestion next.

REX Stetson said:

Sort of.

Me and another guy at work have a VAIO and they both went out at the same time. We developed a nice workaround that is really SIMPLE for those times when they won't boot up no matter what:

HERE IS THE SOLUTION

Press on the bottom square panel (where the memory is) while restarting.
Starts right up for both of us every time.!

Inspired by the insulator and post-it note suggestions, but we couldn't find a screwdriver.

Good luck.
Let the forum know if this works for others!

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook PCG GRZ630

John Day — 2006-12-22T14:36:14-05:00

Does anyone have this model and are you experiencing multiple problems?

Here are a few of mine:

Overheating
Won't boot up
Lights flicker or displays only the battery light but machine is on (no screen)
Clicking noises when booting
Blue screen and or sometimes no screen

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

Goncalo Silva — 2006-12-01T15:45:11-05:00

Same thing here.
My model is the very, very expensive (almost 3.000 USD) pcg-8q4m... it ceased working about 1,5yrs after acquisition... was on my 2year guarantee... sent it to Sony... came back once with the same problem... sent it again... they changed the hard disk (and with it all my information and work files gone!!)...
Today, 2 months thereafter, it broke again... lost my work again... back at sony, but even if it comes back alright, I can not trust it anymore... cannot afford working on something and losing it again... you never know when it will happen, how many hours work it will cost you... and you cannot create a backup all the time, only now and then... THEY REALLY, REALLY SUCK... AND THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO ONE YOU CAN SPEAK TO WITH THEIR LOUSY, LOUSY CUSTOMER SERVICE... I WILL NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM SONY AGAIN!!! BELIEVE ME!!!

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

Mahesh Mantri — 2006-11-09T18:22:10-05:00

Thanks everyone for posting their problems and solutions.
I had VGN-FS790 which stopped working all of a sudden. It refused to turn on. No LEDs, no indication. I even tried changing battery.

Finally came accross solution posted by Srini Mag. And it worked. I opened the laptop's bottom cover, under the keybord, placed a screwdriver and swiched it on. And it now started working fine.

Thanks a lot Srini for posting this valuable information!

Pressing on the SODIMM slots only works if there is contact with the mother board

Tom Pappas — 2006-10-26T18:34:45-05:00

In the degenerate condition, there is actually daylight between the socket pins and the solder traces. In this case, it might start with pressure, but will quit as soon as the pressure is released.

Best to get it re-soldered by someone who knows what he's doing. We've done hundreds of these repairs.

Tom

http://www.vaioshutdown.com

PRESS ON IT

Sam Szabo — 2006-10-26T15:08:10-05:00

OK I had to register for this forum just to say the suggestion of PRESSING ON THE LAPTOP WHILE BOOTING is AWESOME

Was getting just a blinking cursor (?!) after the splash screen. BIOS would come up if I held F2 but it wouldn't boot from HD, CD or floppy. Classic bad memory issue.

So I read about pressing on the laptop below the keybord while booting, I was all "well it can't hurt" and guess what it worked!!!

my PCG-FX270K is about 6 years old, apparently I've been lucky with few problems with it so far. But apparently Sony's master design is still in effect, maybe this is the beginning of the end....

thanks all

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

Tom Pappas — 2006-10-12T04:53:32-05:00

david thomas -

Adding pressure to the memory sockets is dangerous, because it puts pressure on other things besides the sockets, which can cause the mother board to fail.

The real solution is to have the slots re-soldered by an experienced technician.

Tom Pappas
http://www.vaioshutdown.com

Re: Sony VAIO Notebook won't start ... often

david thomas — 2006-10-11T18:06:31-05:00

Have had same issue with intermittent power failure, shutdown, and after checking RAM on a whim, saw that it was only seeing half of the RAM. Upon further investigation (different combinations of RAM [luckily I had an extra 256 chip to test with]) and checking Crucial's website, and running their analyzer, narrowed it down to the #2 slot as well.

Tried booting while pressing the #2 chip, and the computer saw all the memory. I have replaced the cover now with the handy cardboard suggested by a few already and it works like a charm. Will invest in the heat shrink soon...

Amazing the help you can find on the internet - thanks to all!

I think I know the problem and the solution for "Vaio does not turn on" issue

Srini Mag — 2006-10-06T17:46:52-05:00

Guys,

I had the same problem with my Sony Vaio VGN FS 730w last Monday. Luckily mine is within warranty period so the service guy came to my place to fix it for free.

Issue I had: As of Monday morning, my sony Vaio did not turn on. I tried both with and without battery, but no use. Then I called Sony Tech support, they walked me through the troubleshooting procedure. but still it did not turn on. When I say 'did not turn on', I did not even see any lights, noteven once.

The Problem: The notebook comes with a small, delicate rubber kind latch attached to the mother board. It is located somewhere close the memory slot and between the lower cover of the laptop and the mother board. When you close your LCD monitor, this latch gets bent activating the 'Hybernate' process. In my case the latch got stuck (in bending position) even after I opened the monitor. So the system thought the monitor is closed so it did not respond when I clicked the power button.

The solution: The tech support guy used the screw driver to create some space between the lower cover of the laptop and the mother board. This released the latch. Holding the screw driver in that position he clicked the power button and it turned on. Then he took out the screw driver. Since then my laptop is working fine.

Note: Please use this technique at your own risk.

Let me know if you guys have any questions.