Hardware Analysis - Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Laptop Willie — 2008-11-13T20:36:53-05:00

Rolebama,
I have also been in electronics for many years. At last count over 50years. I have also repaired a many laptop with poor solder joints. Your assertion that sparking, (arcing) is an interruption of current flow is flowed. Arcing is the sudden rush of current caused by the difference of potential between objects. It could be thousands of volts or twelve. Nature wants to equalize the potential difference between the objects. The rush of electrons(current) is nature trying to equalize this difference.

As to the the WD-40. It clearly states, in big white letters,on the can I have in front of me that it is flammable. On the back of the can, is a detailed warning against such usage as is expained here. I do use WD40 for things around the house such as door hinges. I also use it on CPU fan motors. I first spray into a cup and use a small screw driver to apply it to the shaft of the motor. Using it as a spray, on electrical connections is most definitely a hazard. As stated by the makers of WD40.

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Rolebama — 2008-11-13T19:54:52-05:00

Few points I'd like to make: 1. Before buying a cable to connect a Notebook Hard Drive to a Desktop PC, determine whether it is IDE or SATA. These cables are not interchangeable, and a proper 44 to 40-pin adaptor doesn't have to have any pins bent. If it appears not to fit, just use a pin to remove the 'filler' from the female socket. 3. I have been around the engineering, motoring and electronics industry for years, well before the inception of WD40, and I, nor any of my colleagues, have ever heard of WD40 being a fire risk when used with low voltage electrics/electronics. Sparking of a connection, or 'arcing' is caused when current flow is interrupted, therefore connecting a plug and socket will not cause 'arcing' as there is at that moment, no current flow. 4. I have repaired too many Notebook computers where the solder joints at the AC connectors have failed because of poor soldering. Sometimes, just a little flux and a soldering iron are all that are needed.

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Laptop Willie — 2008-11-12T19:58:30-05:00

Thomas,
As a practical matter I highly recommend not using WD40 on your connector. WD40 may, if exposed to a spark, catch fire and cause much damage to the laptop and the persons home. Please don't do it. Any time a power supply is plugged into something, there is a small amount of arcing. this spark can be enough to set the WD 40 a fire. AGAIN PLEASE DON'T DO THIS.

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

thomas penna — 2008-11-12T02:52:20-05:00

What I did was spray a little WD40 on the battery connector (to computer), still didnt work. Then I took out all the screws from the bottom- couldn't figure out how to completely remove keyboard. plugged the battery back in and it worked.

probably WD40 on the connector.

good luck!

ps- no offense to pc users, but my experience with macs is that they are more solid, more reliable, faster & no internet dramas. well worth the extra $

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

j c — 2008-11-03T15:19:02-05:00

hi, i have a ASUS laptop, but now i have the same problem with Bonnie. It won't turn on. Everything was normal.It's a normal day today.
please help me..

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Chetan patel — 2008-08-27T07:12:49-05:00

Laptop just shuts off power completely and it is not starting again even my power cord is not working . I don't know what to do. Anybody over their to help.

I asked all my friends but none of my friend wiht laptops from other companies have this problem.

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Natasha McKenzie — 2008-08-06T10:40:07-05:00

I have a VGN-BX196SP that I have recently had to replace the keyboard on, since then it will not power on unless the top bevel (with the power button and finger print reader on) is umnscrewed, which then allows it to turn on. Another way to get it to turn on is to gently apply a slight twist to the the base near where the power button is and it will then power on with no problem. There is obviously a short somehwere near the power button, but darned if I can find it.
I will be advising anyone who is looking to purchase a laptop to stay well clear of the Vaios as in the past 2 months, I've had to return another 2 under warranty for inferior design defects, one has a developed a warped base, and it's less than a year old. :o" title=">:o">

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

joy domen — 2008-04-29T23:39:37-05:00

I thought I'd share my success with those that are struggling with my same symptoms... I have a Sony Vaio PCG-K35. It has had its issues with getting hot and I have had to change out the AC adapter plug at the back of the laptop (twice). Very poor design by Sony on this model. Anywho... I have a habit of putting my computer on stand-by quite a bit. I find it boots a lot quicker and I will occasionally do a restart through Windows to freshen the system. Software was working fine and I had restarted many times for months on end. I keep my charger in all the time (though I have to wiggle cord sometimes to ensure charger connection). I'm adding all this in just in case it's useful.

Well... I decided the other day that I should just shut my laptop all the way down since I wouldn't be using it for several days. That was a mistake. When I went to power up I hit the power switch and got no response. No lights, no fans, no nuttin. Okaaaay, check cables, wiggle AC cord, try a spare AC cord, do the whole "hold the button down for 15 seconds" scenario, remove battery and try to start with just AC.... nope, nuttin. I even removed the CMOS battery.

I thought about it a bit and found it odd that I had been able to repeatedly put it on stand by and could press the space bar to bring it to life, yet full shutdown, which depended on the power button itself, was not working. The button "clicked" just fine, but wouldnt' power up. I opened the top panel to inspect the power button and found that the little electrical ribbon tape that runs from the power switch to the motherboard looked mighty rough. One end had a crooked line run accross the connectors, like it got seated crooked at some point. I reseated it at both ends (several times). Still, nothing. I prayed to God my motherboard wasn't failed and dreaded the thought of my only copy of last year's taxes being on this computer.... As one last desperate attempt I unplugged both ends of the ribbon from the power switch and the motherboard and "rolled out the ribbon" (to reflatten), then swapped ends. Voila! Houston we have lift off!! Of course I'm not taking any chances shutting her down until I get my files copied and I am buying a replacement ribbon for about $25 bucks (which I found here: http://www.impactcomputers.com/1-830-249-11.html#). I still don't have any lights when it powers on, but I don't care, I have a working computer! Maybe the lights will work with the new ribbon?

I searched high and low on the internet for something about this ribbon tape and how to test it or check it. I didn't find much reference. This might be a common problem that's been overlooked? Maybe my experience will somehow help someone else. Best of luck!

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Ravish Sehgal — 2007-08-12T16:34:15-05:00

Hey Guys i m new in this grp n i m glad to c this grp...
now d point is i've PCG series Laptop...wat happened is 1st it went dead a few days
ago n then i left it like this only n then after few days i switched it on n with god's grace
i was amazed to c that it started working.....n then wen i shifted it from my Lap to its
table it got hibernated.....now whenener i switch it on it gets ON wen as soon as it gets on
n then after booting it again get HIBERNATE immidiately...can anyone suggets wat d problem is.....?

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Andrew Klaus — 2005-07-12T01:01:04-05:00

My PCG-F340 stopped working the other day. It wouldn't evoke any kind of response whatsoever so I methodically took it apart and inspected it carefully, tested the power supply to the motherboard with a voltmeter and made sure the connections were okay. I finally got it to start. the lights went on, the hard drive and cd-rom kicked in and started to sound like it was booting up, but it hasn't been able to get past the sony logo screen and the bottom half of the display flickers.

I thought at least I was getting somewhere, but the next day it decided not to start again. Some more tinkering and I found it was the CMOS battery (looks like a watch battery) - on the underside of the laptop that can be found behind a panel held down by 2 screws. If you take this battery out and replace it, or just let it sit on a table for a while and put it back in again, you will reset the power to the motherboard and should be able to at least start your computer from here.

I think my problems stem a little deeper, so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know, but hopefully this will help a few people.

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Blacktop Traveler — 2005-06-27T08:48:19-05:00

I have experienced the same thing with my PEG370...

The problem started after two years of use. It died, and then after I left it be for a month or so, it was finally resurected. But after that it would only run for a few hours max before loud banging from the hard drive and it would die again.

I tried a lot of fixes including opening the unit and running a small fan over the CPU to help keep it cool.

After a while, I decided to try to replace the hard drive. That fixed the problem... For five months. Just a minute ago, it shut itself down again.

My solution. Never buy Sony again.

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Tom Pappas — 2005-05-31T04:06:28-05:00

Eric's computer is exhibiting the classic symptoms of a SODIMM (memory) socket failure. We have fixed this problem in several hundred computers.

Tom Pappas

http://www.vaioshutdown.com

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Eric Doelitzsch — 2005-05-30T07:28:13-05:00

yah I have a PCG-GRX 560 and I believe I have the same exact problems as you guys but whenever I turn on the computer I get green power light but my screen doesn't turn on and I don't hear my computer boot or anything also whenever i look under my laptop i see that my fan kicks in and then dies (stops spinning). I've talked to many of my friends and we've come to believe that the processor is overheating. I think that this could be because of dust buildup, crappy fan, etc. I haven't had the time to open it up and check the inside yet but I would recommend you guys to open it up (carefully and static free) and clean it up of any dust build-up and check for any loose wires and maybe get a new fan?. Hopefully this will make it work? I blame the lame processor or mobo or also the poor air flow in the laptop. But i'll still love sony!

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, no lights at all

Elisha Schaefer — 2005-05-16T00:05:08-05:00

My friend has a VAIO PCG-Z1A which went through a series of complications this last week. First, it posted and said there was no operating system found. He tried to use the Windows CD to recover, then tried various diagnostics for the system and the hard drive and nothing worked. Finally, it stopped starting up at all, pressing the power button did nothing even after unplugging both AC and battery and letting it sit for a while. He had me take a crack at it and we opened up the case to find that the small 10-12 connector FFC cable that went from the power switch to the motherboard had pulled itself out of the connector on the mobo, for some reason. When we plugged that in, the computer started up, but registered a Fixed Disk Failure. I tried booting from the optical drive with the XP cd but the screen stayed blank. We opened it up again and poked around with the hard drive. There was nothing obviously wrong, so we reseated the connectors but no dice. He's out of warranty, so tech support was going to charge him $20 for telling him anything beyond that it sounded like a connection problem. Is there anything more immediate than buying the little desktop 40-pin IDE adaptor to figure out if the hard drive is bad? There is no sound from it at all when the computer starts up, no clicking that would indicate a bad drive. Conversely, is there a pinout anywhere of the 44-pin interface so I could jury-rig it with a spare IDE cable and molex connector? Thanks.

Re: Sony vaio won't turn on - no power, some lights.

K Elliott — 2005-05-09T20:06:07-05:00

My three year old vaio PCG-GRX560 seems to be having the same problem that the others have mentioned. For the past year it has refused to hibernate. Now I have trouble turning it on. The power LED turns green I get a brief orange power light, then nothing happens. Usually I can get it going after about 6-10 attempts. I've tried both batteries while plugged in, both without it plugged in, without the batteries and plugged in. It seems like it probably has to do with the motherboard. Is there an inexpensive way to deal with this. I'm a professor and heavily rely on my computer and do not the money to replace it. Any suggestions?