Sony Vaio FW - completely dead?

[RangerCoaster]

I need help from a greater mind! I'm completely stumped.

I have a Sony Vaio FW that appears to be dead. It doesn't boot. It doesn't appear to charge (not even a charging light) and shows absolutely not sign of life.

It did have some issues leading up to this. Sometimes I'd have to sit for a few minutes pushing the power button, take out the battery, (the obvious fixes) reconnect everything, repeat.. until it'd finally spring into action. But now nothing I do helps... so some things I've tried;

Leaving it on charge for a while. No difference.

I've checked the power cable and it seems ok. If I listen very closely and connect the cable, I hear a very quiet buzz as you'd expect if power was getting to the laptop. The PSU on the charger cable is also lit. I'd say this is a good charger cable.

I've stripped it down completely and reseated everything I could. I'm a desktop guy and really don't know laptops too well but this could have worked, right? Nothing is appears to be damaged or have popped.

I took out the power jack but it seems completely fine too. Besides, if it's making that quiet buzz then power is actually getting into the laptop right?

Any ideas?

Thanks for reading!

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Uhmm if you hear a 'buzz' then there is a electrical discharge (short) somewhere on the Mobo and the Mobo is DOA. You can salvage the RAM and HDD, depending on the model (older RAM wont' work on newer laptops, and if the HDD is a standard 5400RPM then isn't worth keeping with how cheap new HDDs are) but yeah toss the lappy.

 

[RangerCoaster]

Uhmm if you hear a 'buzz' then there is a electrical discharge (short) somewhere on the Mobo and the Mobo is DOA. You can salvage the RAM and HDD, depending on the model (older RAM wont' work on newer laptops, and if the HDD is a standard 5400RPM then isn't worth keeping with how cheap new HDDs are) but yeah toss the lappy.

The buzz is so quiet the room has to be silent and you need your ear right by it. Are you completely sure that means a short? It doesn't sound unlike the kind of "power buzz" you'd get from any other device.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

You shouldn't hear any buzz, a buzz is normally electricity or a ultra quiet fan. But your stating nothing is getting powered. If you took out the battery and just worked off wall power (like a desktop) your still not getting anything. So these repeated steps all prove, yes this is a dead system and needs to be replaced.

 

[RangerCoaster]

You shouldn't hear any buzz, a buzz is normally electricity or a ultra quiet fan. But your stating nothing is getting powered. If you took out the battery and just worked off wall power (like a desktop) your still not getting anything. So these repeated steps all prove, yes this is a dead system and needs to be replaced.

Thanks for the info Tom!

It's a real shame it's properly knackered though 🙁

 

[jarotech]

Hi, verify the voltage coming out of the adapter, it's written on the adapter itself. After we will see.

 

[RangerCoaster]

jarotech, I just checked. The adapter is labeled as 19.5 and it's kicking out a very steady 19.4. Sadly the problem isn't with probably one of the cheapest thing's to replace!

Anymore ideas?

 

[jarotech]

You said you took out the power jack, do you have four wires from the jack to the motherboard, and at the jack, what voltage do you read?

 

[RangerCoaster]

Four wires? No there's just 2, red/black (well, and earth). The reading at every point including from the rear of the socket connected directly to the mobo is 19.4 all the way.

There's a problem with the mobo isn't there 🙁

 

[jarotech]

You can verify something, take out the motherboard, connect the adapter and try to find where the buzzing sound is coming from. Maybe you will find the defective part, who knows.

 

[RangerCoaster]

There is definitely power getting all over the motherboard. Keeping positive probe on the positive wire at the power jack I get good readings all over the mobo by touching the neg probe on certain points.

Again, that noise isn't really a noise so to speak. You have to be going out of your way to even know it's there. But I'll try to hunt down where it's coming from.

 

[jarotech]

I could help you if I find the schematics, what model do you have? And for the noise, if you touch the parts with your finger, maybe you will sense some vibrations.

 

[RangerCoaster]

I could help you if I find the schematics, what model do you have? And for the noise, if you touch the parts with your finger, maybe you will sense some vibrations.

It's a PCG-3H1M.

The sound seems to be coming from http://s22.postimg.org/yhx2mvf8x/vaio.jpg there (this isn't my actual mobo, so if anything on there screams BROKEN, it's not mine.) but I'm telling you that noise is nothing more than a slight squeal of electricity in a device. I'd put money on that not being the problem.

 

[jarotech]

I can't find any informations, no schematics, no service guide. It's difficult to find informations about Sony laptops. Sorry, you need to replace the motherboard.

 

[Motoxyogi]

Your power input port might be broken, a know issue with the FW series.
Happened to mine when it got dropped and the small plastic centre piece broke off

 

[Pankaj Goyal]

@RangerCoaster...did you finally find some solution. I am facing the exact same problem with my sony vaio. No sighn of life just a very very low buzz...

 

[Tom Tancredi]

@RangerCoaster...did you finally find some solution. I am facing the exact same problem with my sony vaio. No sighn of life just a very very low buzz...

ANSWER: You need to buy a new laptop. If there is no 'high end needs' then a simple $249 one at Walmart is all you need for you. Otherwise buying something more powerful will be very costly depending on the 'needs' you want from it to perform.

 

[Pankaj Goyal]

FINALLY. FOUND PROBLEM and SOLUTION. Successfully broght it back to life (twice). Here is my story.

I was using Ubuntu. The battery care feature in sony was the main culprit. Its buggy. Its value was somehow automatically taken to 0 by the system and it refuses to start. If its value is reset to 100 somehow, the machine becomes stable. But the main challenge is how to set its value in a dead machine.

Heads up! you need to be really patient in the process and the process needs to be done in a quiet place. By enourmous amount of fiddling, here is what I did to start the machine.

1. Removed the battery. Plugged in the power chord.
2. Listen to the buzz carefully. Pressed power button for 1-3 seconds and released, repeated the 1-3 seconds press and release for many times observing the buzz sound. If there is some disruption in the buzz sound, chances of machine bootup is high. Kept pressing intermittently while the buzz disrupt (every half seconds or so), machine started but again dead in couple of seconds. Kept trying and after some boot and dead, It gave me enough time to change the battery care limit.
3. Once its started temporarily, opened terminal, edited "/sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/battery_care_limiter" with 100, saved and rebooted.
4. Machine restored. For future, I have removed Ubuntu and now I am relying on windows. I hope it doesn't happen in windows as it didn't for more than a year.

@RangerCoaster...did you finally find some solution. I am facing the exact same problem with my sony vaio. No sighn of life just a very very low buzz...

ANSWER: You need to buy a new laptop. If there is no 'high end needs' then a simple $249 one at Walmart is all you need for you. Otherwise buying something more powerful will be very costly depending on the 'needs' you want from it to perform.