Hard drive removal - Sony Vaio VGN-NS110E (model PCG-7142L)

I have been trying to locate a service manual to safely remove a faulty hard drive from my Sony Vaio VGN-NS110E. I was able to remove the keyboard, touchpad connector, power connector, and speaker plug, but I am not sure how the palmrest comes off to get to the hard drive. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Regards,

Adam

 

Should there just be a panel on the bottom that screws off? I'm not familiar with this model of laptop, but I know that most would have what I have just described.

 

The panel on the bottom of the laptop is for the memory modules. It would have been nice if their was a panel on the bottom to access the hard drive, but that would be too easy. Any other suggestions?

Regards,

Adam

 

Yes, don't buy another Sony. What kind of monkey business is that? You have to open the laptop to get at it? I've got the magazine articles (and view the youtube videos) that says HD and memory are the easier things to change on a laptop. If Sony made that complicated for some reason, there certainly no reason for them too.

In any event, maybe you could post a pic or two. That might someone a point of reference so they could give you a hand? If it;s any consultation, I have to upgrade my HD as well. I've already ordered the Hitachi 320 gb because it was recommended by the members here. I certainly hope there are no surprises with the panels.

I did manage to replace my keyboard with a lighted one, but I was totally unprepared for the complexity HP made me go through just to make this so simple an upgrade. It took me 3 hours because the made the bezel virtually impossible to remove without damaging the it or the laptop. A few strategically placed screws or clamps could have made it a 15 minute affair. Laptop manufactures need to be ashamed of themselves.

 

You should be able to find everything you need for the NS via Sony's eSupport site. Here's the link for your model:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=VGNNS110E

 

And don't forget to report back if you don't mind. I for one would like to see how all this turns out. After all, Sony is still in the laptop business!!

 

Since you have to remove the motherboard to get to the hard drive, then it's going to void the warranty.

Geez, how stupid is that? You have to remove the motherboard to get to hard drive. BOTH the hard drives in my laptop are removable by two panels on the bottom.

 

Sony isn't alone in this, and you can't really blame them. They figure that 95% of consumers probably aren't going to upgrade the laptop after they buy it (correct assumption - users on NBR are more technically adept than the bulk of the computing population), and so optimize the layout of the parts to make their laptops as slim as possible.

My old Averatec also had an exceedingly difficult hard drive replacement procedure, and even opening the case to add RAM would void the warranty

 

I have replaced the hard drives in my Sony AW a couple of times with no problems. This must be an older model notebook.

Just didn't want folks to get the impression all Sony's were like this.

 

The laptop is approximately 3 years old and no longer has warranty.

Do you think Sony would provide details as to the hard drive removal process if I emailed them via eSupport? I really don't have much more options at this time, and don't want to pay a service company to replace something I can tackle myself.

Regards,

Adam

 

If the eSupport material doesn't have the info you need, I'd recommend pursuing multiple avenues; send them an email and call Sony support.

 

Of course, at a cost!

 

The NS series looks very similar with the NR series. Turn off all power, turn the laptop upside-down, remove the battery and remove the memory upgrade panel. I did not have any problem replacing the HDD. I had to remove 19 screws if I'm correct, the two top screws close to the hinges are slightly different, so don't mix 'em up with the other ones. Sony marks all screws that have to be removed for disassembly with an arrow like this => so make sure you get them all. Don't force any component out of its place, check all the way around it and see what's holding the component in place. Good luck!

 

I know this is an old thread, and I'm sure that you've found a solution already... But, I run into issues with VAIOs on a regular basis in my shop. I have yet to run into one that requires me to remove any additional hardware, other than the casing itself... There is a total of 25 screws to be removed on your particular model, two of which being larger at the hinge, two smaller directly under the battery, and one on the RAM casing... The post above mine is relatively accurate in the description, so please take these two posts together and you should be good to go... If any of you guys have any questions about other models, drop me an e-mail, I take pride in helping others with problems that I've faced...

 

Thanks PRO-PC! I need to get to the motherboard of the PCG7142L. What you said about the 25 srews will be heplful. One of my kids destroyed the power connector and I have to replace it. Any suggestions on where I can get one? Sony Canada is not very interested, Best Buy wants $350.00 to do the job. It ain't worth it.

 

You can buy the jack from ebay or other sites.

 

Kind of a pain just to swap out a HDD on this model, but on the bright side you don't have to take the whole laptop apart to get at the CPU as it's right there once the back cover is off. I'm upgrading the same model for a coworker at the moment. Putting in 3GB vs 2GB, Momentus XT and a T5550 at a cost of $100CDN for her.