What went wrong? Laptop didn't work. Put in new battery, now it works.

Hi everyone,

I was about to buy an m1330, when my r600 vaio supposedly died.

This is what happened:
I had the machine on for a little while, then i turned it off (this was about a month ago+). Tried turning it on again and nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. The AC adapter didn't power the laptop on its own, it didn't charge the battery, there was no life in it in any combination. So I presumed the mobo was dead, and was about to send it in for a £25 diagnose check.

I came back yesterday, and brought my extra battery along (a very huge one) as I had left it at home (norway). When I came back I put in the big battery, and voila the machine booted, no problems. The AC adapter is now even charging the other battery which I thought was dead (along with the mobo, because the AC didn't run the computer on its own).

Now everything seems to be working fine, what went wrong?

To sum things up:
1) Computer did not respond with old battery or ac adapter (the ac adapter would not charge the old battery either).
2) I put in the new big battery, and now the ac adapter is able to charge both batteries, AND run the machine WITHOUT a battery.

I am really truely baffled here, is this a one off and is the computer liable to 'die' again?

 

Hmm.. strange.. maybe it needed a break

On a more serious note…., it could have been a loose connection (charger or the power jack of the notebook)

 

I'm just scared it'll do it again. It really doesn't make sense as the old battery suddenly drained, and the ac wouldn't charge the unit on it's own... hmpf.

 

If the VAIO was off for a month then the CMOS battery (a small pill battery used for the BIOS) may have died. Check to see that it still has some juice in it. Replace it if necesary.

Whoops, nevermind. I noticed that you swapped batteries. Sorry.

 

The point is, it was off for a month and THEN it worked, does that mean it rechraged the CMOS battery when i replaced the regular laptop battery?

 

I don't know if CMOS batteries are rechargable. That could be a feature for laptops though.

 

Hmm, so if the cmos battery had died, the whole laptop would not function?

 

No, it wouldn't. A computer needs the CMOS to "remember" the system time and settings for the BIOS; and to boot up, the computer needs its BIOS to initialize a boot-up sequence.

 

maybe it was feeling iffy. lol if the laptop was off for a month i wouldve sent mine for a replacement. maybe it was your outlet that was the problem

 

Do you have the laptop manual? I remember my Toshiba A70 manual talking about how long the laptop could be left off for.

 

Hmm, don't have the manual unfortunately... I really have no idea what was wrong, i was also sure the AC adapter was on as it was somewhat warm when i tried charging it... Oh well, it works now, and it better work for my next gig!

 

Oh ok, do you reckon a repair centre can fix a loose connection? If it's on the laptop's side?

 

They can but it might be costly. See if they will give you an estimate first.

 

The laptop will still boot up even without the cmos battery if it is working pc with help of ac adaptor or battery. Now, try this to diagnose: jiggle the plug on dc jack when it is on, when you see the led indicator of the battery is off and on it means the dc jack is loose or maybe the plug wire itself.