Dead Vaio

Hi. Can anybody help?

I have a Vaio VGN-N11M which is dead - it doesn't power up at all, no lights come on when the powerpack is plugged in. The powerpack is good (tested and tried an alternative one) and I've tried fitting a new battery to the machine.

I took it to a local repair shop and they suggested it would cost £250 to repair and recommended not to bother. (They sell very nice Acers and Toshibas...)

I do electronics and have tools but don't know how to get the hood up - I've taken out all the screws I can get to including those above the DVD drawer unit but the keyboard does not hinge up; something is holding it down at the back. I can't even open it far enough to extract the HDD.

Anybody got dismantling instructions (or other suggestions) to move me forward?

Thanks for your help!

 

For dissassembly guides read the sony notebook forum sticky.

Having taken apart a couple of laptops, including my vaio, i think you probably have to remove the sheet of plastic just above the keypad.
There may also be screws on the back of your notebook to release this.

Just curious, what did the repair tech's say was the problem?

 

Thanks. I had a look at the forum you linked to but couldn't find instructions that matched the style of our Vaio.

The repair shop said that they had seen quite a few failures of Vaios like this and that the failure was normally the power supply circuit inside the machine - they implied this was a seperate circuit board - and that the replacement board was over £100 so with labour it would cost over £200! On top of that they wanted £50 to dismantle it to investigate. Bearing in mind the cost of new laptops - admittedly not pretty Sonys - this seems like a waste of money.

However if there's a cheaper way to fix it my daughter will be thrilled (it's her machine).

 

This guide might be what your looking for (just had a quick google )

 

Brilliant - that's the one! Maybe I can get to the bottom of the problem now.

(I had tried googling it but didn't find this)

Many thanks!


Richard

 

I have established that the power is getting to the motherboard (albeit intermittently, but I could deal with the DC connector easily enough if I could get the rest of the machine sorted out).

However, no power reaches the battery - so presumably there's a fault on the motherboard in whatever power regulator/voltage convertor circuitry is there. I haven't got a circuit diagram of course - and even if I did all the components are tiny surface mount technology.

I guess that the 'official' way to fix it would be to change the motherboard - but I have no idea where to get one or what the cost would be. I assume that the processor etc are all OK.

Maybe fixing this machine is not such a great idea...

 

This thread might answer some of your questions.

If you don't want to read throug it, it would basically cost this person $1129 to replace their mobo and you would have to get sony to do it

 

Wanna try replace them yourself?
eBay is your friend.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-VAIO-N130G-VGN-N-MBX-160-A1246282A-motherboard_W0QQitemZ160231830831QQihZ006QQcategoryZ60265QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-VGN-N-SERIES-LAPTOP-MOTHERBOARD-A1217327A_W0QQitemZ190179866297QQihZ009QQcategoryZ60265QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

Please refer to part number of your motherboard before ordering.
If you can't find the right mobo on eBay, try searching this forum for Sony Parts Dealer website. They might have it.

Best of luck.