Problem with Hardware Radio Switch on Sony VGN-FW270J

Hi,
I hope someone out there has encountered the issue i'm having.

The wireless switch doesn't work; indication light won't turn on. Tried Smartwifi, kept prompting me to turn on the hardware switch. This also measn I can't use the bluetooth. Spoke with sony support for hours and all they could tell me is to send it for repair. I'm out of warranty. Device manager doesnt report any problem with the driver. I updated the bios. I restored settings to factory default. Nothing worked.

I decided to open it up to see if i can replace the wifi board myself. But when i did get into the motherboard, it seems the wifi is internal and the hardware radio switch is broken. I checked out other motherboard photos with the same model and i noticed that there should be a tiny piece of plastic sticking out near the wifi part, next to the sd card slot.

Has anyone ever successfully or "magically" able to physically turn on a broken wireless hardware switch? Is there any software switch to bypass the hardware?

I'd appreciate any input on this.

This is the picture I took of the hardware switch.


Thanks in advance!

 

Can you post a picture of what it SHOULD look like? How many connections are there on the switch? I know it is a two position switch, but am curious as to how many poles. Where am I going with this? If it is just a simple one pole single throw switch you should be able to just bridge the two connections on it to permanently turn the switch on.

Gary

 

Hi Gary,
Thanks for your response. This is actual fw270j motherboard which somewhat shows the switch, albeit a bit blurry. [encircled in red] I believe this is a one pole single throw switch. How is one able to bridge the connections? I'm rather used to having the wifi card separate from the motherboard. This is the first time i've encountered this type.

Char

 

The picture is much to small to discern anything. But if this is a simple single pole single throw switch then there are only two connections and to bridge them you'd simply solder a small bit of wire between them. Then the switch would be always on. Certainly not an elegant solution, but effect nonetheless.

The other thing is, now that you have it apart are you not able to slide the switch into the ON position with a small screwdriver or blade and leave it that way?

Gary

 

I'm not quite sure i'm brave enough to do the soldering part :/

This is a different angle of the switch:


It does look like I could somehow move it. I'm just not very familiar with this. Too much fear in the unknown, i guess. As soon as I saw it was physically broken, I immediately put it all back together, thinking there was nothing else I can do. [also wanted to reassemble while it was still fresh in my mind] I thought of just buying a wireless expresscard. I might open it back again if I could get some more info regarding this.

 

Well not being able to see what an unbroken one looks like, it it hard to say for sure but I think what has broken off is a plastic bit at the red arrow in the photo in the attachment. If so you should be able to just slide the remaining bit of plastic to the left and the switch should be in the on position.

Gary

 

Found some photos:





What do you think!?! I hope you are right indeed.

 

Perfect! Yes all you need to do is slide what remains of the plastic switch into the "on" position. On you model I don't know if it is to the left or to the right. But since it is not on now, I would venture a guess that you need to slide it to the opposite position. Unless the internals of the switch are broken, then that should "fix" it for you. The wireless will always be on, but better than always off...right?

Gary

P.S. if that does not work because the internals of the switch are broken. You can always resort to my original suggestion of bridging the connections. If you aren't comfortable with soldering it, maybe you have a friend who is. This would not be hard at all for someone who knows how to solder.

 

Looking at the last set of photos, the top one seems to show 7 connections on the switch. I am guessing that four of those (the two on the left and two on the right) are inactive and just used to mechanically hold it in place. Can you verify that?

Gary

 

Hey Gary,
I just finished disassembling and reassembling my laptop. Success! :] so far so good. The bluetooth is also functioning as well. [am using it right now] Although when i turned bluetooth off, the WLAN went went it too. Had to reboot to get the wireless back. Thank you for talking me through it. Appreciate it!

Char

 

I'm not 100% sure but it looks like the four connections on both sides seem to be there just to hold it in place. I"m not really an expert when it comes to mobo :/

 

So you were able to slide the switch into the correct position then? Great news. At least it is functional again!

Gary