SZ Vaio battery won't charge

My Sony SZ died today and I wondered if someone could give me some advise? I cannot return the SZ because I bought it in Japan, and now live in Europe.

Symptons:

* Battery won't charge.

* Unit won't run straight off the A/C mains with the battery unplugged.
(I don't know if this was possible before because I've never had to test it. I know that Acer laptops can do this).

* When the SZ booted wile there was still power left in the battery both the Battery and Power LEDs would flash continiously at the same time as each other.

I am using the Kensington 120W universal power adaptor. (The original power brick is in a boat floating across the Atlantic Ocean for the next couple of months.) The Kensington unit looks OK and the blue light is on. I haven't tried sticking my tongue on the end of it to check if its really providing current...

The battery model # is VGP-BPS2C, which, as far as I know wasn't the ones that were recalled...

SZ model # is SZ90PS, which is one of the first Core Duo T2600 units.

Has anyone got any clues?

Regards,
Z.

 

I sometimes find that my battery stops charging - if I then jiggle my connector to the left and right I can get charging to start (the charging icon appears). For my case, it appears to be a faulty internal connection - I have yet to do anything about it as I need my laptop. Don't know if that is what is ailing you.

Good luck

visitor

 

DONT USE THE KENSINGTON!! it fried my dc input on my sz140p, i had to send it back to sony to replace the entire motherboard. but they ended up replacing my cpu, side panels, rubber feet, and more for free! manufacture warranty is great.

the kensington plugs seem to break the dc input jack,(it broke mine) so watch out.

 

my BPS2C just suddenly screwed up after a week of not using it off batteries, called sony HK overseas, directed me to Sony Canada, directed me to extended warranty and had a very bad customer service rep and told me they dont cover it. Ok so my machine is still in warranty period on OVERSEAS and HONG KONG warranty, so now why the hell aint I getting service?

 

It looks like bad customer service issue isn't just in US after all.

 

ok after spending 2hrs+ with customer services (thrown back n forth) im back with Hong Kong customer service and gonna have to get it fixed when im back there. stupid international warranty is useless, im gonna friggen buy hong kong extend and just bring it back when needed to be fixed. thank god skype rates arent that expensive ~_~
time to try glitching my battery to work again (i see that some people got it working that way)

 

I don't know. Bought my SZ90 from Dynamism. Japan has repaired it with no problems - Dynamism deals with it.

And as for the Kensington, I've been using it now for about a year. NO problems. There are different Kensington adapters; if you got the 70W one and not the 120W one, I can see where you'd have a problem. Is it a tad looser than the Sony? Yes, but it is SO much lighter.

 

Dynamism stakes their reputation on their service. There really are not too many electronics companies which do that. I suppose they seel that you are paying for premium componenents, you expect premium service. I am sure there are a few unhappy customers out there, but I have not heard of any.

 

apparently sonys tend to have power jack probs, big-time! I have similar scenerio going on w/Vaio VGN-FJ180--trying to find out if internal power jack is plug in type or soldered in. Anyone have pics of inside of that model--hoping something just came loose as it did happen after being in transit in car.

 

ok ordered a new battery, it was fried/dead/something, had it tested at the Sony Stores. Now im broke cuz all my money from Chinese new year and birthday is there ~_~. but better than no laptop to use on campus
I dont know if my properly tipped Kensington 120Watt fried it anyhow. Shall send the dead battery to a store when im back in HK to see if they can fix it up

 

My SZ battery just started to lose charge about a month ago - it would be 100% charged, but if I went on battery power, it'd immediately drop to 80% or under. I got a new battery and it fixed my issue. It's just the way some batteries are, especially if you use your laptop fairly heavily.

 

im a fairly heavy user, bring it to campus everyday, but take note that my battery is not detected by machines anymore, not simply losing charge

 

I'm having the same problem. The computer things that batteries are no longer there. I've now had it with two batteries, one extended and the other the normal.

First of all, service: When the extended battery failed, because I bought it in the US, I had to get it 'repaired' in the US. Horrible customer service, but in any case (though it specifically said it on the receipt) the battery is only waranteed for 90 days. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Secondly, I've now killed 2 batteries in 9 months of owning the laptop. That's not normal. They are supposed to last 1000 charges or more. Also, it's not like they were losing charge. No, they simply don't register with the computer anymore at all.

Frustrating.

 

Hey everyone,

I've been happily running a Sony VGN-SZ360P for 2 years now, and I just fell into this whole sudden battery death issue too and found this forum. Thanks for all your ongoing posts & contributions. Because of everyone's efforts here, I decided to take time out, sign up, and post here too, especially cuz I was finally and actually able to fix mine.

My Symptoms:
-When plugged in, battery indicator would blink orange for charging. But, even with days being plugged in, the battery wouldn't charge.
-Without the battery, the laptop would refuse to turn on with the AC adapter in.
-I actually had 2 batteries, both of which "suddenly died" at the same time. The second battery still had some juice in it, so I plugged it in and it booted, but then the battery slowly drained to it's death even when the battery meter in Windows said charging.

My Solution:
I figured this out after days of trying various solutions: pulling in & out the battery, cleaning the connectors, called customer service which told me to send it in for 100 and then said it could cost up to another 700 for a fix, and I even took apart the laptop myself just to snoop around. Something interesting happened totally by chance while I was snooping around. When I applied pressure with my fingers to the area around the power button and then pushed the power, it turned on and booted up! This was even without the battery and just the AC adapter which never happened before. But then when I released the pressure, it shut down again.

So, what I figured was that something just wasn't tight enough. So, I just unscrewed, rescrewed, and then tightened all the screws in the back of the laptop underneath the battery (you've gotta' remove the battery for this), and voila, it was all back to normal. This laptop's working like a champ again.

Hope this helps someone out there. I paid an arm and a leg for this thing and I couldn't possibly let Sony cut my neck off too for them to fix it.

 

AMAZING! Here I was trying replacement batteries, then looking at what parts I can order to fix my non existing battery, when all I needed to order was a screw driver! THIS WORKED FOR ME TOO! TIGHTEN THE SCREWS AND THE BATTERY WORKS!

Thanks for posting this! Loose screws seems so insignificant but it was the problem. Thanks again!