Sony VAIO (VGN-CR21S) stone dead - motherboard or power board?

Hi all,

just found my way into these forums whilst searching info about problems with girlfriends laptop:

yesterday morning the Mrs. came to me with a sad face, saying her laptop wouldn't start or do anything. Unfortunately she was correct, it's stone dead. No lights anywhere, nothing happens when pushing power buttons, not a blink or anything anywhere. Doesn't matter if it's on battery only, battery + power supply, or power supply only. Nothing, not even light for charging battery is on.

I've taken it apart and found no obvious signs of damage, no liquid or anything. The laptop pretty much died whilst sat on the kitchen table over night - it was shutdown the evening before (however possibly could've been stuck in the shut down process requiring user confirmation of forced shutdown, like sometimes happens with Windows 7). Power cord was in.

I've tested the power supply PCB somewhat - not quite sure how things work with a laptop, not as straight forward as with regular PC. Isolating the PCB I tested measuring the pins for the battery, nothing there. However when I connect it to the motherboard it does show voltages there, but apparently way too low (compared them to my own VGN-FW machine) - about 1.2V between some pins, whereas my Sony does about 3.3V. Battery is 11.1V for both machines so I'm thinking the voltage on the pins ought to be pretty much identical? Cannot charge a 11.1V machine with roughly 4V in total (measured over the different pins and added up the voltages)? I get around 13-14V in total on my own, for comparison.


So suspecting power supply, but seeing as it's obviously looped through the motherboard it's hard to isolate...


Anybody who has experience with this and knows how to properly error search? I'm thinking one of these options:

1) Power supply board
2) Motherboard
3) CPU


I might add that I've tested with two external power supplies - mine is the same. Might also add that the mrs' power supply appears to shut itself down as soon as it connected to the faulty VAIO (i.e. green light on the PSU itself blacks out and measuring contact there's no 19.5V there anymore - it's there initially). Hooking up her PSU to my laptop it works perfectly fine. Hooking up my PSU to her laptop works fine. But her PSU to her laptop it turns off...

I've just ordered a replacement power board from eBay as I sourced one for roughly £15 inc shipping - worth a try. Think that will solve the problem?

Btw I've also tested the USB that's directly on the power supply board (it's a PWS-60A, for reference) - it doesn't appear to do anything. Should it, without having motherboard connected and PC switched on, merely connecting 19.5V to the contact?


Cheers
//Joris

 

My money is on the power board, sounds like you're going to find out soon enough. As for the usb port on that board, i don't think you'd see power until it's hooked to the mainboard and powered on. The power to the usb ports is controlled by the southbridge.

 

Cheers for the reply - unfortunately I noticed a msg from seller in the payment confirmation that they're on holidays until the 11th

Considering ripping apart my FW11E to have a closer inspection of the Power board in this one, and how it behaves. See if I can learn anything from that... but might be a quite unnecessary risk and exercise.

I'm not quite aware of how the power circuit in a laptop is - in a regular PC it's simple, and a faulty motherboard or CPU would normally still at least result in some sign of life, lights, boot into bios or at least fans spinning up. The laptop is stone dead which in a regular PC would point at PSU, no doubt. But it also appears to be triggered by the motherboard, as shows from the voltages on the battery pins of the power supply board - no motherboard connected = no voltage at all. So obviously there's some loop involving motherboard.

Sucks. Impressive how it decides to completely die over night as well, hasn't shown any signs of weariness or failure prior.

//J

 

please let me no if the power board fix's it as my cr11s is exactly the same
thanks

 

Hi m8,

I'm awaiting delivery of the power board, got shipping confirmation on tuesday so with luck it'll pop it's head up tomorrow, otherwise after the weekend (no deliveries during weekends here in Sweden ).

Will let you know how it works out.

 

thanks alot m8 hope it works for both our sake's

 

As promised, an update.

To keep things short:


Got the replacement board today, did some quick preliminary testing connecting the PSU to it and noticed immediately that the light on the PSU remained on, contrary to with the old board. After this I continued putting together the laptop again (take note to take pictures when disassembling, and possibly make a sketch of which skrews go where - they differ in length and then there's black ones too. I'm fairly certain I have misplaced some, and can admit there are 7 lying here besides me still, with everything back together

I know where these should go though, they're supposed to hold motherboard and power board in place. I only mounted screws in holes indicated with an arrow now.

Anyway, it's working!

Total costs: £15 inc shipping
Total time: couple of hours

End result: happy mrs!!


Hope it's the same for you and you can fix the problem in the same fashion. Mind you I have read lots of other posts of people having (power) issues with this series of laptops, but none where the laptop was like a total brick and not showing any sign of life at all. If such is the case with yours as well, odds are this is the solution.

The part number of the power board is PWS-60A (for the VGN-CR21S and above I think - there's also PWS-60 which is green, the 60A is blue - they look identical in layout but since they made an "A" version I reckon there is some difference). I got the board off eBay, there are a bunch more there.

Cheers
//Joris

 

thanks for that and im glad yours is working the only differince with my problem is the charger light stays on [on the charger] but im going to take the chance so thanks for the info and il order one now
il let you no how it goes
thanks again
ross

 

Well I also tried with my charger, it's got same specs and contact - that one also stayed on. So I hope you can fix yours in the same fashion m8!

 

Ross I'm just re-reading and notice you have the CR11S - which board did you order? Like I mentioned there are 2 nearly identical versions, and if memory serves me well whilst I was doing research and scouring eBay it appeared as though the CR11 series uses the PWS-60 pcb, not the PWS-60A. Not fully sure though but I hope you checked with your own PCB which version it is?

Let me know how it goes for you!
Cheers
//Joris


*edit*
Just found this link: http://store03.prostores.com/servlet/electronicclinic/the-627/Sony-VAIO-VGN-dsh-CR-Power/Detail

It says there a bit down

So I guess it'd be fine with either.

 

perhaps just a ROHS change, considering the boards are differerent colors?