Sony VAIO S Series Upgrade Guides (pics)

Sony VAIO S Upgrade Installation Guide

This article serves as an upgrade guide for the Sony VAIO S series of notebooks, included is how to upgrade the following components:

• Hard Drive upgrade guide
• CPU Upgrade using Arctic Silver gel coolant guide
• CD/DVD Drive upgrade guide

HardDrive Installation Guide

Before we start, here aresome disclaimers. Read as much as you can before you attempting this. Make sure your harddrive is compatible. For the VAIOS360s and before, make sure to get ATA-100 harddrives and SATA for latter ones. The connector plug has to be 2.5 inches as well. Do NOT read one line, do it, then go to the next without reading the entire guide first. Wash your hands, touch something metal to prevent static electricity and turn your computer off before doing this (DUH!).

Turn over the computer to its back side and take off the battery. There's a total of 11 screws. 9 of them are long ones and the 2 holding the cover to the ram in place are short ones. Remove them all and take off the lid to expose your ram.

There's 1 more screw within that compartment and remove it. Flip the computer to its right side and open the screen. Now, look at your F4 and F12 buttons and you will see two small latches. Use a flathead small screwdriver and push them in and the keyboard will immediately come off.

Now, unclamp the ribbon cable that connects the keyboard to the rest of your computer and remove the keyboard.

Next, there are 5 screws (all the same size) that need to be removed. Then you will see 2 ribbon cables and 2 white wire latches that need to be removed. The latches don't come off easily, but you can use your fingernails to pry at the side of them until it comes off. BE PATIENT.

Now remove the entire top and you will be exposed to everything. Look around and you will easily see many holes without screws in them. I guess this is where Sony really got cheap!

Oh well. Moving on, locate your harddrive at the lower right hand corner. First, unplug the ribbon cable that connects it to the motherboard. Next, unscrew the 2 screws at the bottom and your harddrive will come free.

In order to put your next harddrive in, you must first disconnect the ribbon cable. Next, 4 screws at the sides hold the harddrive in place. Remove them and your harddrive will come free. Next, you will notice that at the bottom of your harddrive is a sticky black protective sheet. This thing insulates the heat produced by your harddrive from the motherboard. Remove it and place it on the bottom of your new harddrive. Put it into the case and install the 4 screws and connector ribbon.

Put it back into place and connect the connector ribbon to the motherboard and you are done! (for more pics and info, visit http://www.talkvaio.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8)

Arctic Silver/CPU Upgrade guide-

Arctic Silver 5 is a high density gel that contains 99.9% silver. It is used on CPUs and GPUs to reduce heat.

Read http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions_small.htm before attempting anything. To open your laptop, follow the instructions laid out above.

To get to the CPU, you must first uninstall the heat sink, which is held in place by 3 screws- 1 regular, and 2 spring loaded. After you remove these, the heat sink will come off and you will see your cpu. Using a flat head screwdriver, unlock the cpu by turning the screw to the side. Take out the cpu. Using 99.9 percent isopropyl alcohol (the kind that blinds if you drink it) and a Q-tip, clean the heatsink's mating surface. Next, you will notice yellow thermal tape on your cpu. Gently take it off with your fingernails and clean it with alcohol. DO NOT use alcohol on the silicone of the CPU, only the metal chip that comes into contact with the heatsink.

Now, using the paper bag method described by the arctic silver site (do not use bare finger since your fingers produce oil that would hinder the arctic silver's thermal conductivity), rub a small coat of arctic silver onto the heat sink mating surface. This is only to saturate the microscopic valleys.

Now, use masking tape to tape the sides of the contact area. This is to ensure that the arctic silver does not come into contact with the silicone. Put a "rice grain" amount of arctic silver onto the mating surface and evenly coat the surface.

Now, remove the tape and put the cpu back into the socket. Lock the CPU and put back the heatsink along with the 3 screws and you are done.

Most people who use arctic silver on their CPU does so on their GPU, but if you take a closer look, the GPU's heatsink is soldered shut and that will be another guide for another time.

CD/DVD Upgrade guide-

To open your laptop, follow the instructions laid out above.

Now to your bottom left, you will notice your CD/DVD drive.

There is first a metal protective device on top and you must remove the 1 screw and 1 ribbon cable that holds it in place.

Next, there are a total of 4 screws that hold the drive in place. Remove them and the ribbon cable and you will remove the drive. Just like the upgrading the harddrive, remove the ribbon cable and the exterior shell and replace the drive with your new DVD RW drive.

Reconnect the ribbon cable and the 4 screws and you are done.

How does it feel now that you have just beefed up your laptop and spent hundreds less? I know I sure felt great. Anyways, enjoy this review and any comment is much appreciated.

 

This review/guide combo really rocks! I wish there was one for every notebook on this site.

 

Well done, this is a really nice piece.

 

...Nice guide--thanks!

Which DVD-RW did you install? Where did you purchase it?

Regards,
-M.

 

That's a really nice trick for neatly applying the artic silver. I'll have to remember that.

Somehow, I just don't feel brave enough to take my laptop apart like that. Desktop, no sweat. Heck, I put it together myself. I wonder if it's just a matter of getting used to the idea of taking the laptop apart? It's really not so different, I suppose. Maybe I'll do my cdrw to a dvdrw someday...

 

I thought SATA and IDE hdd have different connectors?

 

The s270/360 is ata-100 while the s380/460 is sata

 

lol, i thought the tape was standard trick since every picture i saw with arctic silver had straight edges so i thought this was the only way to do that. Anyways, taking a laptop apart is not much harder than a desktop. You just have to be A LOT more careful since breaking anything would result voiding the warranty of all the parts. GL if you ever decide to do something to ur laptop.

 

Thanks for the great guide.

Concerning memory Upgrade for Sony VAIO VGN-S460P/B

There are two memory slots: one on the back and one hidden under the keyboard.

To release keyboard, unscrew the two screws closest to the battery - one on each side - and depress the tabs behind the F4 and F12 keys (as you wrote).

Once the keyboard is out of the way, the other memory slot is underneath a cover plate secured by two more screws.

 

great guide! Tell me, i want to acces the CPU on my Sony FS570 - are the internals roughly in the same places on it compared to the S series?

thanks

 

I would highly highly NOT recommend trying to take apart the S-series - it's just not worth the headache, and the chances of breaking something are very high.

Not worth it, in my opinion. (And I've had three S-Series and been through this.

There are better, easier to modify/upgrade, and cheaper laptops out there. (ex. HP L2000 / Compaq V2000z)

(That said, your guide is welll done and I commend you on it).

 

I unfortunately have to agree. The Vaio is a great looking notebook but inside its like a porcelain doll. I upgraded the harddrive on mine, put it back together, pressed the on/off switch and now its at Sony's service-center. Apparently the culprit is the thin white ribbon cable under the keyboard (you need to remove the cable before taking the top cover off).

Clare

 

thank you for guide

i want too my CPu-Upgrade on my Sony FS?How can i vaio fs disassemble?

thank you

 

Does anyone know why my newly installed hard drive in my sony vgn-s170p isn't letting me boot up from my xp cd?

 

Press 'del' on startup (or whatever other key you need to press to get into the BIOS settings) - then in the BIOS find the 'Boot from...' sequence and change it from the hard-drive to the CD-ROM drive. Install Windows XP, then change it back if you want to not boot from the CD-ROM as first choice thereafter.

Failing that - the ribbon cable or power supply may have come out of the connectors from the CD-ROM to the motherboard when you were installing the harddrive.

 

Please tell me which DVDRW you got. Or should I just get a USB dvd burner and be done with it?

thanks.

 

Beware...

this sony vaio VGN-S3XP uses non standard slim dvd-+RW its slimmer than a standard slim !!!, i found out when i was about to bolt in a new NEC slim drive that turned out to be to thick ! dont know where i can get a slimmer than standard slim drive ?? well gotta be a faster one also good if its a slot in and if it can be firmware upgraded to region free, that would be great !!!!

the bluetooth module can be upgraded also to UGPZ6 2.0 EDR but can only find the module from sony USA for 99USD

//Bon

 

Anybody have a guide to parts and steps on how to install Bluetooth to the S260p? I'm very much interested in doing this little upgrade project on it. I remember one on TalkVaio.com, but they dont work anymore and I can't find it anywhere else. Thanks

 

Hi.

How is your CPU temp since you used AS5 is there much of a difference

thanks

John.

 

Thank you for a great guide!

I have the same problem as BonScott. My DVD drive broke and I need to find a replacement.. Does anyone know what drive fits this laptop and where could I find one? Is this drive even of any standard?

Any info would be very much appreciated!

-Turre

 

I have a VGN-S460P and my dvd drive is failing. I was wondering if I can upgrade to a faster dual layer burner and also do they make a lightscribe burner that would fit. Another thing I want to do is put in a larger CPU. I need to know exactlly what CPU I would need and dvd burners I could use. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

Nice review, but I caught two mistakes

No, these are because of all the screws you've taken out!

This one made me laugh, its a PC Card reader

 

I think if you got to this forum you have everything it takes to r and r your 460 parts.

Some things. It is vital that you know how to put your memory back in properly, otherwise you may get a little green power-on light after you reasemble when you turn on--and zero post. You will then be miserable until you figure out what you did wrong.

Do not push the two tabs holding the keyboard in from the top. Turn the computer over and push the brown plastic things toward the back of the computer and the keyboard will snap loose.

Even when you have all the screws out, you cannot lift off the top unless you insert a flat-blade screwdriver about midway on one side and break the seal maintained by a plastic tab.

The keyboard cable is simple to remove and replace. Left the little brown tab in front of the plastic ribbon cable with your finger nail. To replace it, insert the plastic ribbon cable into the socket squarely and softly, then press down on the little brown tab. The tab works like a door. Do not use any type of metal tool to do this.

The two white connectors connect the speakers and are difficult to remove. Use a small wire cutter to grasp the connector then jiggle it from one side to the other. If you don't like the speaker sound, just cut the wires.

There are only 3 screws holding the hard drive in. The hole at the upper right is for attaching the cover.

The hard drive ribbon cable conector simply lifts up off the board and is easy to remove and replace. This is a brilliantly conceived connector.

Someone mentioned that the 460 uses a sata drive. That is incorrect, it is an IDE drive, and the largest one available right now is 160 GB.

Before you replace the top, use an air can and blow out thru the fan to clean any debris out of the heat exchanger.

When you re-assemble, just push the two ribbon cables with the green tabs gently into their sockets. Don't use any tools to force them in, just push lightly on the green tab.

If you only install one memory board, put it in the slot under the keyboard.

Sit back and feel contented. You just saved $500.

 

Oops. Sorry about that. The 460/B does have a SATA drive, so for about $60 more I can date the prom queen.

 

Great tutorial; however, I've just replaced the failed Toshiba hard drive in a Vaio VGN-S4XP/B with a Seagate ST9160821AS 160GB SATA drive, following these directions to a tee and observing ESD precautions. When I reassembled the laptop and attempted to boot - nothing. No POST, no lights, no activity at all. Not even a charging light for the battery. I have checked the obvious i.e. the power adapter and my multimeter reads +19.5V on the input socket. Am I missing something here? Need I reset CMOS, and if so where is the darn battery located on this model? I refuse to believe the board is nuked as I have observed every precaution. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

 

Problem resolved (Phew!!!): As I thought, I had to reset CMOS by detatching the battery connector that Sony, in their infinite wisdom, have located underneath the motherboard on my particular model, which necessitates removal of the entire mobo in order to access.

 

GREAT GUIDE !!! THX

But I still have a problem... I changed the HDD, added RAM, did the Battery reset... everything as working perfectly when the case is open. Nothing works when I close the case, put all the screws... any ideas ??? THXXXX

 

Try reseating the RAM, that could cause this problem.

 

Can somebody confirm if a normal slim dvd drive would fit in a SZ2? Or do I need a thicker one?

Thanks

 

I used this guide quite a long time ago when I first got my S660 and thought I'd come back now to Thank the poster - Thanks!

I changed the hard drive and RAM on my S series, quite a few times (I've taken it apart completely about 6 times) and with no problems.

So yes, thanks for the great guide!
(I've now moved on to a Sony SZ with a hybrid hard-drive - I'd be scared to change that!)

 

Jim (or anybody), can you please point me out to identify the CMOS on SZ model ? i have a SZ 140 P which it's hard disk makes scratchy moise and been failed to boot. i need to know in case i will face any unsuccessful situation.

thank you.

 

Hi everyone,

Great thread and information. Thanks to everyone for sharing.

This is a real newbie question... I have an S360P, and I've started getting the SMART warnings that the HD is about to fail. So, I'd like to replace it.

Will the system recovery disks I made when I first bought it work on the new HD (i.e. will it bring me back to original factory-condition XP etc)?

Thanks,
James

 

james,

yes. your guess is absolutely right. i have just done it on my sz 140 P. in fact, if you read further details on sony's help site, it tells you, the recovery cd main function is to reinstall a brand new factory condition over a new fresh-from-d-oven HDD.

go ahead. just make sure, you have original complete cd recovery set for your system.

good luck...

 

I followed this tuturial to take out my hard drive so I could repair it. After repairing the hard drive, I put all the cables back into the ports and all the screws back as well. I put the battery back on and plug the laptop in. Problem is: when I push the power button, nothing happens. Nothing turns on or flickers or anything. The battery is full and it is plugged in to a charger as well. I am aware that I have only myself to blame and am not putting blame anywhere else, but I'm pleading for any help.

Does anyone know where the problem could lie? It has to be somewhere in the dismantling of the laptop because there was not a problem before I attempted this. Is there anything I can do? Any help would be appreciated...

For specs...I have a Sony Vaio VGN-S170P (S Series) Notebook/Laptop. Things that I have attempted to do is: dismantling everything and putting everything back in the correct order keeping in mind to firmly put the cables back into the socket. Twice. Thanks for any help that is given...

 

Hi,

since I used this guide to upgrade the hdd in my Vaio-VGN-S1HP (European Model) successfully, I came back to upgrade my CPU. The original CPU was a Pentium M 715 (Dothan, 1.5GHz, FSB400). Now I have installed a Pentium M 755 (Dothan, 2.0GHz, FSB400).
On boot time, the bios reports a 2.00 GHz CPU.
On WindowsXP's System Information only a 1.5GHz-CPU is recognized, while the "Sony Notebook Setup" (which accesses the bios, I think) reports the 2.00GHz CPU.

With "CPU-Z" I checked, that the CPU is running at 1.5GHz.

How can I convince my VAIO, that it should use the full performance of the CPU (2.00 GHz) ?

Thanks a lot!

 

Shame on me... ;-) I just had to Reboot (!) WindowsXP!! Hibernating is fine, but not, if you change your CPU... *G*

 

Has anyone tried to replace the fan on the S360? Mine is dying (makes rattling/loose/diesel sounds) and I either need to replace it or replace the machine.

I found the heatsink and fan on ebay, but according to the disassembly pics i've seen, it looks like the part of the heatsink which attaches to the GPU might be hard to remove. Any one try it?

 

I've got a similar problem with an S460. The visible side of the fan does not provide access to the spindle for adding lubricant. That means in order to either add lubricant or to replace it entirely, I've got to get it off the motherboard. Does anyone have insights or instructions for doing that?

Thanks!

Oz

 

I actually bought the fan on ebay and went through with the replacement. There are screws holding the cooling apparatus in place, and the only unobvious snag might be that you will need to clean off the GPU and CPU dies and reapply thermal paste to them after you replace the heatsink/fan assembly.

I can't speak for an S460, but I had to pretty much disassemble my S360 entirely in order to remove the mainboard and unscrew the GPU heatsink which is attached to the fan.

So basically, if you are going to be ripping apart your laptop to such a great extent, you might as well replace the fan. Lubrication will only delay the fan's death at best.

Disassembling these laptops is a sizeable job. I would recommend you just find a large surface on which you can organize different parts after you remove them, and that you take pictures at various stages of the disassembly. This will allow you to observe what screws were in at what point of the disassembly; I realized the hard way that while it is obvious what order screws can come out in, it is not as obvious what order screws should return in, since the design is so layered. I got lucky and found pictures online.

On the upside, the machine actually seemed to be very well engineered, so aside from the magnitude of the task everything went well. I also did not encounter any manufacturer traps for detecting whether or not I had disassembled the machine, so if you don't damage anything your warranty should remain intact.

Good luck!

 

Hi, I just want to say a big thanks for the hard drive replacement guide. It looks so complicated and tricky on first glance, but by the end I could probably take my VAIO apart with my eyes closed.

I went for a WD 250gb EIDE (ATA-100) drive... but unfortunately the VAIO S series' BIOS does not support drives bigger than 137gb (the UK version anyway (S2HP) - there is a BIOS update available but it does not help) .

With a lot of putting in, and pulling out of my new drive between my desktop PC and the VAIO to try and figure out how to solve the problem, I can say for definite that if I can mess about that much inside my VAIO and not break it, it should be a cinch for anyone to follow this guide who is worried about damaging their VAIO.

Incidentally, I solved the problem in the end and can now see the entire 250gb (albeit partitioned) - I downloaded Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools. This installs a dynamic drive overlay which sits between the BIOS and Windows XP. Took ages to work out, but got it in the end.

Thanks again.

 

Hi!

My great VAIO S380P (I think it is this one, I have in fact a european S3HP: 1.6GHz, 60GB, 512MB DDR2) begins to be tired...

I thought that I could replace it (maybe the new MacBook 13.3" ? ), but I don't know if it is reasonable... Indeed, after reading this post, I can upgrade the vaio to a 2GHz,2GB DDR2 with 160GB HDD (about $200/EUR150). But is it worth upgrade at this price ?

What do you think ? I use my computer for programming, photoshop and surfing... No game !

Thank you!

zoxygen

 

Looks like a great guide. Moved to the Sony forum.

 

I suggest updating the link to the arctic silver page, it does not exist and doesn't redirect you either.

Otherwise, nice guide.

 

It's definitely not worth it.
At 2Ghz, it's still much slower than all the mainstream computers out there now, though it'll still be a big jump from your original spec, with more ram

 

Hi,

This is a nice guide, indeed! Unfortunately, I couldn't find an answer for my problem & the pictures didn't show the part i'm interested in...

I have a question about the wireless switch located in the bottom right corner of the s-series. Something went wrong with mine and now it slides in either direction without the usual click & of course to no effect whatsoever... My guess is that it's a physical issue - it might have somehow popped out of place, though the laptop was sitting on a flat surface & I hadn't moved it for several hours when the failure happened. I tried to switch it with the screen down by sticking my finger in the little gap that remains when the laptop is closed - maybe that wasn't a good idea. Would anyone have some info on what the little plastic slider looks from below & should I try disassembling the laptop to try fixing it myself?

thanks in advance

 

If your still around or someone is here who might have insight into how you got this working on a Vaio s360p I could use a hand. Trying to get a Western digital eide 320gb drive working in one of these and just can't get it to come together. Thanks.

 

hi i am newbie here, regards to all members first of all i am really gratefull and thankful for the tutorials how to upgrade vaio laptops

and now there is some issues that i want to ask :

i have a sony s460 and i want to upgrade the hard drive from 80GB SATA to 500GB SATA(brand Toshiba),

before i buy it i want to know whether my laptop support upgrading to 500GB?
i have already upgrade my memory into 2x1GB..

and i am wondering if i change into windows vista can i plug in 4GB memory into my laptop

many thx

 

go to
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-faq.pl?mdl=VGNS460

and click the chat picture link on the right to chat with a sony tech.

 

Hi,

I have a VGN-S2HP with 1.6GHz processor. Can anyone tell me the max speed CPU I could install.

Thanks

 

i chat already and the answers are cannot, cannot upgrade harddisk to 500GB, cannot have 4GB memories and cannot use ultimate 32 vista cause there is no drivers for that

can someone tell is it possible bout changing hardiisk thing?