Sony VGN S360

My VGN 360 won't boot.
This 3 year old notebook has not had a lot of use and no abuse.
The 2 lights on keyboard come on but no screen The lights won't go off when I press the off on switch unless I disconnect the battery.
The guy at the Sony store says probably the motherboard needs replaced for $800.
Hmmm 3 year old VGN ?? $800
Any thoughts.

Maybe an MSI Wind?

 

For a light laptop the msi wind looks pretty cool

Sony are complete ripoff's when it comes to repairs. They'd rather you buy a new laptop then repair your old one:\

You could try:
Booting with the battery removed, only on ac power.
Booting with only one stick of ram and if it doesn't work try the other (in each slot aswell).
Put the harddrive in an external enclosure, hook it up to another computer and check if it boots\scan for viruses.

Probably won't work but i thought you might want some suggestions as to what you can try yourself. I'd definatly go for a new laptop over repairing an 3 year old one for $800!

 

If you're looking in the ultra-portable market, there are several good options:
1. Asus Eee
2. MSI Wind
3. Dell E mini-notebook
Otherwise, if you choose to stick with Sony, you'll have to wait until late summer for any announcements.

 

it could be the failure by the gpu socket. quite "normal" for the vgn-S models. I had my 260 repaired by the people at aqsTech for less than 200$.
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?forumID=69&threadID=139133&messageID=1719039

cheers ...