TX650p Won't Startup

A TX650p recently came into my possession that won't start up. When you hit the power button the power light goes on and the CD drive spins up, but the laptop doesn't boot. Has anyone seen this problem before? Anyone know the cause/solution?

I've tried attaching it to an external monitor, no luck. I've tried removing EVERY component, no luck. It has built-in RAM so it could be faulty. The chips are BGA so it could be cracked solder.

Any suggestions?

 

It was happening to me as well...among other problems. I solved all problems with this crazy mode.

 

Thanks for the reply. It looks like your problem was a worn out ribbon cable? I don't believe this is my problem, the ribbon cable contacts are good, and the power cable does do something, when you press it lights come on, just not the display.

Do you still have the TX? I noticed that there is a white connector (below the USB ribbon connector and to the left of the power ribbon connector) that has nothing to plug into. Any idea what this is?

I tried reflowing the Intel chipset and didn't get any improvement. The gpu and cpu probably didn't get hot enough to reflow, I'll try them this evening.

 

To answer my own question about the white connector, I looked at the service manual. The connector is labeled (CN002) but nothing is shown to plug into it. Maybe a diagnostic port for Sony.

 

Could be a bad hard drive also.
Did you try putting in a bootable CD? To see if you can boot off cd and then see if HD is visible.

 

Nope, the ribbon cable was just problem which occurred while I was opening and closing the laptop so many times to solve others. The main problem was probably that something was touching the metal frame on the chases. Try the tape trick.

I had completely the same problem as you. But I was usually able to start it after I took out battery, pressed power button for 30 minutes, put the battery back and started it. But that tape solved it completely.

Where in the service manual is that CN002 showed? I couldn't find it now.

 

Metsn - I'll try bootting it with the motherboard outside the chasis

Oscar - I said I removed EVERYTHING. Down to just the screen, motherboard, and power button. The computer should be able to go to the BIOS screen without a hard drive attached.

 

I tried reflowing the GPU, no luck. Any last suggestions before I sell it as scrap?

 

Try booting up by removing the HD and then optical drive and then try booting up with the optical/hd FPC removed if needed. Also, see if there has been any upgrades that might have caused the laptop to have problems in booting.

 

I've tried disconnecting everything down to just the motherboard and power switch (connected to external display). And every combination in between. its a motherboard issue, not a component one.

 

Reset the bios, this solves quite a lot of issues with Sony boot problems.

If that fails, try replacing the bios battery. For some reason Sonys don't like to boot with dead bios batteries.