VAIO FW21M problems! killing me!

Hi guys, first post here.

I was given a Sony VAIO FW21M laptop for free by an old boss, he told me the lcd was cracked and needs replacing.
Great I thought, an easy fix and a top laptop for free!

So I went ahead and bought a new lcd and swapped it over - powered up - and the screen was blank.

I've replaced the VGA ribbon cables, and still nothing!

I've also bought a replacement motherboard, and swapped it over, but still nothing happening screen wise.
The orange light on the mo/bo comes on, HDD powers up and I also have power coming through the USB.

I've just bought a lcd inverter to replace the current one, if that doesn't fix it, I'm stumped.

If the lcd inverter doesn't work, not sure what's left except the processor, but even if that is dead, surely the screen would come on and give me an error message, wouldn't it?

Spent a bit more £ on parts than I wanted to, but if I can get it working it'll be worth it.

Anyone have a clue as to what could be causing it not to boot?

Thanks in advance

 

Try the invertor. If the lappy does power on and you get some sort of interaction from the USB, then that tells me that the USB drivers are loaded and the OS is up; I don't think your CPU is dead.

Does the HDD light blink as a normal computer does (ie, alot, at random)? Since that will confirm that it is booting up. Or, when you turn the machine on, does the backlight for the LCD come on (while the screen remains black / blank)? That then should point towards an invertor problem.

If the invertor doesn't fix it, try turning it on with the HDD detached. Or maybe with the RAM sticks detached. Either way the computer should beep to indicate it is missing a component (something is wrong), which is a good sign since you know the thing is somewhat alive, and you can pretty much narrow down the problem bits. If the CPU is dead, it at the very least gets to the pre-boot VAIO screen before it beeps and restarts itself.

TIP: if your machine came with 2x RAM sticks, try booting with one at a time. One dead stick can prevent the entire machine from starting. Likewise with the HDD, a bad HDD can prevent a lappy from even reaching the pre-boot stage.

Though regardless, I'd have to say your 'new' FW has quite a reclusive past... I'd suggest you hold buying more parts for now incase you are disappointed...

 

Hi, thanks for your quick reply. Maybe I should have added more info to first post.

I just tried booting again, the HDD light flashed once upon power up, but not again. Also, I don't think the LCD backlight came on, but I couldn't tell - it just stayed black.

I've also run it;
without the RAM,
without the HDD,
without RAM & HDD,
with only 1 ram stick,
with the other ram stick,
with a new HDD
and with a HDD out of another laptop.

Throughout all these tests I didn't hear a beep.

The speakers are attached, and I'm sure they work.


I'll wait for the inverter to arrive, but should that fail I guess it's off to eBay as parts. Gutted

 

I don't know how Insyde implements their error message algorthyms; I'm actually speaking from experience with a Gigabyte desktop motherboard (which beeped at me from a fried / dead CPU socket), and a Samsung desktop (which beeped at me again for a single dead RAM stick).

Apart from the invertor then, I can also suggest re-flashing the BIOS firmware, but then you said you swapped the motherboard so...
It's strange... The fact that the HDD lights up then turns off is characteristic of a pre-boot check. Maybe something in the boot process isn't working (ie, the optics drive maybe).

But yeah, good luck; keep us posted with what the invertor does.