VGN-FZ21M - Not booting...

Hi there. As of today my VGN-FZ21M is not booting. When i press the power button the small power light comes on and a small click can be heard from the hard drive but other than that nothing else is happening. The actions i took were the following:

1. I took off the ram sticks switched em, tried with each one by itself. No results. I plugged the ram sticks in another machine and it seems that one is faulty and the other is ok. I plugged in the good one with no results, switched slots and still had no results.

2. I tried using an external monitor. No results also.

3. I opened the laptop remove the bios battery plug, wait for some and plugged it again with no results.

4. The battery is charging so i dont think there is a power issue. i double checked every ribbon on the board and everything seems to be in good order.

5. I fear it is the mobo.

Anyone has any suggestions??

(i post also in the Fz owner forum but i also did here cause it seemed a bit inactive.)

 

bump - bump

 

No suggestions as it sounds like you have covered all the usual things folks would try. It could be the VIDEO chip as they are known to fail and there is a separate thread here explaining that and the fact that Sony extended the warranties for such a failure. Look for the "Sony comes clean thread" It's a sticky thread near the top of the list.

Gary

 

I had a no-boot with my SR and got it working by unplugging the AC charger, removing the battery, then holding the power button down for 30 seconds. Put everything back and it started working again. I read about it on google.

 

That's one of the things Sony support will ask you to try, in these circumstances.
As a result of my experiences, I would not suspect the motherboard. When my MB went south, nothing happened at all when the power button was pressed. No lights, no noise, no fans, no nothing.

 

It was the GPU chip it had the problem described here Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21E/VGN-FZ21M Laptop/Motherboard Repair on eBay (end time 03-Mar-11 15:32:05 GMT)

I fixed it on my own...

Btw i would appreciate if someone can give me a link to a vaio FZ service manual cause i want to order a complete set of screws for it.

Thanks a lot!

 

Sony will replace the defective GPU for free. See the sticky at top of the Sony forum.

My FZ's 8400M GT idles at 58-68 C with no problems.

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you haven't really fixed it. Yes you got the machine working again, but the problem is still there. The issue was never one of the chip getting too hot. The problem was with the compound that is between the substrate and the chip itself. That compound expanded and contracted at a different rate than the chip and substrate. This caused cracks to develop in the solder connections between the chip and substrate as the machine heated and cooled. Your fix re-flowed the solder connection, but did not fix the isue with the compound. Over time the problem will come back.

As Rajesh pointed out Sony will replace the motherboard for free on any FZ model machine experiencing this problem. But now that yours is not showing the problem, I doubt if they will do so. Plus you have technically voided the warranty with the fix you did. This free fix from Sony extends three years beyond the end of the original warranty period.

Gary