Help my Laptop died!!!

[clevermonkey]

Please help me. I have a Sony Vaio PCG-FVR37 that is about a year and a half old. It has always worked great other than a less than impressive battery life that has gotten worse lately.

Today it powered down without warning even though I was connected to the power cord. Since then I have not been able to get even the slightest light to blink or semblance of power. I must stress that there was no warning whatsoever, it just flicked of like the battery had been removed. I pulled off the easy access panels on the back and blew out any dust I could find (not much.) I also checked to make sure all of the connections were secure that I could access. No signs of life at all.

Please help.

Thanks
Justin

[BuggZ]

Try removing the battery, then connect the AC adapter and try to power the system. If you still have problems you may want to check your AC adapter to make sure it is supplying voltage. Also check the AC jack on the rear of the laptop to make sure it is not loose or disconnected from the motherboard. I have also seen a memory problem in one model Sony but I don't remember which model. The problem was the memory slot did not hold the RAM securely so the laptop would fail post or sometimes shutdown unexpectedly. It would normally show power though. The way I found this problem was to gently push on the RAM when powering up. The laptop would POST and load the OS but when I released the pressure, the laptop would crash. Hope this helps.

[clevermonkey]

I tried connecting just the ac without the battery and had no results. If the battery is low normally it will auto hibernate, telling you. So if the problem was from the ac jack I should have gotten a hibernate screen before it shut off. I pulled the memory and re-installed it. This also did not help. The lights that always flash every minute or so are even not blinking.

Thanks and if you think of anything else let me know.

[BuggZ]

If you checked the AC adapter for the proper output voltage and the power jack on the laptop motherboard is not loose or damaged, the next thing to try would be to remove the drives (Hard drive, CD/DVD and floppy) if they can be removed without major disassembly of the laptop and try to power the system up again. If that doesn't work then it is probably time to take it to a technician.

[clevermonkey]

Turns out the mainboard is likely fried. I talked to a couple of different tech guys and that sounded like the most likely culprit. Thanks for your input.

Justin

[BuggZ]

I wouldn't write the system off without trying a couple of other things first. If you are comfortable with disassambling your laptop you can try reseating the processor and the voltage control board (if it is separate from the motherboard). I have found a couple of laptops with processor/sockets that had unlocked/loosened due to vibration or some other reason. After the processor was reseated and the socket securely locked, the laptop worked fine. Remember to replace the thermal pad/grease whenever you remove the heatsink/fan assembly or you risk creating an overheating problem. No guarantee this will fix your laptop but it might be worth a try before spending BIG bucks for a replacement motherboard or tossing it in the trash.