Sony Vaio VGN-FS840/W Only powers up sideways

[spazebar]

My fathers friend dropped off his 4 y/o Vaio for me to look at yesterday telling me that it was infected and kept shutting off. Unfortunately that is not the case. It looks like they have several issues including their power jack or their Targus adapter since it will only charge if positioned just so. Then we have the oddity where it will only boot up properly if tilted back so the screen rests on the table with the keyboard half vertical. After you get past the BIOS screen you can set it back flat again just fine. Otherwise not using said method the computer will aparently seem to boot as indicated by the status lights but there is nothing on the display. Very odd. As far as software issues go I can only succesfully boot to live discs but Ill work on that after I get the thing to power on reliably.

Just looking for any ideas on why it will only boot when bein leaned back. Im about to tear it done and would apreciate any pointers on what to look for.

Thanks and have a great day

spazebar

 

[ampedal]

stop turning the computer on, you can short it out and have a dead laptop...

the power jack is a common problem on laptops, there are many guides on how to replace them. Google the model of the computer + "power jack"

It is actually a very inexpensive fix if you know how to solder. Watch a youtube video on soldering if not - it is a fairly common laptop issue if you intent to continue fixing laptops.

Let us know if issues persist after the initial fix...

Cheers and good luck!

-Alex

 

[spazebar]

stop turning the computer on, you can short it out and have a dead laptop...
http/www.tomshardware.com/forum/message.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=35&post=58542&numrep=233069&ref=2&page=1&p=1&subcat=214&sondage=0&owntopic=0&new=0#formulaire
the power jack is a common problem on laptops, there are many guides on how to replace them. Google the model of the computer + "power jack"

It is actually a very inexpensive fix if you know how to solder. Watch a youtube video on soldering if not - it is a fairly common laptop issue if you intent to continue fixing laptops.

Let us know if issues persist after the initial fix...


-Alex

It's actually quite interesting as unlike most of laptops I've worked on the power jack on this model isnt soldered to the mother board but plugged in by a wire to a four pin connector a few inches away. So what Im going to try after class is to pull the contact pads from the plastic jack housing to clean up the contacts and make sure they are undamaged. otherwise it should hopefully be cheap to replace.

As far as what is wrong with the monitor only booting up when tilted back from what Ive read should be caused by some of the monitoe wires potentialy being pinched or some suchso Im gonna rip that back out and double checck it.

THanks for the help all

 

[ampedal]

Definitely - for monitor issues I reccomend hooking it up to a external just to make 100% sure it's not a video card issue (even though this sounds like it's definitely a loose connection issue)

 

[photonboy]

Regardless, you're going to have to tear things down to look for the loose connection.

I imagine that the loose connection is just preventing the screen from appearing and that the rest of the computer works fine.

If you don't know what you are doing then soldering can add too much heat and damage things when you finally do find the problem but that's beyond the scope here.

Start tearing apart either the screen or the keyboard side depending on what is easiest to do. Keep VERY careful track of your screws and do some reading if necessary on soldering, screen removal etc.

It's likely that this probably is easily fixable but not all loose connections are easy to find and simply grabbing a cheap soldering iron may not be a good idea.

 

[spazebar]

okay so I have now stripped down the laptop entirely apart removing every screw and component labeling and cleaning everything as i went with alcohol. With everything laid out I couldn't spot any obvious defects in any of the components. didn't see anything visibly wrong. I put it all back together and then it seems to be working but now s0me of the keys on the keyboard don't work

edit: and I have tried an external display but that doesn't work either

 

[ampedal]

ok if an external display doesn't work, it was really kind of useless to take the laptop apart...


this most likely points to a graphics card problem, which is most laptops can only be remedied by a new motherboard.

your best bet is recover what files you can from the hard drive (if they are important) - via an external enclosure connected to a separate computer. Then sell the thin on eBay as-is with a description of what's wrong. Put this money towards a new laptop, or new-used laptop (my preference) depending upon your budget you can find really good deals on eBay, dell refurbished site, or even Amazon.

Good luck.

@Photonboy be careful about telling people to tear their systems down when a simple plug into an external monitor gives a pretty solid diagnosis....

 

[spazebar]

Best answer selected by Spazebar.