Thread: Calling all laptop experts!

How do you know the battery is charging?

Because if the battery is in and ac lead then the battery light flashes indicating it is charing.

As an update i removed both sticks of ram and a connector off the back corner (real small 2 pin thing, not sure where it goes, the wire goes somewhere i cant see) and the laptop powered on, the fan started up, no screen though because no ram = no display. but it seems odd that both modules would be faulty?

Originally Posted by StanUk

Hello!

I was planning on posting this on a laptop hardware forum but couldnt find one so thought id try here!

Basically I have aquired a broken sony vaio laptop, it seems to be a power issue. the battery and ac adaptor seem fine. If i turn the laptop on the 3 lights (power,battery and the other one) come on and stay lit but i get absolutely no activity in the laptop, i currently have it completely opened up and no fans or anything come on, nothing at all. The adaptor is definatly fine as it seems to be charing the battery ok and the laptop will power on with just the battery, however im getting nothing at all so im guessing the power isnt being distributed !

Any ideas what this could be and perhaps how i could resolve it?

Cheers people

I've seen the 3 times before and all three cases turned out to be a motherboard issue.

Originally Posted by KelJu

I've seen the 3 times before and all three cases turned out to be a motherboard issue.

What model is it?

Hmm see thats what i thought BUT:

Ive just put back in 1 ram module and reconnected that 2 pin connector in the back and the laptop booted (well, fan came on and stayed on!) but no display to the screen, so the plugged the hard drive in and died again (just 3 lights on) removed the hard drive and still the same!

Its a PCG-GRV616S

Ok update:

Everything is back in and its powering up as normal however, it seems there are two problems:

1: the ribbon that links the power button to the mainboard is a bit dicky and sometime have to fiddle to get it working.

2: the laptop will not power up with the cmos battery connected via the two pin connector. if i unplug it it powers up, however would the cmos battery prevent me getting a display? cos no matter what i do the display wont come on at all.

Originally Posted by StanUk

Ok update:

Everything is back in and its powering up as normal however, it seems there are two problems:

1: the ribbon that links the power button to the mainboard is a bit dicky and sometime have to fiddle to get it working.

2: the laptop will not power up with the cmos battery connected via the two pin connector. if i unplug it it powers up, however would the cmos battery prevent me getting a display? cos no matter what i do the display wont come on at all.

Try fooling around with the display connection to the motherboard. That's always been the problem I've found in laptops the video connection gets worn down from constant opening and closing...