My Sony Vaio notebook refuses to turn on for no reason at all but after some it comes back alive
I have had a Sony Vaio notebook, for about 3 years. Recently, it just refuses to turn on for no reason at all. I mean, the power button does not work, and nothing starts. Just when I was about to give up (3 months later) and tried one last time on the power button, it turned back on! After a couple of months of working fine, it died again. A couple of months later, it came back alive again! I did absolutely nothing to it. It never dies when I am using it – only when the laptop is shut off, and the next time I try to turn it on, it does not respond. The only clue that I have is that windows takes a long time to load (but that may just be the many programs I have installed on it). I tried cleaning the fan, but no use. The battery is not the greatest, but it does not run even with the battery removed. It does not seem to be overheated because the processor does not even get any power to it. After 2 repair shops, nobody seem to be able to tell me what the problem is. I would greatly appreciate it if you could help! Thanks!
It’s very hard to troubleshoot a laptop with a problem like yours. An intermittent problem is the worst!
I would recommend unplugging the battery, wait for couple minutes and then try to start the laptop using just AC power, but it looks like you’ve already tried it. I had a Sony laptop before and got the same problem 2 times. I was able to get my laptop back to live by removing the battery and starting it from the AC adapter.
I think it’s possible you’re your AC adapter might have an intermittent problem.
It also might be a loose connection somewhere on the system board. If I would get this laptop for repair, I would open it up and reseat all connections on the motherboard. I would try to strip it down to minimize the system and leave just the system board, the memory and the CPU and try to turn it on with an external monitor attached. If the system still doesn’t work even when it’s stripped down, I would suspect that the motherboard is bad. I know that’s not a lot of help, but that’s what I would try to do.
February 17th, 2008 at 11:05 am
I had almost same problems, I followed laptop freak’s advice. Downloaded the HD test from his links, had about a half day to get computer to finally get through reboot to start in dos and but it found errors and fixed them. I still have intermittent problems but only 2-3 tries to boot up, usually shuts down now and reboots almost every time. Also comes out of hibernation most of the time.
February 17th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I have a vaio vgn-t250. When I push the power button, the light turns on, the wifi and bluetooth lights turn on, it beeps twice, like it normally does when it starts. The cd drive spins, and will open if I push the button. The screen stays blank, though. I don’t think it is a problem with the lcd, because it dosent make any sounds like it’s booting up, or the vaio bios sound.
If I twist the laptop in a certain position and put pressure on it, it will boot normally, but will freeze, go black or give an error and restart if I let go.
January 27th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Randall,
First of run diagnostic tests for memory and hard drive.
You can use Memtest86+ for memory and Hitachi’s DFT for the hard drive. Links to both utilities you’ll find in “Useful Links”. Could be just memory related issue.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:30 am
After resolving myself to the fact that I may need a new Motherboard, I tried one last time. After removing the back panel screws. I flipped it back over and hit power. The damn thing popped on. I couldn’t fracking believe it. It seemed there was a short somewhere (didnt go much further since it works perfectly now)
in the lower right section directly behind the audio jack. If I put the screws back, it stops again. When I have the time I’ll do some detailed repairs. As for now, with the screws out ,it works
January 24th, 2008 at 10:28 am
I have a Sony Vaio laptop. First thought virus with random shut down. Then harder and harder to reboot. Did scans, nothing, tried to delete upgrades selectively, problem got worse. Did restore from recovery disc, seemed to help but not solved. As I reinstalled updates, got worse yet. Bought new battery as seemed to run off a/c but that was also intermittant.
Symptoms: Sometimes just get power lights, then maybe Vaio Logo, next time might get both and blinking cursor. If it gets past that it will go to Windows screen and that only has hung a few times. Then I get; blank, blue screen-winlogon failure, or ATPI not compatable. So I shut down and then try to boot up.
The boot does not respond to the keyboard, i.e. F2, F8, F7 but about 5% of the time. If it does come up safe mode or BIOS, the computer won’t respond to the keyboard to do amything so I shut down, wait 1 min to 24 hours and try again. Each time it is different, like playing roulette, what this time.
If it enters hibernation, I have to reboot from cold 20-30 times to get bootup. Smae if I do cold shutdown when computer hangs when shutting down. Did safe boot, seems to work 90% but still hangs on occassion either shutting down or re-booting.
December 30th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I had this problem! I do not use battery. When I am using my laptop, I use AC power. This morning, I turned on the AC power and pressed the Power indicator. Nothing happened! It was like the laptop went dead… I turned the AC power on and off several times, plugged the AC power cable in and out several times and even use the battery. However, the laptop refuse to start up (The laptop indicates that the AC power was on when it was switched on). After many attempts, it finally start up and working fine. Then when I turn it off, I had the same problem again (Can’t turn on laptop). I do not know what went wrong. Yesterday, it was working fine. Can anyone tell me how to fix this problem? Thank you.
December 29th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
oh and with the last 1 i posted the -hp-laptop his had 1 problem before were i was playing a game and it shut down so then i waited like a month to get it fixed – i realy do think the pplz that wrk at the computer stores are idiots and know little more about computers then we do =)
December 29th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
hi my computer -hp- refuses to turn on. when i press the on button all it does is that it makes the lightning picture thingy light up – me and my dad have tried evrything (exept take the battery out)so any way it just not gona start and we have cheked and we r not sure if it is the cable or the laptop because the cable well im not sure about that but anyway do you have any asnwers-suggestions that would help me – im 12 so i dont exactly no -evrything- about computers
November 29th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Hi,
Sony Vaio PCG – 8Q8M here, the machine spawned from the devil sony refuses to work, when i press the power button, the battery light flickers, wireless flickers and the power led comes on but like a car that just wont turn over it makes all the right noises and flatters to deceive then doesnt come on, the lights stay on except the hard drive light which doesnt.
This is a bit naughty but in frustration that would chill the spine of an angel I slammed the cursed machine down onto the table and lo and behold the &%*$*%£ machine started, it was going all long fine till it for a few hours when the updates kicked in it restarted then like bacon in fat camp it just disappeared, vanquished into the black screen abyss and then the same pattern of lights came back to haunt me Power, Wireless and battery all one except the hard drive.
Please help or else the next person i meet called Sonny gets it. Thank you.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:46 am
i have the same power on problem with my vaio. disconnect the laptops mousepad ribbon from the motherboard and it will magically startup again. this worked for me… when i opened mine up and disconnected the ribbons i forgot to reconnect the mousepad and it started up. i realized the mouse wasn’t working so i checked and saw that i forgot to reconnect it. i connected that ribbon again and the computer wouldn’t power on. so i disconnected it again, and wah-laa the computer powered up! so try that and see if it works for you
November 22nd, 2007 at 3:55 am
Hi,
I have such problem:
I have the Sony Vaio FE880E/h model. It has Intel 945 GN and Nvidia GeForce 7400 hybrid video card. After Vista reinstalling computer can’t see this Nvidia card.I heard, that I have to turn it on somehow, but I don’t know how.Please help me!!!
November 20th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Hi,
I have a strange problem of screen appearing small. I have sony Vaio.I format system and instal a fresh copy of XP it showing small screen than regular screen.before format everything is fine.but formating i got this problem. plz help me…………….?
November 19th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
LaptopFreak,
It seems like the memory is built-in :-/
November 18th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Gene,
Could be memory related problem.
Do you know if the laptop has two memory modules installed? Try removing modules one by one and test the laptop with each memory module separately. It’s possible that one of the RAM modules is bad. If you have only one module installed, try reseating it and then replacing it with a known good one. In cases like reseating/swapping/replacing the memory module is the first thing to try.
November 17th, 2007 at 1:14 am
Dear Laptop Freak:
I’m experiencing the same problem as the initial issued on this post. I have a Vaio Z1 model PCG-Z1WA. Recently it refuses to turn on. Once in a long while, it would suddenly turn on again.
I thought it might be a bad CMOS battery so I decided to open up the laptop and look. I was unable to locate one.
When I try to start the computer, the like of the power button turns on along with the bluetooth and the wireless light. However, it appears that no power is flowing through the main board. I come to this conclusion because 1) the fan of the video card does not spin, and 2) I don’t hear any sound from the hard drive.
One thing that can contradict that assumption is that the light of dvd room works and it opens just fine.
I have tried removing the battery and using only the AC Adapter but it doesn’t seem to do much.
Any suggestions? Thanks for your input.
October 14th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Hello, Some guys had power problem with Sony K Series, fourchenately these models have a seperate power boards which can be replaced easily. Also Some Sony laptops that use ATI Radeon 9200 video chip runs very hot and after a while they get lose connections under the ATI BGA Chip which is very close to the memory slots, if the laptop turns on and NO screen, try to push the memory slots and turn it on at the same time, you should get a screen, if this is the case you can use a a hot air station (ie: Weller WR3M) to reheat the BGA CHIP and fix the loose connection.
October 7th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Hi,
I have a strange problem of LCD appearing white. I have sony Vaio FE880E/H model. Recently when I hibernated my laptop and tried to start again it just displays white screen. Although i could figure out that OS is working fine based on the background sound when it comes alive. I can do nothing as I cant see anything in the background. I tried hard shut down, but still nothing happens. Please suggest me a solution. Thanks a lot.
October 5th, 2007 at 10:28 am
I have a Sony Vaio PCG-7G2L.Ater 2 !/2 years of faithful service it stopped powering up. Push the power button and I get only a flicker from the power and hard drive LED. The last time it powered up , the screen was very dim. Thinking it was just in “ultimate battery ” mode which dims the screen to conserve battery power, I proceeded to brighten the screen,to no avail. I shut down the computer through the start menu. After being dormate for about a week I plugged it back in using ac power and the battery led flashed brightly but did not power up. Since then its only given me the flicker of the power and hard drive LED. “this is my most desparate hour, help me Obi-Wan-Kenobi, you’re my only hope”
September 29th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
VanStar,
It’s possible your laptop beeps because it has bad memory. Do you know how many memory stick you have in the laptop? If you have two modules, remove them one by one and test them in each memory slot. This way you can find the bad one.
Can you test the laptop with an external monitor attached and see if you can get external video?
September 27th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
My Sony vaio screen doesn’t turn on, but everything else works. I am afraid that the screen burned out. The power adapter light is on as well as the other three small lights on the keyboard. The CD drive works fine.
When I hit the power button, I hear a few beeps. It seems as if the computer is on, but I just can’t get my screen to appear.
Should I just take out the batter pack and adapter and let it sit for a few days?
September 13th, 2007 at 10:16 am
i have a vaio pcg-k25. some times the screen just turn crazy. it tears.. like tv with out signal but this has some miss match colors and scratches from left to right. i restore it and it work fine for some times it went back after a couple of good runs for couple of weeks. it sometimes comes on and works well. and sometimes it just flips while i am using it. sometimes it starts gradually.
thanks
September 4th, 2007 at 4:43 am
No, with this model there is no way to run the laptop from just the AC adapter with the battery removed. The power must go through battery first. Stupid design if you ask me, but…
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:16 am
Renee,
Take a loot at this post. Installed software freezes laptop.
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:00 am
Kelli,
There must be something wrong with the motherboard. If you cannot start the laptop from the AC adapter when the battery is removed then this problem is not related to battery contacts. Most likely you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
September 2nd, 2007 at 1:08 am
hi
i have a toshiba tecra a3 cel-M 360 laptop and it was all working perfectly fine until recently. i use microsoft office 2003 and lately it has stopped working. i tried uninstalling it and re-installing office but it just wont work. if i click “microsoft word” the start up screen appears and it just freezes on that screen. i can run other programs and applications but that start up screen for microsoft word remains frozen on top of my wallpaper. i was told that the hardrive could possibly be faulty but im not sure. any help please? also, the last thing i wanted to ask is, if this problem is repairable and i wanted to sell it.. what is a reasonable price that i could sell it for? (details: 1.4ghz, 256 mb, 40gb hdd, 15″ windows XP. excellent condition, with carry bag. i have had the laptop for 1.5 years)
August 29th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Hi:
I’m having an intermittent power issue with a VAIO VGN-FS640. Last Friday it began shutting down on it’s own. Several times when a reboot was attempted, it was just dead – no lights, no noise, nothing. Yet, a couple of times, the laptop has gone through a successful start-up, only to shut itself down again a short time later.
I actually have two of these machines (mine and my boss’s) so I’ve easily isolated the problem to the laptop itself, not the battery or AC Adapter.
I suspect a problem with the battery contacts or perhaps a short somewhere???
Any advice on where to go from here is greatly appreciated.
August 8th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
hai,
The FireWire post is attached directly to the motherboard and there is not cables between the socket and the motherboard. If you have a bad port, you’ll have to replace the motherboard. Take if to the authorized repair center and if your laptop is still under warranty, they will replace it at no charge.
You have an option of using a FireWire PCMCIA card.
I’ve published your question here.
August 8th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
thanks for the reply.
My adobe works fine. i can edit, export…and capture…the captured the video are in segments though. i need to rejoin them later at the editing stage. it is a bit annoying. could it be a hardware problem? say, loose cable of the fireware socket? can i somehow check that?
August 8th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
thanks for the reply.
My adobe works fine. i can edit, export…and capture…the captured the video are in segments though. i need to rejoin them later at the editing stage. it is a bit annoying. could it be a hardware problem? say, loose cable of the fireware socket? can i somehow check that?
cheers,
hai
August 8th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Hai,
Make sure you have the latest version of BIOS installed on your laptop.
Check out the following post:
My Toshiba Satellite A105 is acting up on me whenever I open either of the Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 or Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0
It’s possible you have a similar issue.