Laptop won't boot... need some ideas.

[iluv2sin]

Here's the deal...

A friend of the family gave me her laptop (Sony Vaio PCG-FX170) to fix. She basically said that it was working fine when before her flight back from Hawaii but after she got home it would no longer boot. Let me warn you that she doesn't believe in packing her laptop as carry-on like a sane person would do, so she just packs it in her suitcase between a bunch of clothes (I know... she's a moron). Anyway, if you hit the power button on the laptop it will give you the green "power on" light, do a floppy/CD-search (both drives flicker for a second), and you can hear the CPU fan spin up... but that's it. No video output (LCD or VGA-out), no POST beeps, nothing.

So far I've disassembled it completely to check for loose connections, damaged motherboard, etc. Nothing appears to be physically wrong with it. Also, I've tried booting it from both CD and diskette but no luck there either. I've tried booting with AC power and battery installed, AC power without battery installed, and just battery power... still no diference. I've cleared CMOS twice (even removed the battery for over an hour) but no change. I've reseated the RAM chip as well as tried the chip in the second memory slot but once again, no change. I've done some online investigation into the problem and read that this model of Vaio (along with a few other models) has some known issues with the memory slots being "loose" and requiring extra padding to make sure they are properly connected. I've tried these fixes as well but still no luck.

That said, I'm pretty much stumped at this point. Mind you that I have over 10 years of hardware experience but little to none of that has been with laptops, so perhaps there's something obvious that I'm missing. Thoughts?

 

[amdskip]

Sounds like you've done everything that I would do. I was gonna say loose connections but you've already covered that and more. What about hooking up an external monitor?

 

[iluv2sin]

Yep, tried that as well. As I said in the original post, no output to the LCD or VGA-out. I was so hoping it something that simple so it was one of the first things I tried.

Thanks for the backing though man... good to know I haven't missed anything.

 

[illusion88]

ok,
have you tried reseating the hard drive? Perhaps it is not reconizing it. It is obviously not just your video, because you get no post beeps. Maybe take that out and inspect it? I am leaning towards the harddrive because of where it stops in the boot sequence. Or, it might be the RAM it self. But, you said it appears to be undamaged, so I think we can rule that out (almost). You could try putting that stick into a working laptop, and see if it works. If it does, then perhaps it is the slot, if not, then its the stick. Try the same with the Hard drive.

 

[alm4rr]

plug in a monitor to the back of it and boot it
if the screen is messed up by flight, and the bios is enabled for dual output, you can at least see what would come up on the screen

if the bios has it disabled (the one I worked on had it enabled for dual so I lucked out), your prob out of luck unless you can figure out what bios it has, and use the right sequence of keys to turn it on

g/L

 

[iluv2sin]

When I took it appear to check the internals I did reseat the hard drive. Sorry for not mentioning that detail. Unforunately, though, that wasn't the problem. Good idea with testing the RAM in another laptop... just have to find another working laptop now, lol.

And, as for checking the video again, I've already checked to make sure the video is being output properly. I've done the manual switch from LCD to VGA and back with the Fn key sequence numerous time with no luck. I have no way to check what the BIOS is stating obviously since I can't get the display working, but I have reset the BIOS so it should be defaulted to the LCD anyway.

Keep the ideas coming guys! Thanks.

 

[alm4rr]

Originally posted by: iluv2sin


I have no way to check what the BIOS is stating obviously since I can't get the display working, but I have reset the BIOS so it should be defaulted to the LCD anyway.

Keep the ideas coming guys! Thanks.

What I mean about "seeing" the bios, is to find out the maker and look at a option guide on teh net for it - usually has pictures. It'll tell you what it is defaultd to and If you want to, find out how many times you gotta hit down to get to the option, then letf/right to set it to LCD&Monitor

It's a risk and lousy advice, but It can't hurt if you are out of options