SONY VAIO PCG-953A Hard Drive Replacement

[DreamerSpawn]

I have a SONY VAIO PCG-953A and the hard drive has failed. I can't find the conventional way to remove the hard drive, thru a panel on the bottom. Only thing it could be is to remove the entire bottom of the laptop. I'm not THAT versed in taking apart laptops and really need some advice here or even the service manual to this laptop or both.

If someone could please help me, I'd really appreciate it. Also, does anyone know what type of hard drive goes in this laptop?

Please help.

 

[DreamerSpawn]

Update: I found a users manual for this laptop, but no instruction on how to remove the hard drive. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[0roo0roo]

generally sonys slim laptops are a bit of a pain to deal with. others like ibms are relatively easy, hell they even have video tutorials on their site. sony on tthe other hand sucks at this.
remove all the screws on the bottom, then you should be able to lift the keyboard im guessing. there might be screws under the keyboard. eventually you might be able to access the drive. i had to open a viao z505 once, it was a pain in the ass. http://www.fencepost.net/projects/vaio/ for pics and perhaps clues
z505 is much older though, but still probably gives you an idea of how it goes

 

[DreamerSpawn]

Thanks 0roo0roo. Mine is a bit different, but I might be able to use it to help. Thanks!

 

[DreamerSpawn]

I really could use some additional help, if anyone has any other advice.

 

[DreamerSpawn]

I found out that this one is also listed as: PCG-fx150 but the model number on the bottom of the laptop IS: PCG-953A

 

[buzz1167]

I have recently come across a PCG-953A. It wasn't hard at all to replace the hard drive, so don't worry.

Here's how i did it:
1) I took out all the screws and covers on the bottom (this is because i didn't know what I was doing at the time, I don't think anything needs to be unscrewed here.)
2)Open the screen and follow the speaker cover with the buttons on it to its farthest left edge, it will change colors to black as it meets the case and there is one screw at the transistion.
3)unscrew aformentioned screw and push the whole blue cover to the right (as you look at it from the front) NOTE: be careful not to loose the little back piece that will fall out of the blue cover. (there is a small threaded plate that the screw screws into, it is only pushed into place on the plastic cover, so mine fell out.
4)Lift the blue cover away and find the two screws for the keyboard. On is located in the middle (above the f6 key) and the other is on the far right side (above delete)
5)Lift out the keyboard.
6)Locate two screws that attach the hard drive's ide cable (mine is a brown folded flat cable) in the middle of the motherboard above the keyboard (you can see it with the keyboard in) and unscrew these screws.
7)Remove the 4 screws surrounding the hard drive (middle left, top left, upper/middle right, bottom right.
8)pull the hard drive directly up and support the mini ide board that you unscrewed earlier. NOTE: the ide cable is attached to the mainboard via a small plug behind the board that the ide cable attaches to.
9)Obviously unscrew the hard drive from its Sony Covering via the 4 screws on its side and be careful to not mess up the little ide board. You might try to remove it before you take the hard drive out its case, or just fanagle it out when you remove the hard drive.

Regards,
Jon Novak
buzz1167@ku.edu