Help with VAIO Z, no video, might be dead.

M

mikecLA

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 20, 2011
Messages
101
Machine spins up, power button lights up, keyboard lights up, no beeps, screen black, HDMI out doesn't display anything, neither does the VGA Port.

It happened all of a sudden in the middle of the night. First thing I checked after it went black was to see if the shared folders were on the network or if I can access it through my logmein account, no luck there either.

Tried swapping RAM and inserting one stick at a time, that wasn't it either.

Any ideas on what to check next before I start looking for a new laptop?

Thanks
 
This is an odd suggestion... shine a flashlight on the screen, with it booted all the way up. If you sorta kinda see your icons and desktop, then the LCD backlight popped. Could also be that the LCD cable broke or got loose from its socket, but then you would get nothing at all from the screen, even with a flashlight.

Either of the options above *should* show something from the VGA or other video out ports, when the appropriate button/hotkey is pressed.

That said, it does sound like you lost a video card there and what's left is just barely functional enough to make the BIOS think it's OK. I'm not familiar with that series, BUT if it's a dedicated card (not a chip on the mobo) then you can probably get a replacement on eBay. If not... you're probably looking at a new motherboard.
 
I'm thinking it's dead. Tried everything, so I pulled the drives out, which are 2 128GB Micro SATA in Raid 0 (which by the way I've had to reformat 3x since I got the machine. I have no clue why Sony opted for this configuration, but that's another story).

Ran up to Fry's, bought a cable to convert the drives to SATA, plugged them into my old Q6600, mobo saw it as a RAID 0 and I had no problems recovering all the data.

If it were my machine, I'd wait for Ivy on laptops or try to fix it. Since it's the wife's and she needs it right away, I ended up getting a Lenovo U300. This damn VAIO has caused me nothing but problems since I got it (and so did the F Vaio I had before it). My Lenovo W520 has been an incredible machine and I vowed never to by another Sony again, so I hope she likes the U300 (she only wants thin and light) when I get home tonight.
 
Wondering what graphic chip your Vaio Z is using. If Nvidia then that is probably your problem. No way around that other than getting someone really good to reflow the chip. Best option if out of warranty is to buy a motherboard.

Ebay sellers should have it but do some research online first get around about $, then get on Ebay to weed out bad sellers who overprice their motherboard, a lot of sellers taking advantage of a buyer who knows very little.

Sorry not much of an answer but would need model number to get a better idea of your hardware.
 
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