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General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Gr8pape on March 14, 2010, 08:01:48 PM

Title: Computer Help
Post by: Gr8pape on March 14, 2010, 08:01:48 PM
I am a pretty computer savvy guy but I sure don't claim to know everything, and I also know when to ask for help, and I  need some help.

I am about to go back to school for my airframe and powerplant license and a friend of mie gave me his old Sony Vaio laptop it powers up but that is it. No bios screen, no home screen,  no XP sceen nothing, also no HD sound revving up.

Any clues?

Sony Vaio
Model PCG-7A2L
has 2 Model #'s VGN-FS620W

Any help is greatly appreciated tips on how to figure out what is wrong with it, thanks.
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: SIK1 on March 14, 2010, 08:09:09 PM
Problem #1, it's a Sony. Why did your friend give this to you? Was he having trouble with it, and was getting a new one?

From what you have said my first guess would be power supply.

Does it beep. or make any other sounds?

Does it have any known problems? When you say it powers up what exactly is powering up?
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: Gr8pape on March 14, 2010, 09:06:40 PM
Like I said I am not completely ignorant on these things, but it powers up no beep three light on the top by the power switch, 2 lights on the front charge,power.

It was free so not like I am complaining, it was given to him y his brother in-law he said it needed work but he never got around to it, so he gave it to me.
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: The Fugitive on March 14, 2010, 09:09:12 PM
First thing I would do is open it up and clean it out. Then unplug and re-plug each and every plug , board and ribbon I could get to. Fire it back off and see what happens.
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: SPKmes on March 14, 2010, 09:50:49 PM
.
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: 68ZooM on March 14, 2010, 10:50:50 PM
Could be the screen, see if theres a vga plugin you can hook a external monitor up to, see if that helps
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: Ruler2 on March 14, 2010, 10:57:22 PM
Could be the screen, see if theres a vga plugin you can hook a external monitor up to, see if that helps
:aok That's exactly what I was thinking.
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: WMLute on March 15, 2010, 01:16:58 AM
No post beep is your first clue.

Try removing the Ram and seeing if you get a post beep.
(or even remove one stick of Ram, try to boot, then try the other stick)

If that doesn't do the trick try changing the CMOS battery and see if you get a post beep.

If that doesn't work it could be the Mobo, CPU, Power Supply, or Video card.

Only way to check is to swap 'em out with another one that you know works.
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: AirFlyer on March 15, 2010, 01:51:04 AM
No post beep is your first clue.

Try removing the Ram and seeing if you get a post beep.
(or even remove one stick of Ram, try to boot, then try the other stick)

If that doesn't do the trick try changing the CMOS battery and see if you get a post beep.

If that doesn't work it could be the Mobo, CPU, Power Supply, or Video card.

Only way to check is to swap 'em out with another one that you know works.

Being a laptop a lot of this becomes difficult to impossible as a consumer user.

IMO I would try 68Zooms, The Fugitives, then WMLutes suggestions in that order.
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: froger on March 15, 2010, 02:35:26 AM
sry bro,
   best advise i can give is use it for target practice and run as fast as you can down
to the apple store and get you a mac book pro.
   trouble free, never a virus and it does all the stuff a pc will do but better.

i know....not much help but thats all i got for ya  :salute


froger
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: Max on March 15, 2010, 07:43:04 AM
Sounds just like a problem I had on my desktop once...solved it by resetting CMOS.

Good luck
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: Gr8pape on March 15, 2010, 11:07:52 AM
I have tried all of those little tricks already, with the exception of puling the battery for the CMOS, I can't get the motherboard out to get to the battery. Thanks for all the suggestions though.
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: gpwurzel on March 15, 2010, 11:09:35 AM
This may be the daftest question I've asked (in a while anyway), but does it actually have an OS installed?


Wurzel
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: Gr8pape on March 15, 2010, 11:11:12 AM
This may be the daftest question I've asked (in a while anyway), but does it actually have an OS installed?


Wurzel

yes, but even without a OS it should still post, and I can't even get that.
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: 68ZooM on March 15, 2010, 02:19:08 PM
its a video problem (display) you might have to open it up, the video card is most likely bad, you should of been able to hook up a external monitor and seen something if the video card was worlking.
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: skribetm on March 15, 2010, 02:27:14 PM
what video card does it have?

**edit: found the product page: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=VGNFS620W

was thinking if it was a mobile nvidia gpu- turns out it isnt.

my first guess is a BIOS problem, know how to re-flash a BIOS?

http://www.biosman.com/biosrecovery.html

not sure if you can extract the BIN/ROM file from the EXE tool though.

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNFS620W&upd_id=2241&os_id=7
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: 68ZooM on March 15, 2010, 02:40:51 PM
he cant get into the BIOS. he cant see anything the screen is dead, no picture, he can flash the CMOS but he has to open it up to cross the pins.
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: Gr8pape on March 16, 2010, 10:56:00 AM
its a video problem (display) you might have to open it up, the video card is most likely bad, you should of been able to hook up a external monitor and seen something if the video card was working.

tried that got nothing
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: Gr8pape on March 16, 2010, 11:01:22 AM
he cant get into the BIOS. he cant see anything the screen is dead, no picture, he can flash the CMOS but he has to open it up to cross the pins.

how do you do that? an which pins?
Title: Re: Computer Help
Post by: Gr8pape on March 16, 2010, 01:10:32 PM
Here are some photos of the laptop in question

(http://api.ning.com/files/8oJZAIXej5yx7peaJ0GSlZafNnsCQMz1A-xlPvMAWJj6RIsXhqDptMwsELAhJ58zzF4b-FqOXZCNfyxXbraNW9QrFKLQAs9B/100_2780.JPG?width=737&height=552)

(http://api.ning.com/files/42S4gJuVzgcdx5iGJcUCG0STOXvGKVLiGRVMbUbhK2THNkYLgKZyWhzm-8pFzuqX05MOM8tGRQjj6F6M0y3KMcbKMnepH9IS/100_2781.JPG?width=737&height=552)

Notice the lights in this one

(http://api.ning.com/files/zD1ZcsW*MVkKjGE71DqrgZ9suMYTEpJ7gnLVYOJU6-Bd7Kc4l5AELP1KQQ952VmppXxBpUs-eZ3r7tb-szFY501KRq4eVuRG/100_2785.JPG?width=737&height=552)

This is all I am getting, no sounds, no hard drive spin up, no bios screen, no memory check, no systems check.